Hearings on access to mount royal kick off
Accusations fly as public consultations begin on restricting automobile access
The public consultation process on access to Mount Royal — including a controversial plan by Mayor Valérie Plante’s administration to ban through traffic by most automobiles on Camillien-Houde Way — kicked off Thursday night with a small but lively crowd.
However, minutes before the Office of Public Consultations got going, several suggested the exercise was futile as Plante’s administration has an agenda to reduce cars in Montreal.
From June 2 through October, the middle part of Remembrance Rd. and Camillien Houde Way will be blocked to cars, between Beaver Lake and Masion Smith, creating two cul-de-sac parking lots that visitors can get to separately from either the east or west side of the mountain. The ban does not apply to emergency and maintenance vehicles, buses, cyclists and pedestrians. Funeral processions will be granted exceptional access through the restricted area.
The pilot project calls for a caféterrasse at Belvédère CamillienHoude, which may serve alcohol, adding more buses and building rest areas at bus stops, plus a new platform to offer a view of the west side. Management of busy parking lots is to be handled by parking agents, who will be assigned to direct drivers to less busy parking lots.
The city says it will assess the project — before and after — including its impact on traffic and air quality.
But for many the pilot project is a fait accompli, said Howard Hoppenheim. Historically, the mountain had a tramway, which was replaced by a roadway, which was created to provide access from one end of Mount Royal to the other, he said.
“How many walk from one end to the other?”
Hoppenheim demanded whether the city had bothered to consider other, less costly, measures to improve safety and reduce traffic before implementing the ban.
Lorraine Raymond of NotreDame - de - Grace, whose group launched the petition that garnered 29,000 signatures, said there would never have been consultation if her group hadn’t forced the issue. The process is backward — consultation should have been held before implementing the pilot project, she said.
“Plante is getting us where it hurts,” she said. “I don’t want to be manipulated to use public transit.”
Alex Zijdenbos told the commission that when he first came to Montreal 25 years ago, someone drove him over the mountain for spectacular views. Now he does the same for his visitors. “A major scenic route will be destroyed,” he said. “How does this factor into your plans?”
Zijdenbos also asked the commission to consider improving safety, arguing that with fewer cars on the road, cyclists and skateboarders will have more opportunity to speed dangerously down the mountain.
But Nadia Alexandre loved the project.
She came to offer her support for an initiative she said is found in other parks, for example New York’s Central Park. She thanked administrators for “preserving the lungs of the city.”
However Dinu Bumbaru of Heritage Montreal, who had a copy of the 2009 urban plan for the mountain that “was adopted unanimously” nearly a decade ago, asked: “Why did the administration procrastinate on the issue?” he demanded.
The old plan did not restrict cars — it accorded Camillien-Houde a characteristic place within the park. Now the project is being developed in the context of polarized emotions, Bumbaru said.
The consultations will continue over the course of the summer. Thursday’s information session at the Hôtel Bonaventure was live streamed at ocpm.qc.ca.
More information on the consultation process can be obtained at ocpm.qc.ca / acces-mont-royal.