General goals

Laurentien / Lachapelle / Marcel-Laurin

• Enhance Laurentien as a City gateway
• Optimize development in the area by favouring the construction of residential projects along Laurentien and by intensifying and diversifying activity near the Bois-Franc commuter train station
• Improve the quality of architecture and the design of public spaces
• Improve the quality of the adjacent residential environments
• Protect and enhance elements of the waterside roadway

Planning issues

Laurentien is an important City gateway. Its surroundings present a destructured and underutilized urban fabric but offer great potential for development, particularly for residential use. The projected extension of metro line 2 from Côte-Vertu to the Bois-Franc commuter train station helps to justify the intensification and diversification of activity around the station. The development of this area is constrained by a number of factors as well as an overhead power line, a Hydro-Québec transformer substation and a public works equipment yard.

Action is also required to improve the image of the area. Architectural discontinuity, a glut of outdoor parking lots and the variation in setbacks all contribute to its destructured character. The poor design quality of public spaces, which often lack appropriate street furniture and sidewalks of sufficient width, discourages pedestrian or bicycle travel. The absence of trees along most of the boulevard and the lack of control over signage on Boulevard Laurentien and Boulevard Gouin Ouest give a negative image to the former site of the historic village of Cartierville. In addition, the primacy of automobile traffic diminishes the quality of life for residents. Indeed, the area handles a high volume of through traffic from Laval and several Montréal and Laval bus routes.

These difficulties have resulted in the appreciable deterioration of area buildings and the steady decline of commercial activity along Boulevard Laurentien and Boulevard Gouin Ouest. Identified as a component of the waterside roadway, Boulevard Gouin Ouest hosts many heritage buildings and offers several views of Rivière des Prairies that are worth enhancing.