If you're considering a new semi-detached home near Lorraine, you already know what planning feels like: in Lorraine, on Montreal's North Shore, almost everything was thought out before it was built.

The town grew out of a plan, and its residents live with the results every day. Sainte-Julie's Vilamo neighbourhood was also designed as a whole. Here is what a planned neighbourhood near Lorraine carries over from the Lorraine approach and what it does differently, with a source for every figure.

Lorraine, a town drawn up before it was built

According to the Town of Lorraine, it all began in 1960 with a group of businessmen who set out to create an essentially residential town of mostly single-family homes, with no industry, no commercial sprawl, no high-density housing and no pollution. The result was a kind of urban laboratory: a pilot project for an ecological town, with all its utilities buried underground.

The Canadian Encyclopedia notes that the town was incorporated in 1960 on land detached from Bois-des-Filion, Sainte-Thérèse and Rosemère, and that it was developed by Anchor Investments Limited. Its name honours the French region of the same name, which also inspires its street names. To this day, the town describes itself as a unique example of urban planning in Quebec, where every new building must meet rigorous planning standards.

What the plan produced

Sixty years on, the census shows a town that has stayed true to its program. In Statistics Canada's 2021 Census, Lorraine had 9,502 residents on 5.90 km². Among its dwellings:

88.2% are detached houses, and barely 2.5% are semi-detached;
97.6% of households own their home; there are only 80 renter households;
homes average 8.5 rooms, compared with 5.8 across Quebec.

In a town designed without commercial sprawl, the car plays a big part. There are a few shops on Boulevard De Gaulle, but 93.1% of Lorraine's commuters drive to work, and only 1.2% walk.

A town that protects its woods

Lorraine's plan also leaves a lot of room for nature. The Grand Coteau forest, a 195-hectare wooded area shared with Sainte-Thérèse and Blainville, covers 50.8 hectares in Lorraine. The town treats it as a conservation area: it buys land to protect it, has won legal battles to enforce its conservation zoning, and residents backed a special tax to fund its conservation in a referendum. A trail of roughly 6 km is open year-round, along with a 2.2 km interpretive route.

Add to that 28 parks, a stretch of the Route verte along the Rivière des Mille Îles, and Maison Garth, built in 1833 and classified as a heritage monument in 1975, where town council meets today.

Vilamo, a planned neighbourhood near Lorraine, on the South Shore

About 50 km away by road, across the St. Lawrence, Vilamo follows a similar logic on a different scale. According to the City of Sainte-Julie, this planned development covers 33.5 hectares around the Club de golf La Vallée-du-Richelieu, near Exit 105 on Highway 20, with roughly 400 to 500 units and 15% of its area set aside for community and recreational space. The neighbourhood also offers:

600,000 sq ft of green space, more than 15% of the neighbourhood;
a promenade reserved for pedestrians, cyclists and electric transport;
architectural guidelines that shape how the neighbourhood looks, and dense landscaping that protects privacy;
planned stormwater management;
homes that all sit less than 300 m from a bus stop.

Six builders are putting up several types of housing there: single-family homes, semi-detached homes, townhouses and condos. That mix of formats, held together by shared guidelines, sets Vilamo apart from Lorraine, which is almost entirely detached houses.

What do the two have in common?

Moving from one planned setting to the other means finding familiar landmarks. Both are residential first and foremost, with standards that protect how the streets look. Both have their golf course: the Golf de Lorraine on Boulevard De Gaulle, and the Club de golf La Vallée-du-Richelieu, which Vilamo backs onto. Both are home to many families and owners: couples with children make up 41.7% of households in Lorraine and 33.3% in Sainte-Julie, against 22.7% across Quebec, and 79.8% of Sainte-Julie households own their home (2021 Census). And both towns belong to the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal.

What really changes

The clearest difference is services. In Vilamo, a full commercial strip is within walking distance: medical services, a public market, restaurants, a Caisse Desjardins and a pharmacy. In Sainte-Julie, local public transit is free for everyone on every route, whereas Lorraine is served by exo's Laurentides sector at regular fares. Mont-Saint-Bruno National Park is next door, and Espace Tonik Nature bills itself as an extension of home into nature.

The scale changes too: according to the Institut de la statistique du Québec, Sainte-Julie had 30,981 residents in 2025, compared with 9,721 in Lorraine, on a territory of 48.49 km². And the shore changes: you go from the Lower Laurentians to Montérégie. If that change of scenery appeals to you, the question of timing comes up fast; our article on moving from Lorraine to Sainte-Julie explains how to line up the sale and the move.

BÉAcité within the Vilamo plan

In this neighbourhood, Maisons Pépin's BÉAcité project brings together 50 single-family semi-detached homes on Geoffrion and Bissonnette streets, between Avenue des Bâtisseurs and Rue des Pionniers, with two parks and a retention pond. Each home has its own garage, a double driveway, a garden-level backyard and a private garden; several lots have no neighbours behind them. Landscaping is complete on delivery, and an all-inclusive maintenance program takes over after that.

Four turnkey homes are already ready, at 405, 408, 423 and 435 Geoffrion Street. If you're still torn between your current house and something new, our article on finding a turnkey new home near Lorraine puts the two options side by side.

Conclusion

More than sixty years after its founding, Lorraine still looks the way its founders intended. A planned neighbourhood near Lorraine, such as Vilamo, picks up that idea of a setting designed in advance, and adds services on foot and free local buses. The best way to judge is to walk through it: BÉAcité's sales office at 435 Geoffrion Street welcomes you Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., and by appointment in the evening and on Saturday and Sunday.

A planned neighbourhood near Lorraine: from the 1960 town to Vilamo