When comparing Italy’s centuries-old towns to North America’s postwar suburbs, the contrasts are striking. Italian towns evolved before the automobile: they remain compact, walkable, and centered around vibrant public spaces. North American suburbs, by contrast, spread outward with single-family homes, malls, and highways—an urban form that prioritizes the car over community life.

Italian towns demonstrate the benefits of density and mixed-use development. Residents live near shops, schools, and markets; errands can be done on foot; and the piazza (town square) serves as a hub of daily interaction. North American sprawl, on the other hand, separates residential, commercial, and industrial uses, requiring long commutes and limiting spontaneous public life.

For Pointe-Claire, this comparison is especially relevant. Our city has largely grown in the North American pattern: shopping centers, highways, and low-density housing. But change is coming. Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) around the new REM stations offers a way to reimagine our future. With mixed-use projects, higher density near transit, and walkable neighborhoods, TOD can revive the sense of community life seen in Italian towns—adapted to modern realities.

The PMAD (Plan métropolitain d’aménagement et de développement) reinforces this vision. By promoting densification in strategic areas, limiting unchecked sprawl, and aligning growth with transit, PMAD pushes Pointe-Claire toward a more sustainable model. Compact development supports transit ridership, strengthens local businesses, fosters social connections, and reduces environmental impact. Yet, this transformation may take multiple generations to fully materialize. Importantly, if Pointe-Claire fails to update its urban development plan to comply with PMAD, higher authorities such as the Montreal Agglomeration could impose zoning changes unilaterally. Do we want outsiders deciding our community’s future?

Pointe-Claire Plaza as a Case Study

The evolution of retail highlights why redevelopment is essential. Pointe-Claire Plaza, at its current size, is too large to remain sustainable. Without additional density around to increase in-mall foot traffic, maintenance and capital improvements will lag, vacancy will rise, and anchor tenants could be lost—triggering a downward spiral which will be impossible to reverse (if not already triggered).

From my 30 years of property management experience, I know the solution is crystal clear: reduce the Plaza’s footprint, increase density around it, and create more in-mall foot traffic to support local merchants. With higher traffic, merchant revenues increase, will be able to afford higher market rents to fund improvements and safeguard these precious mom-and-pop shops that are the Plaza’s lifeblood.

The same logic applies to the proposed developments known as MU1, the area covering Fairview Shopping Center, Rona and surrounding paved areas. Converting underutilized parking space into housing addresses local living options and creates a more dynamic, walkable neighborhood. Cadillac Fairview’s MU1 proposal is for a large-scale, mixed-use development on the existing Fairview shopping center parking lot, aimed at transforming it into a "vibrant, connected district" with housing, retail, a hotel, and public spaces to create a lively, connected community that serves as a new anchor for the mall and provides needed alternative housing in the area.

As for MU2 (Fairview Forest, John Abbott College lands, or whatever you want to call it), approximately 60% is protected wetlands. The remaining land should be developed with mixed-use projects—where residents can live near shops, work nearby, and interact in shared spaces.

Conclusion

My reflections on urban form were deeply shaped by my recent visit to my father’s hometown. Once a lively community of 3,500, it now struggles with decline. Yet, its design—walkable streets, a central piazza, and compact housing—still reflects the DNA of community-centered living.

This stands in stark contrast to North American suburbs, where sprawling, car-dependent growth fragments public life. For Pointe-Claire, the lesson is clear: physical form matters. TOD and the PMAD provide a unique opportunity to adopt the best of Europe’s urban traditions while avoiding decline.

Redeveloping spaces like Pointe-Claire Plaza, embracing compact growth, and aligning with transit-oriented strategies will allow us to sustain vibrancy, attract young families, and secure our city’s resilience for generations to come.

In many ways, my father’s hometown is a reminder of what is at stake. Pointe-Claire can honor history while shaping a more sustainable, connected, and thriving future.