At their next borough meeting on Monday, August 13, LaSalle Borough councillors will pass a bylaw to amend industrial zone I06-01. The move is the first step in enabling the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul to build a central used-clothing retail centre in the old Fix It car repair building on 90th Avenue at the intersection of Boivin.
“We’ll have to move slowly, but I would really like to do the campaign and distribution for our Christmas Baskets in that locale,” said Louise Boucher, the treasurer of the Vestiaire Ste-Catherine Labouré Fabrique, who is acting as communications agent for the centralized LaSalle location. “After LaSalle approves the zoning change, City of Montreal councillors have to approve our plans. If that goes well, all the permits will be available and we’ll have access to the site.”
Right now, some twenty volunteers serve people from four different churches in LaSalle. Boucher says it will take time to begin redirecting people to the new centralized location, but she expects that operations should be fully transferred by next January. After that, she hopes that they’ll be able to recruit more volunteers to service people better.
Richard Morin, President of the Vestiaire St-Nazaire Fabrique, spoke in favour of the plan at the consultation held at LaSalle Borough Hall July 3. He said it’s tough for the organization to serve families with dignity from the basement locations they use now. He said that in addition to setting up a used-clothes retail centre on the site, the organization hopes to build one or two closed offices so that people can meet with councillors privately when necessary.
Boucher, Morin and others have been working on the project since February or March of last year.
The building they plan to renovate is located on space once owned by the Kraft factory, which operated in LaSalle between 1958 until June 10, 2004, when 235 people lost their jobs. Today, there are several companies in former buildings linked to the enterprise, including Stor-All Mini Entrepot, at 9275 Boivin and Ross Ellis, a Transcontinental subsidiary in 999 90th Avenue.
The proposed bylaw changes the zoning for all those buildings, plus all those located in the industrial zone between the Hydro corridor and Newman or Airlie between Labatt Avenue and Upton.
Delmar Chemicals, Brasserie Labatt, D G Centre Du Camion Inc. (Chevron), Nashville Printing and Repro, Ocean Trader, Peerless, Ren-Wil, Sparta Pewter and Transport Demark are all located in the sector. Together, the active companies employ some 2000 people.
A recent survey of the neighbourhood shows significant unused space that may benefit from the bylaw in future. Signs advertise some 80,000 square feet of space available.
LaSalle residents had until Friday, July 20 to ask for a referendum to approve the bylaw change but no one responded.
Note: This article appeared on page 6 of the Suburban’s City Edition today.
