Outremont summit to get park
Project will add a forest in Outremont, but workers will have to tread carefully
A long-promised new park on the northern part of Mount Royal could be open as early as this fall or next spring, The Gazette has lear ned. Monique Beaudin reports that the city of Montreal is preparing to start work in June on Third Summit Park, which will add a forest in Outremont to the public areas on the mountain and give visitors access to the Outremont summit.
The city of Montreal is preparing to start work on a long-promised new park on the northern part of Mount Royal, The Gazette has learned.
The park, which will be known as Third Summit Park, will add a forest in Outremont to the publicareas on the mountain and give visitors access to the Outremont summit.
The new park will be located near the Édouard Montpetit métro station.
The city plans to build a one-kilometre path in the new park that will link up with a 10-kilometre ring road for pedestrians and cyclists around the mountain that has been under construction since 2009. The city will also build a new pedestrian path, a staircase from Gorman Ave. in Outremont to provide access to the new park and build or extend sidewalks along Mont Royal Blvd.
City spokeswoman Renée Pageau said work is scheduled to begin in June, with the park opening this fall or next spring.
In 2009, the Université de Montréal and Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery ceded land to the city to create the 23-hectare park. The new park will give visitors views to the north of the city toward the Laurentians.
The city plans to do work in the 110,000-square-metre Outremont forest to restore it to a more natural state, including removing invasive species such as buckthorn, and Manitoba and Norway maple trees, and planting over informal trails that have been made in the forest. Several trees are in poor condition and will have to be cut down or pruned for the safety of park users.
Archeologists will oversee work on the northern part of the mountain because there is the possibility of finding items of archeological interest. Prehistoric items could be found, as well as remnants of 19th-century villas and other buildings on the northern part of the mountain, Pageau said.
Fragments of a vase that was more than 2,000 years old were found when the city was doing work on the ring road near Côte des Neiges Rd., Pageau said.
The project aims to make the Outremont forest accessible to the public without damaging the natural areas, the city says, setting out strict rules for how work on Mount Royal must be carried out.
Private vehicles are not allowed to drive through the forest, tree roots and areas of archeological significance must be protected, no parking is allowed on the grass and workers are not allowed to attach anything to trees or to paint them, the city says.
Workers will have to take steps to protect spring wildflowers, such as the trillium and bloodroot, and special care must be taken to protect a group of about 600 mayapple plants, an at-risk species, the city says.