The Horizon project on the Mont-Tourbillon golf course advances towards its realization.
With “All in hand”, the promoter behind the estimated real estate development at 60 million claims that the project is “on the rails”. The delivery of the 84 high -end condos units is scheduled for spring 2027.
“After 11 years of effort and four years at the Court, nothing restricts us from now on. We start the road works on September 15 and we continue with the construction work, ”sums up in an interview with Soleil Jean-Sébastien Noël, son of the owner of the Mont-Tourbillon golf club, Michel Noël.
In five years, the project budget jumped by around 15 %. The units for sale – and for some for rent – will be sold between $ 350,000 and 1.5 million.
The promoter already claims to have received 150 booking requests from future buyers, 95 % of whom are from Lac-Beauport. The presale was primarily open to local citizens and their families.
“There is a real need and people show it,” analyzes Jean-Sébastien Noël.
“The hottest” in Lac-Beauport
It is precisely to meet this need for a residential “diversity” and densification, but also to put an end to the years of dispute around this project, that the mayor François Boily positioned himself in favor of the conclusion of an agreement with the developers.
Last May, the latter decided equality to the municipal council, by voting for the authorization to conclude the last administrative stage before the Condominium site could start.
“This is the hottest file in Lac-Beauport for the last 15 years if not more,” blows the elected official.
After more than a decade of citizen protest, legal proceedings and other administrative procedures, the signing of an agreement protocol – provided for in a judgment of the Superior Court – was formalized to the municipal council of June 7.
A “tour de force” according to Mayor Boily, while this stage also signs the end of the disbursements of at least $ 400,000 in lawyers and work of his employees in the file.
“We no longer work in the destruction of a project, but to achieve what will be a likely asset for the municipality in the coming years.”
— François Boily, mayor of Lac-Beauport
The 83 -page document, made public by the municipality, supervises all the methods for the construction of roads and aqueduct.
The disputed aqueduct
The connection of the private aqueduct of the future real estate complex to the municipal network is also one of the points in dispute with a group of citizens for several years.
“It is a binding protocol for the promoter, citizens can be reassured. I am confident that it will be realized in the best possible way, ”says the mayor.
Earlier this spring, the citizen group of Lac-Beauport argued that the authorization certificate of the Ministry of the Environment for the development of the aqueduct conduct registered in the construction permit was still missing.
Even if a judge of the Superior Court has decided that a certificate of authorization should be issued by the Ministry of the Environment concerning the aqueduct, the agreement between the City and the promoter provides however that the latter could be substituted by a letter attesting to the non-assumption of the project to the provincial regulations.
According to the mayor, in the light of engineers mandated by the promoter and lawyers of the city, the authorization certificate will not be required.
However, with 84 condos to be served in water, opponents maintain that this document is “absolutely necessary” before going further in the project.
“We have big downsides on the signing of the protocol, which talks about a 2 km service entrance. But that is not that, it is a private aqueduct and any private aqueduct requires an authorization certificate if it serves more than 20 people, ”insists Sophie Ouellet, president of the citizen group of Lac-Beauport.
If the Ministry of the Environment fell back, it would “sprain” its regulations on the management of activities according to their impact on the environment (article 184), pleads the citizen.
Not the end of the fight
The regrouping is to assess the “legality” of the protocol and does not advance on future appeals that it could initiate.
“We’re going to hold our end.”
— Sophie Ouellet, president of the Citizen Group of Lac-Beauport
“We do not understand how the municipality came to accept this, while we are around the judgment of the Superior Court,” adds Ms. Ouellet.
She also deplores that two outline options are now envisaged for the construction of driving, one of around 2 km by the Glacis chemin and the other up to 3 km by the rise of golf.
The promoter must choose in eight months. “We evaluate which is the least intrusive,” says Jean-Sébastien Noël.
Faced with a persistent contestation, Mr. Noël said to “tender his hand” to the neighbors of the site so that they help “improve the project”.
However, he persists in his conviction that the impacts of real estate development will be limited in particular on road congestion and the environment, even if it is suitable for the visual drawbacks for some neighboring properties.
“But it’s much more harmonious than our 150 weddings per year, our 200 golf tournaments and 1500 people brunches every Sunday.”
— Jean-Sébastien Noël, promoter of the Horizon project on golf
“People have waged a legitimate fight and I understand the fears that were legitimate, although I believe, are not justified,” adds Mayor François Boily.
In the defense of the current Christmas family project, he warns that golf clubs are at a crossroads and that for lack of new vocation, the closure of that of Mont-Tourbillon could give way to a hundreds of houses over ten years. “It’s not much heavier than an 84-housing project,” he says.
Even with the start of construction in a few weeks, Jean-Sébastien Noël estimates that the project is “not immune to a next wave” of opposition.
“Some are outraged and disappointed that after so much effort on their side, it did not work [pour freiner le projet]. They have the right to complain, to be against and to use the legal and political paths to be heard. ”
As much as the promoter as the town hall nevertheless believes that the protesters now no longer have “no grip” to reverse horizon on golf.
One eye on the elections
Beyond a potential prosecution, the next municipal election in November is also closely monitored. At the head of Lac-Beauport, the election of a mayor opposed to the Mont-Tourbillon project could still change the situation.
“There is nothing irreversible. On the other hand, we are starting to build in September, so it may cost dedress if there is an elected official who decides to go against a court judgment, “said the promoter.
The outgoing mayor, in the ranks to be re-elected, glimps that “perhaps someone in the electoral campaign goes bullshiter by saying that there will be no project ”.
“But the population must not get started. The work of the next municipal council, it will be to ensure that this project is carried out by limiting the drawbacks, ”says François Boily.
As a resident of Lac-Beauport, Sophie Ouellet is concerned about what she considers to be a lack of listening from the mayor. “I will not vote for a mayor who is not able to listen to citizens and who wanted to hurry to make it settled before the elections. If we elect it, does that open the door to other projects that do not comply with the regulations? ”
Not a Mont-Tremblant in Lac-Beauport
To those who fear that the “pressures” of densification will transform Lac-Beauport at all with large multi-residential complexes, the current mayor swears that such a vision is not his.
“I do not intend to make a Mont-Tremblant or a Saint-Sauveur de Lac-Beauport.”
— François Boily, mayor of Lac-Beauport
To make sure to “keep the personality” of the municipality, the case of Mont-Tourbillon is “probably the last densification project” in Lac-Beauport, he projects.
An information session offered by city lawyers on the Horizon project on golf is planned on August 19, in order to “reassure” citizens.
“We take all possible and necessary means to make people understand that this project is not directed against them,” says the mayor. If I have to call them one by one, I will do it. ”