A super-sized 900-patron sports bar expansion in Shaughnessy Village is nearly set to go ahead, despite opposition from area residents and businesses.
Opponents of the controversial expansion to the Station des Sports Bar at 2051 Ste. Catherine St. were hoping to launch a petition Wednesday against the project.
That public consultation process, known as a register, is now stillborn after the bar's owner launched a pre-emptive strike.
Bar owner and real estate developer Peter Sergakis used an article in the provincial election and referendum law to bypass the register process, where opponents would have been required to get signatures from at least 291 area residents in one day in order to trigger a referendum on the project.
On Monday, Sergakis presented the Ville-Marie borough with a list that included signatures of support from over half the area residents who would have been eligible to vote in a referendum.
On Wednesday, the city accepted the list, and pending borough approval, has given Sergakis the thumbs up.
Sergakis thinks that opposition came from other bar and restaurant owners in the neighbourhood.
"The interest that is against the project and designed to mobilize the people against the project is only for competition purposes," said Sergakis.
"The competitor thinks they're going to come to our place."
The expansion is meant to be a shot in the arm for the neighbourhood where many businesses have failed to be financially viable and new projects have been at a standstill, said Sergakis.
"The last 15 years, nothing happened on this street. We have to start investing money in the buildings to bring up the area," he said.
Opponents argued that those who signed the register were not qualified to do so, because legally, all signatures must come from a Canadian citizen who has lived in the area for at least six months.
"We believe that the petition was signed by a lot of people who didn't qualify as signatories," said Andre Judge, general manager of the Pepsi Forum, a few blocks west on Ste. Catherine St.
Bar will triple in size
The project will see the Station des Sports bar on Ste. Catheine St. expanded to stretch across half the block between du Fort St. and Chomedey St.
The new bar is expected to have a capacity of over 900 patrons, which caused concern over late-night drunken crowds for area residents when the expansion project was first floated earlier this summer.
Residents say they are especially opposed to a proposed terrace on the premises.
"It's a residential neighborhood with all sorts of apartment buildings… it all spills into (the streets), never mind the parking spaces that will disappear," said local resident Walter Massey.
Caroline Nabozniak also said the decibel level is too high.
"How would you like to have a wedding party in your backyard every day of the week?" she said.
Mayor will seek to close the article
The city of Montreal says that Sergakis and other developers who have used the same process this year to win approval from neighbourhood residents may be acting within the letter, but not the spirit, of the law.
Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay said he plans to write to Quebec to amend the article.
