Montreal city hall downplays private land holdout in West Island ecoterritory

The city of Montreal is responding to worriesabout how a piece of privatelyowned land could affect its plans for an protected green spaceon the West Island.

• Pierrefonds development project would include 5,500 new homes

Under a proposal announced last week, the city wants to preserve half of a 365-hectare undevelopedswath of landas part of thel'Anse--l'Orme green spaceand allow the rest to be developed.

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderrehassaidthe project could include upwards of 5,500 new homes, along with new schools, office space and parks.

There are concerns, however, because one property owner is holding on to part of the green space.

Russell Copeman, the Montrealcity councillor responsible for urban planning, said the land in question will stay green.

"We do not need to buy the land to have it protected," Copeman said Monday.

"It is within the ecoterritory,and there will be no development on the land."

Copemansaidthe city stopped negotiating with the landowner four years agobecause they wanted too much money.

The city could have expropriated itbut decided against it.

"Courts and tribunals that deal with expropriation, generally speaking, tend to award higher amounts than the market value when you expropriate," he said.

"So we use expropriation with great discernment."

Project will increase traffic woes, opposition says

Luc Ferrandez, head of Projet Montral, says Copeman has handled the situation poorly and should have taken action sooner.

"He is the head of the urbanism. He should have controlled this before," Ferrandez said.

Projet Montral is against the development project, arguing it would destroy a rare green space and contribute to suburban traffic woes.

"With this, you're just going to add 10,000 cars on the [Highway]40," Ferrandezsaid.

"It's inevitable, because it's far away andthe only means to get around will be to use their car."

Save l'Anse a l'Orme, alocal conservation group, is also concerned the projectwill destroy an area of rare biodiversity.

The group has startedan online petition against the project. The petition argues that"natural areas in proximity to urban centres play a very important role as buffer zones and deserve to be preserved."