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A controversial plan by the Outremont borough to prevent new synagogues from opening on Bernard and Laurier Aves. was adopted by the borough council on Monday night during a second round of public consultations.

The borough voted last December to adopt a zoning change that would restrict the opening of new synagogues, mosques and churches to an industrial area in the northwest part of the borough, near the railway tracks.

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However, the public consultations on the bylaw had to be held a second time because there were errors with some of the maps the borough had produced, said borough Mayor Marie Cinq-Mars.

Cinq-Mars said the borough wants to create conditions that would favour the frequenting of its commercial streets and feels that not allowing any new places of worship on the streets will help local businesses.

But the borough’s large Hasidic Jewish community, which is about 25 per cent of the population, says the change doesn’t take their needs into account. They claim that the borough is trying to push them out of Outremont and the bylaw change has strained relations between some residents and the ultraorthodox Jewish community.