Officials with the City of Côte St. Luc began last December to consider Montreal developer Jerome Winikoff's proposal to build a 21-unit condominium townhouse complex on the quiet street, a few blocks east of Cavendish Boulevard. Since the lot has been zoned for a strip mall for decades, building housing on it would require a zoning change.

Last December during a meeting of local city councillor Mike Cohen's district advisory council, more than 50 residents listened to a presentation on the project given by Winikoff. However, some expressed concerns it would be located too close to high-tension power lines.

This past March, when it became apparent council was responding to the concerns and would not be permitting the project to proceed as Winikoff desired, he publicly accused Côte St. Luc's mayor and councillors of misleading him into believing that a bylaw for his project was going to get first reading.

He also said they were leaving him with no choice but to build a strip mall. In one of the latest developments of what appears to be degrading into a standoff, Winikoff's company has erected a large sign on the vacant lot, advertising the Marc Chagall Center with 10 retail spaces available.

During an otherwise quiet city council meeting on June 16, a heated debate broke out over the Marc Chagall mall issue among the councillors and the residents. In a statement Mayor Anthony Housefather e-mailed to the Monitor last weekend, he said, "It would be far preferable to proceed with a townhouse project on the site that would allow young families to purchase affordable new housing in Côte St-Luc.

"I will continue to work with council and Mr. Winikoff in the hopes of having a town house project that will be acceptable to the developer and the majority of council," he added. "The residents of the area would far prefer a town house project ..."

Sidney Margles, a Marc Chagall condominium resident, confirmed, "The vast majority of the residents of this area are mostly opposed to having a commercial shopping centre there. There is no need for it." Councillor Allan Levine, who chairs the town planning commission, suggested Winikoff is trying to influence the situation by claiming to build a mall, when it actually would be unsustainable.

"This developer, he wants to build townhouses," he said. "By saying to the people I'm going to put a strip mall there, right, it's just fearmongering. He'll never be able to build a strip mall there because the numbers don't crunch." Cohen disagreed with Levine's assessment. "This is not a bluff by Mr. Winikoff," he said.

"He is going full speed ahead. I happen to know that a number of businesses have contacted him, have indicated they're very interested in going into that strip mall. The people of Marc Chagall are very, very upset, and justifiably so … However, on surrounding streets like Merrimac and Sir Walter Scott, many of them are quite excited at the prospect of having a strip mall."