Occasionally, municipal alleys can be transferred or sold to owners of bordering properties, under certain conditions. This is done either through a “transfer of property” under the provisions of Addendum C of the Charter of Ville de Montréal or through a “mutual sale agreement”.
Having handled many citizen complaints relating to such files, we noted that the rules and parameters applied were not always the same, on the City territory. In one instance, the entire transaction was even handled by the borough itself, under its own specific criteria, and not by the relevant central department which is normally responsible to manage these files. That generated some concerns.
We intervened in order to have a more uniform approach and set of rules, so as to ensure more fair and equitable results, for all of the citizens of Montréal.
We worked with the Direction des stratégies et des transactions immobilières who normally handles these types of transactions: a new administrative Guideline was drafted to specify the parameters and values to be respected, in all cases of transfer of property of an alley, under Addendum C. This Guideline should be approved by the Executive Committee in early 2011.
A similar Guideline will then be prepared, in 2011, to govern “mutual sale agreements” of municipal alleys, according to the same values and principles.
We also received confirmation that all of Montréal’s boroughs now entrust the management of such transactions to the Direction des stratégies et des transactions immobilières.
