Despite the crying need for affordable housing and a subsidy of over $1.8 million, the Villa Wyman affordable housing project in Hudson will not see the light of day. 

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Announced in 2022, the Villa Wyman was to include 18 affordable housing units for seniors, 80% of which were to be subsidized. The project was to take place on Main, in the heart of the village of Hudson, and represented an investment of $4,255,326.

"Since the first proposal we made to the Town of Hudson and the CCU (Comité consultatif d'urbanisme), we've been met with refusal after refusal, change after change. The building was too big, the roof too high, the windows didn't fit in with Stephenson Court, the wall was too bare, and so on.With each change, the project was delayed, additional costs were incurred for engineering and architects, while interest rates rose and material costs soared. And yet, we persevered because we felt the project was important for Hudson, as did the federal and provincial governments who supported our project," Villa Wyman Board Chair Nicole Durand told Neomedia.

Finally, in December 2023, the final decision was made by the Villa Wyman administration. "After so many years and countless hours spent on the Board of Directors, we had to face the fact that without the cooperation and goodwill of all concerned, this project would not see the light of day," laments Ms. Durand.

For its part, the Town of Hudson said it was surprised by the announcement.

"This file unfortunately had a surprising outcome that was not what the Town had anticipated when the CCU's recommendations were adopted.The decision to abandon the project came as a surprise to the city, and in no way was it the city's decision," said Marie-Jacinthe Roberge, General Manager.

Parking at the heart of discussionsThe development of the building's exterior parking lot was one of the reasons why Villa Wyman's administration decided to abandon the project.

In order to build its entrance and parking lot, the Villa Wyman administration had to obtain a three-foot easement from its neighbor, the Gurdwara Sikh Temple. "By August 2022, we had received a positive response, and since then, they've kept us going in circles until finally, in the summer of 2023, we received a refusal to cooperate," laments Villa Wyman's president.

"Initially, we understood that the appropriate dimensions of the site to guarantee the total width of the parking lot and access road (for the future project) had not been precisely validated before finalizing the subdivision of the lots and the sale to the Sikhs, and had not, at the same time, been the subject of a prior easement with the Sikhs. As a result, the Villa had to "negotiate" an encroachment with the Sikhs in order to carry out the project as initially envisaged, which was obviously no guarantee of success and represented risks. The whole process was clearly not the responsibility of the city, but rather a matter of private interests on both sides," continues Ms. Roberge.

Modifications that won't go through

The project was approved by the Hudson Town Council on October 11, 2022, but it wasn't until September 2023 that the Town was informed by Villa Wyman that they were having difficulty reaching an agreement with their neighbors, the owners of the Gurdwara Sikh Temple, regarding the layout of their parking lot.

Discussions ensued between Hudson's mayor, Chloé Hutchison, Ms. Durand, and the urban planning department. The idea was to see if the project plan could be reviewed and reshaped to ensure its realization on the current lot without having to encroach on the neighboring lot.

An alternative solution would then have been considered. However, according to Ms. Roberge, the modifications made to the project and presented to the City differed from the solution discussed with Ms. Durand."Of course, the project was still carefully analyzed. At the time, parking was still the element of the project that remained to be resolved," explains the General Manager.

The parallel parking proposed by Villa Wyman suggested reducing the number of parking spaces from 20 to 8. "The city was surprised. Even if this number of spaces complied with zoning requirements, it was clear that this reduction in the number of spaces represented a significant risk of future problems," explains the General Manager.

As a result, in December 2023, Council proposed, on the recommendation of its CCU, that the same reduced number of parking spaces be moved to the rear of the site. In the City's view, this solution offered greater room for manoeuvre, allowed for increased landscaping at the front of the lot so that the parking lot would be much less visible from the street, and improved the safety of pedestrian movements between the building and the parking spaces; the walking distance being shorter towards the rear.

This suggestion was not the only possible avenue for reviewing the project, but it appeared to the Board that the new project proposed by Villa Wyman was not optimal in terms of several important criteria. The Board therefore rejected the project as it stood, hoping for a new version in the future.

According to Ms. Durand, the board was asked if an exemption could be considered. "I was told no," she laments.

"In good faith, the city did not feel that this decision represented a risk for the project. It's clear that the Hudson area is in great need of more affordable housing, as is the entire Vaudreuil-Soulanges region for that matter.The Town would like to see the emergence of this type of affordable housing project. The Town remains ready to support the Villa Wyman project or any other affordable housing project," concludes Ms. Roberge.