Why the city turns a blind eye to parking lot-owning scofflaws

Viger and Pap, one of Montreal's countless illegally unpaved parking lots

   Although you wouldn't know it, a strict set of rules dictate how a parking lot is supposed to look in Montreal.
  Parking lots are expected to be paved, landscaped, have lines separating spaces, the minimum size which is dictated in a city bylaw.
   But of course that bylaw has largely gone ignored.
   A few years back I hounded the city until they gave me access to someone from the inspector's office who said that owners are able to skirt fines by switching official ownership.
   It seemed slightly hard to believe.
   In recent years the city has put massive pressure on parking lot owners to build on their land, with a carrot-and-stick strategy dreamed up partially by Robert Libman when he served under Mayor Tremblay.
   So the secret reason that inspectors turn a blind eye on parking lot transgressions?
  The city would rather these lots remain unpaved with the hope that they'll be turned into condos or office buildings than to force owners to invest big money to pave and organize these lots, which would then likely enshrine their flat and vacant parking vocation for a long time to come and ultimately hinder their eventual transformation into something more useful and ambitious.