City buys land to expand West Island nature park
Purchase ends planned development, but Plante leaves door open for future
The city of Montreal moved a step closer to its vision of creating a vast protected green space in the West Island with the purchase of 14 hectares of vacant land in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue that will be added to the Anse-à-l’Orme nature park.
“Our dream is to create a national park on the west part of the island,” Mayor Valérie Plante said Thursday. “It is the last remaining green area that we have so it is precious, it is a treasure.”
At the same time, however, the administration softened its stance on its vow to never allow developers to move forward with plans for a 5,500-unit housing project in Pierrefonds on green space adjoining the park.
The 14-hectare piece of land will be purchased by the agglomeration of Montreal for $9.5 million plus tax, from the developers’ group Développement Immobilier SaintAnne-de-Bellevue. That’s slightly more than the $9.2 million the developers paid for the land in 2011, officials said.
The move will put an end to a $35-million lawsuit the developers filed against the town, saying it had changed the development parameters for the site, infringing on their ability to build a 130-unit luxury townhouse development.
The city will develop the site as a public park, and create pedestrian corridors linking it to the coming light-rail REM train network slated to run into Ste-Anne-deBellevue.
Combined with another 31-hectare lot owned by the Quebec Environment Department and just under one hectare belonging to Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, there will be a total of 46 hectares added to the Anse-à-l’Orme nature park, pending final approval from the agglomeration council.
“The new piece of land is a very important site because it abuts right against the last interior river that exists on the island of Montreal called the l’Anse-à-l’Orme River,” said Sylvia Oljemark, a member of the Green Coalition.
“And it’s full of wetlands, woodlands, fish and wildlife, so it’s very exciting land and it’s all very ecologically sensitive and very valuable.”
The purchase is especially important considering Montreal has the lowest percentage of protected green spaces of any major city in Canada, she said.
“People may tell you it can’t be done. Don’t believe them,” SteAnne-de-Bellevue Mayor Paola Hawa said.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the real visionaries — the hundreds of dedicated volunteers who have worked hard, dedicated the time and effort in what has seemed over the past 30 years an insurmountable challenge.”
Plante pledged last May that if elected she would block a proposed 5,500-unit housing development project holding 15,000 citizens on one of the last surviving natural spaces on the island and preserve the property as a “national urban park.”
The proposed Cap Nature housing project, supported by the administration of former mayor Denis Coderre, was to be built on just over half of a 148-hectare site adjoining l’Anse-á-l’Orme park, with the remaining 180 hectares remaining as natural space.
On Thursday, Plante tempered her pledge.
“When we were going against it we had a very strict position, for different reasons related to the area, but also about creating a type of development that was going against all the rules of good practices,” Plante said. “So our message today is to sit down and see what makes sense and see what is the right way to move forward.
“So I’m not sending any strong message this morning. But our intention is clear, though. We are going to save green spaces as much as we can, but we do know that there is also a need for housing in that area.”
Environmental lawyer Campbell Stuart said the change in tone was related to Plante’s change in role at city hall.
“It’s one thing to be in the opposition and say this is our vision,” he said. “It’s another thing to be in power and say this is what we’re going to do to you guys.”
Mixed messages about whether development would be allowed on the Meadowbrook Golf Course led to a $40-million lawsuit against the city, Stuart noted.
“I’m sure Valérie Plante’s legal department is saying, ‘Be very careful on how you say this.’ So she is being very circumspect about how she is going to go about doing this, which is absolutely essential, because this is a negotiation.”
Oljemark of the Green Coalition was less circumspect. “I think we have to fight it off,” she said. “To put a new city in there, that’s the demonstration of how you destroy all the natural spaces around.”