MONTREAL — A referendum will be held on a controversial ban on new places of worship in Outremont following the results of a public registry opened by the borough on Sept. 8.
The minimum of 367 signatures was recorded for Bernard Avenue, but only four signatures were recorded for Laurier Avenue, well short of the 176 required to trigger a referendum.
The borough announced that the referendum on Bernard will take place before the end of the year. The council is expected to determine the date at the next council meeting on Oct. 3 – Rosh Hashanah.
The rezoning bylaw, adopted by a majority of the borough council on Aug. 1, will go into effect immediately on Laurier.
The bylaw, first passed last December, has been vigorously protested by the chassidic community. The council said the prohibition on new places of worship on Bernard and Laurier was necessary to revitalize these commercial arteries.
The deliberation process had to be repeated over the past year because an error was discovered in a map of the zones affected that was distributed for public consultation.
