By Tracey Arial
www.thesuburban.com
Last month, the borough of LaSalle held a consultation about the planned conversion of the building at 8591-8595 Centrale, where Monsieur Depanneur is located.
Owners Young Hae Cho and Bok Hee Bae were there with their architect David Morin.
“This is my first project in LaSalle,” said Morin, who has his own firm on Clark Street in the Plateau. “I was interested in seeing how these public consultations take place here.”
Eight people attended the consultation, which was run by Richard Deschamps.
Plans call for the two-storey building to be completely reconfigured to allow for two apartments upstairs and one downstairs. Monsieur Depanneur will remain intact with renovations taking place around the store so that it can continue operating throughout. The small electrical workshop at the back of the building will be torn down to make room for three townhouses. Twenty current parking spots will be replaced with only nine outdoors but another 11 will be built underground for residents.
Only one person, Francisco Moreno, had questions. Moreno asked about the differing colour of brick on three of the new buildings.
“I wish I could have answered that question,” said Morin after the consultation was finished. “The colour of the brick for the townhouses is a lighter colour than the existing building to match the neighbours’ buildings [on 43rd Avenue].
Mr. Bae and Mrs Cho seemed relieved that no big questions arose. The couple has owned the two-storey 1960-era building for 17 years and they still live right behind it. Mr. Bae used to run Monsieur Depanneur until an illness forced him to retire.
The development plans break several sections of the borough zoning law, so citizens will have the right to ask for a referendum about the project when an official notice occurs.
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