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Trevisonno (left) and Hogenbirk in building they want to move clinic into on Brunswick Blvd.
City denies zoning change for clinic
Move puts expansion plan on hold
MAX HARROLD
The Gazette
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Trevisonno (left) and Hogenbirk in building they want to move clinic into on Brunswick Blvd.
Pregnant women will have to continue standing in the waiting room at the cramped Brunswick Medical Centre, since the city of Pointe Claire denied the centre a zoning change so it could move to a bigger building three blocks away.
The centre planned to relocate from 143 Frontenac Place to 205 Brunswick Blvd. this fall. The move would have quadrupled the clinic’s size and allowed it to hire 10 new family doctors and specialists, expand its OB/GYN clinic, start a pediatrics clinic and increase the number of waiting rooms from two to six.
But on July 21, Pointe Claire city council told Triad Capital, the developer that owns the now empty building at 205 Brunswick Blvd., that it would not allow a zoning change. The building is in an area zoned for industrial, not commercial, use.
Proponents of the move said the city had passed on a golden opportunity to increase the availability of much-needed medical services in the West Island.
“We have pregnant women standing in the waiting room right now,” said Barbara Hogenbirk, a physician who is head of the centre’s women’s clinic, noting how crowded the centre is and how little nearby parking is available.
“I know the law is the law, but life isn’t black and white,” Hogenbirk said. “At times you have to make an exception. This is about caring for the community.”
Hogenbirk noted that 205 Brunswick Blvd. would have been very convenient.
“That building is empty, it’s close to the highway and it’s got a lot more parking,” she said.
Pointe Claire Mayor Bill McMurchie was tight-lipped about the council’s refusal.
He said the city’s planning officials reviewed the request thoroughly and council had considered the issue twice behind closed doors.
“It was not in the interest of the city,” McMurchie said.
No assurances were given to the developer, he said.
“Council does not have to be justifying or explaining this to anyone,” the mayor said, although he said he spent an hour in his office discussing it with the developer.
Ben Cohen, president of Triad Capital, said his company was certain enough of the zoning change that it spent $200,000 to tear down the 20-year-old building’s interior walls so the medical centre could renovate before moving in.
The city “isn’t being very forward thinking about zoning,” Cohen said.
The medical centre is hardly retail commerce, he said.
“It’s not like it’s a mall where people are going to hang out.”
A source at the clinic speculated city council was under pressure not to approve more commercial development in the zone that includes 205 Brunswick Blvd.
“There are some other areas for (the medical centre) to move to,” McMurchie said.
Pointe Claire zoning change for important medical clinic
I think that it is a crying shame, that here on the West Island we have Brunswick Medical Clinic an excellent medical facility, were the doctors are overcrowded, they could have MORE doctors practising, but there is no space to put them, very pregnant woman have to stand in the waiting room, the parking is horrible. I would like the public to know, that the Medical care my husband and I have been getting there for the past 6+ years has been outstanding.
What is the matter with the City of Pointe Claire?? Are they totally unaware of what the public's needs are, rather than the City's needs? After all it is an empty building! Or maybe the people in City Hall, never need a doctor? There are so many people that would like to have a family doctor and cannot find one. The Lakeshore Hospital emergency department is always overcrowded, not enough doctors. I feel there is a BIG problem here somewhere, are there not some sane people out there, that could HELP with this situation? This is an URGENT MATTER!
Elisabeth Smits, Pierrefonds, Que.