The future of Overdale Avenue

   This sign is prominent on the wall of an warehouse building on Ovedale Avenue. The building appears to be vacant after being rented by Concordia for some time.
   In 2008 the owners applied for and received a zoning exemption allowing them to add 32 feet (10 meters) on the height of the building - in the form of two floors - and to allow them to put in 63 apartment units where a maximum of eight are currently permitted. It will have 30 parking spaces if built. The building also fronts onto Argyle where it is already four meters higher than permitted in current rules. The exemption lasts 200 months. It does not appear that any notice was posted on Argyle when by law it clearly should have.
   The exemption was granted unanimously May 15, 2008 by the Ville Marie CCU and handled by bureaucrats Johane Philibert and Pierre Sainte Marie and also Karim Boulos, then-councillor to the area. I slapped together a photoshop image to give a very rough idea of what it could look for the purposes of height. The two new storeys will be receded.
   The current structure occupies 100 percent of the land it stands on, 30 percent higher than is allowed. Similar to the Redpath Mansion controversy, the owner has benefited from a massive hike in the value of his property with that exemption. One expert estimates that it doubled or even tripled in value with the ruling.
   Others watching the area will surely smell the blood in the water, as they can be confident in knowing that they too will be able to get a similar exemption if they find another similarly large bloc of land in the area.
   The current owner appears to be aiming to flip the property as there has been no sign of construction. He's paying taxes on the property and possibly insurance but perhaps not, as it's a concrete building with little threat of burning.
   This project could affect property values on Argyle where all of the homes have been spruced up by the owners. The zoning exemption opens the door for speculators who could attempt to amass a series of single houses and then try to unite them into a larger property. To do this the collectors would allow the houses to dilapidate to ease demolition. So what might appear to have been a harmless zoning issue might spiral into something that could kill values on Argyle and eventually treasured architectural heritage in that area.
   The comments on this post contain information that may or may not be correct but are rather interesting if true.