Czech Center -- Gazette Article
Tuesday » July 5 » 2005
Parks Canada backpedalling on cultural centre by canal
Czech group's plan, which includes hotel, doesn't honour lease terms, Ottawa says
ANN CARROLL
The Gazette
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Parks Canada could scuttle plans for a six-storey hotel and Czech cultural centre on federal land next to the Lachine Canal in the old Griffintown district.
Federal officials say the project does not match the terms of a lease agreement on the land.
Developers have proposed building a 71-room hotel and cultural centre on vacant lots at Seminaire and Olier Sts., a stone's throw from the canal. The Parks Canada property lies within the Lachine Canal National Historic Site.
The non-profit Centre Tcheque Inc. obtained a 99-year lease on the property for $1 from Parks Canada in 2002, a department spokesperson said.
"At that time, Parks Canada was part of the Canadian Heritage Department, which had a mandate to support cultural community initiatives," explained Carol Sheedy, Parks Canada's director for eastern Canada.
The Centre Tcheque and its then director, George Syrovatka, had submitted a proposal to build a $1-million, four-storey cultural centre for activities organized by the Czech and other communities, Sheedy said. The building would have become the property of Parks Canada at the end of the lease, she noted.
Other conditions of the lease:
The centre had to decontaminate the land within two years (at an estimated cost of at least $330,000).
Any modifications to the plans had to be submitted to Parks Canada.
Neither of those conditions has been met, Sheedy said.
Federal officials sent notice to Centre Tcheque Inc. last week that its lease could be revoked if the situation is not corrected within 60 days.
Southwest borough councillors, who were to have given the project second approval at a meeting tonight, have withdrawn the item from the agenda.
The project, which came under scrutiny at a public consultation June 29, is again under study, Sylvain Villeneuve, the borough's planning consultant, said yesterday.
A spokesperson for Southwest borough mayor Jacqueline Montpetit said the mayor had reservations about the hotel/cultural centre but had given preliminary approval to the project to trigger public consultations and force the lease arrangement into the open.
The lack of information and debate over the use of public park land also concerned community activists, said Pierre Morissette of RESO, a community economic development organization.
By contrast, a former Canada Post sorting station - a one-million-square-foot property west of Seminaire - was the object last year of an intensive re-use study by architects and planners.
"We are not against the Czech cultural centre, but the way it was developed outside the community with no discussion within the milieu," Morissette said.
acarroll@thegazette.canwest.com
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2005
Parks Canada backpedalling on cultural centre by canal
Czech group's plan, which includes hotel, doesn't honour lease terms, Ottawa says
ANN CARROLL
The Gazette
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Parks Canada could scuttle plans for a six-storey hotel and Czech cultural centre on federal land next to the Lachine Canal in the old Griffintown district.
Federal officials say the project does not match the terms of a lease agreement on the land.
Developers have proposed building a 71-room hotel and cultural centre on vacant lots at Seminaire and Olier Sts., a stone's throw from the canal. The Parks Canada property lies within the Lachine Canal National Historic Site.
The non-profit Centre Tcheque Inc. obtained a 99-year lease on the property for $1 from Parks Canada in 2002, a department spokesperson said.
"At that time, Parks Canada was part of the Canadian Heritage Department, which had a mandate to support cultural community initiatives," explained Carol Sheedy, Parks Canada's director for eastern Canada.
The Centre Tcheque and its then director, George Syrovatka, had submitted a proposal to build a $1-million, four-storey cultural centre for activities organized by the Czech and other communities, Sheedy said. The building would have become the property of Parks Canada at the end of the lease, she noted.
Other conditions of the lease:
The centre had to decontaminate the land within two years (at an estimated cost of at least $330,000).
Any modifications to the plans had to be submitted to Parks Canada.
Neither of those conditions has been met, Sheedy said.
Federal officials sent notice to Centre Tcheque Inc. last week that its lease could be revoked if the situation is not corrected within 60 days.
Southwest borough councillors, who were to have given the project second approval at a meeting tonight, have withdrawn the item from the agenda.
The project, which came under scrutiny at a public consultation June 29, is again under study, Sylvain Villeneuve, the borough's planning consultant, said yesterday.
A spokesperson for Southwest borough mayor Jacqueline Montpetit said the mayor had reservations about the hotel/cultural centre but had given preliminary approval to the project to trigger public consultations and force the lease arrangement into the open.
The lack of information and debate over the use of public park land also concerned community activists, said Pierre Morissette of RESO, a community economic development organization.
By contrast, a former Canada Post sorting station - a one-million-square-foot property west of Seminaire - was the object last year of an intensive re-use study by architects and planners.
"We are not against the Czech cultural centre, but the way it was developed outside the community with no discussion within the milieu," Morissette said.
acarroll@thegazette.canwest.com
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2005
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