FIGHT AGAINST HOUSING DEVELOPMENT STEPS UP
Mark Eccles, left, George Boutillier and Helena Fletcher oppose a development plan for Pierrefonds West. Some 6,500 have signed a petition against the proposal.
An environmental group protesting the planned 5,000 house development in Pierrefonds West decided to delay presenting a petition to Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough council Monday evening when they discovered the mayor was not at the meeting.
Members of Sauvons-l’Anse-al’Orme had planned to present their petition, months in the making at the borough’s November council meeting. But just before the meeting started, they learned borough mayor Dimitrios Jim Beis wouldn’t be there to receive it.
The petition asks the city and borough governments to protect 185 hectares currently designated for a 5,000 house development.
“This development will have an irreversible, detrimental impact on this unique ecosystem and it’s biodiversity,” the petition reads.
About 6,500 people signed the petition, which the group posted online and took on a door-to-door campaign in the area.
The city announced in June that 180 hectares would be set aside for conservation as part of the develop- ment. A new urban boulevard with bicycle and carpool lanes would be built to connect the area with Highway 40.
“I think the new development is amazing, and had this happened 50 years ago, we wouldn’t be sitting here today, fighting it,” said Helena Fletcher, a member of the Green Coalition. “They finally got it. They finally got how to develop,” she said, referencing some of the sustainable development ideals the city announced, including more green spaces in the development.
“Unfortunately, it’s too late, and it’s in the wrong place,” she clarified. “It’s the most valuable ecosystem that we could possibly have, and it would be a crime for it to be developed.”
Beis was not at the meeting because he was attending the World Gymnastic Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, representing Montreal, which will host the event in 2017, according to Yves Gignac, a borough councillor for Cap-StJacques who chaired the meeting.
The group eventually decided to push back the presentation of their petition after some of the meeting ’s question period was pushed to the end of the night. The postponement followed nearly an hour of discussion — but none was about the development or the petition.
The mayor’s absence “took a lot of thunder away,” said Ross Stitt, one of the co-founders of the group.
“We’re still really thrilled with the response, and we will make sure the mayor gets (the petition,)” group cofounder Sue Stacho said after the delegation left the council room. Instead, she said, the group might present it to the mayors of both the Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough and the city of Montreal at the next agglomeration council meeting on Dec. 17. “We want to get more bang for our buck,” she said.
Stacho and the rest of the members of Sauvons-l’Anse-a-l’Orme have kept themselves busy over the past few months. Hours before Monday’s council meeting, they stood in front of the Montreal courthouse on Notre-Dame St. to formally announce another injunction they filed against the city on Oct. 27.
The group has alleged that the city has proceeded with construction of an urban boulevard without proper environmental permits. They ask that the work be undone and the area, some of which may be marshland, be returned to its original state.