Living in Sainte-Julie or Laval-sur-le-Lac: two neighbourhoods beside a golf course

Comparing a new semi-detached home near Laval-sur-le-Lac with your current house also means comparing two ways of life.

On paper, Laval-sur-le-Lac and Sainte-Julie's Vilamo neighbourhood share an unusual trait: each grew up next to a golf course. This article compares, facts in hand, what living in Sainte-Julie or Laval-sur-le-Lac actually means: the natural setting, getting around, services and community. It doesn't crown a winner; it helps you see what you'd gain, and what you'd leave behind.

Two neighbourhoods born beside a golf course

Laval-sur-le-Lac's story begins in 1910, when a group of Montreal businessmen bought most of the lots west of Montée Graveline to plan a residential area and a golf club, which opened in 1917. According to the City of Laval's typo-morphological study (2020), the first nine-hole course was the work of Scottish architect Willie Park Jr. Today the Club Laval-sur-le-Lac has two 18-hole courses on a property of roughly 1.5 km by 1.3 km that is, in the study's words, rather inaccessible and barely visible from public land.

In Sainte-Julie, the Vilamo neighbourhood, which the City calls the "Sanctuaire de la Vallée du Richelieu", spreads over 33.5 hectares around the golf course; BÉAcité backs onto the Club de golf La Vallée-du-Richelieu, which highlights two championship courses and 60 years of history. One point holds in both cases: living next to a golf course gives you access to neither club.

Water on one side, a mountain on the other

Laval-sur-le-Lac sits where the Rivière des Prairies, the Rivière des Mille Îles and the Lac des Deux Montagnes meet. Water shapes neighbourhood life: a yacht club and a marina, a stone bridge to Île Roussin, and a seasonal ferry to L'Île-Bizard from mid-April to mid-December. Yet it's hard to see from the street: the City's study notes that these bodies of water are barely visible from the road, hidden by large waterfront lots and their vegetation.

In Sainte-Julie, the landscape changes scale. No shoreline at the end of the street, but Mont-Saint-Bruno National Park a few minutes away, and Ski Saint-Bruno 8.8 km from Geoffrion Street. Espace Tonik Nature describes itself as an extension of home into nature (three years of free membership, according to beacite.com), and the town has a walking and cycling network of more than 40 km plus a BIXI station in Parc Arthur-Gauthier.

Getting around: the REM on one side, free buses on the other

Rail is part of the neighbourhood's history: as early as the 1920s, the Deux-Montagnes line gave it two stations. Today, the REM's Sainte-Dorothée station is at the edge of the neighbourhood, 4 minutes away on STL route 76, which runs along Rue les Érables. Sainte-Julie has no train station; it relies instead on a park-and-ride about 7 minutes from Vilamo and on local public transit that's free for everyone, at all times, on every route. In Vilamo, every home is less than 300 m from a bus stop.

In practice, the car is king on both sides: in the 2021 Census, 93.1% of the neighbourhood's commuters and 90.2% of Sainte-Julie's drove to work. Between the two, allow about 55 minutes without traffic; the routes, with and without the toll, are covered in our article on getting from Laval-sur-le-Lac to Sainte-Julie.

Errands and leisure: by car or on foot

Laval-sur-le-Lac is almost entirely residential. According to OpenStreetMap, whose data may be incomplete, it has a convenience store but no grocery store or pharmacy within its limits; and the 2021 Census data count no neighbourhood commuters walking or cycling to work. Its amenities are mostly recreational: Parc des Chênes, with a pool, tennis courts, a soccer field and a playground, the curling club, the yacht club, and a two-way bike path on Rue les Érables and Rue les Peupliers.

Vilamo takes the opposite approach: a shopping strip within walking distance groups medical services, a public market, restaurants, a pharmacy and a Caisse Desjardins. For bigger shopping trips, the Promenades Saint-Bruno, Quartier DIX30 and IKEA are close by. The neighbourhood was also planned with 600,000 sq ft of green space, over 15% of its area, and a promenade for pedestrians, cyclists and electrified transport.

Living in Sainte-Julie or Laval-sur-le-Lac: what stays the same?

Several landmarks don't move. Density is low on both sides: 523.9 people per square kilometre in the neighbourhood's census tract, 619.6 for Sainte-Julie as a whole. Homeowners dominate: 89.2% of the neighbourhood's households and 79.8% of Sainte-Julie's own their home. And the look of the houses is regulated: in Laval-sur-le-Lac, by the PIIAs of the City of Laval's urban planning code; in Vilamo, by architectural standards and dense landscaping that preserves privacy.

Both neighbourhoods also belong to the same metropolitan region and the same public transit territory, the ARTM's, but in different fare zones: B for Laval, C for Sainte-Julie.

A small community, or a town of 30,000

The change in scale is real. In the 2021 Census, the tract matching Laval-sur-le-Lac had 879 residents, 18.1% more than in 2016, mostly thanks to the four condo buildings on Rue les Érables. Sainte-Julie had 30,045, a population that barely moved (+0.5%). Vilamo alone is slated for some 400 to 500 units by six builders: single-family homes, semi-detached homes, townhouses and condos.

Language changes too. In Laval-sur-le-Lac, 83.4% of residents know both French and English, and 17.7% have English as their first official language spoken. In Sainte-Julie, 95.9% have French as their first official language spoken, so services and neighbourhood life happen mostly in French — worth factoring in if English is your everyday language. Finally, if the one-of-a-kind character of the neighbourhood's houses matters to you, our guide on how to customize a new home near Laval-sur-le-Lac explains what you can choose at BÉAcité.

Conclusion

Living in Sainte-Julie or Laval-sur-le-Lac means choosing between two neighbourhoods built near a golf course, yet turned toward different landscapes and habits. On one side, water, the REM at the edge of the neighbourhood, a small bilingual community and large wooded properties; on the other, the nearby mountain, free local buses, shops within walking distance and a new home whose upkeep is taken care of. The surest way to decide is to go and see: the sales office at 435 Geoffrion Street welcomes visitors Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and by appointment in the evening as well as on Saturdays and Sundays.