Plante announces new park
I’ve only got a tweet so far about the announcement of consolidation of parklands in the Far West, bringing together Anse-à-l’Orme, Bois-de-L’Île-Bizard, Bois-de-la-Roche, Cap-Saint-Jacques and the Rapides-du-Cheval-Blanc parks, and blocking a proposed development on wetlands in the area.
OK, here’s the Radio-Canada take, showing a map. Technically I suppose this will be “le plus grand parc urbain du Canada” – eight times the size of Central Park and four times that of Mount Royal park – and I’m glad they’re doing it, but it’s not central enough to the island of Montreal to be a true urban oasis comparable to the two mentioned.
Faiz Imam 16:20 on 2019-08-08 Permalink
Huh. I’m gonna wait till the developers communicate their response before celebrating, but this is huge.
It may not be a “central” park, but its a park that any Montrealers will be able to get to super easily. Much more so than peripheral parks such as Boucherville or St-hillaire. I’d compare them more to Gatineau park outside Ottawa or the coastal mountains of Vancouver.
Assuming this is in any way final, i’m very interested to see what infrastructure and park trails, amenities they plan to build there. 99% of residents have no idea of the natural beauty there, There is a huge potential to make it something people can enjoy.
Kate 18:09 on 2019-08-08 Permalink
I’m seeing various Twitter threads about what the announcement means vs. previous plans to turn over a swath of the land for development. Seems to be a good intention, involving the city getting first dibs on the land, but apparently they still have to come up with the dosh.
a park that any Montrealers will be able to get to super easily
Faiz Imam, I don’t know where you live, but I live pretty well plumb in the middle of the island of Montreal, and my one excursion to Anse-à-l’Orme park by bus was not what I’d call super easy. Anyone living east of me would be able to get to Îles-de-Boucherville park in a much shorter time when the navettes are running.
I’m not saying this to complain. It’s great what they’re doing, or aiming to do. I’m just saying that calling it an urban park and putting it on the same conceptual footing as Central Park or Mount Royal is misleading at best. It’s a suburban park verging on rural at the edges – I believe there are still farms operating in some of the space.
Spi 18:38 on 2019-08-08 Permalink
The REM will literally drop you off at the doorstep of this park.
Kate 20:27 on 2019-08-08 Permalink
Well, there goes the neighbourhood ; )
Michael Black 20:50 on 2019-08-08 Permalink
Meanwhile Toronto announced their version of NYC’s HighLine, except using land from Hydro lines rather than elevated former train lines. But I know too little of Toronto to know if it’s more central or not.
Michael
Max 19:08 on 2019-08-09 Permalink
The Rad-Can map is rather strange. It shows the park including all the private property on the west side of Ile Bizard, as well as McGill’s entire Macdonald campus. Methinks they’re exaggerating more than a bit.
Faiz Imam 19:48 on 2019-08-09 Permalink
Yeah, this map by Global news seems a lot more accurate: https://shawglobalnews.files.wordpress.com/2019/08/capture-14.jpg.
It particularly makes a useful distinction between the actual existing parks and the land around them (be it undeveloped scrub, marshes, or the schools.)
And yeah, I was referring to the new Rail stations under construction. Not only the one in St-Anne, but also the Laval station. They are currently planning on building a new pedestrian walkway to Ile-Bizard, which should make that entire island much more accessible. Currently Ile Bizard is one of the most auto-dependent corners in the entire greater Montreal area.
Speaking of which, the maps suggest that all future development on the island will be stopped. There wasn’t any major projects there, but there has been incremental development over the years. Putting a stop to that is almost as big a deal as protecting the west island lands.
Max 22:14 on 2019-08-09 Permalink
That map makes a little bit more sense. Thanks, Faiz.
The REM’s choice for the location of the Sainte-Anne’s station is looking stupider by the minute. Anyone with half a brain would put it somewhere between highways 20 and 40, where there’s room enough for a multi-storey car park to service all the automobile-loving West Islanders plus all those off-island arse-holes coming in from points west like Vaudreuil, Dorion and Ile-Perrot, via connections to both of those highways.
Somewhere around here would seem to make the most sense to me:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.4164704,-73.936265,1652m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en
Faiz Imam 02:55 on 2019-08-10 Permalink
ehhh, I can’t say I agree.
The entire “park and ride” concept is a flawed idea that should not be encouraged. No matter how many spots you make, all you’ll do is encourage demand and cause more auto-dependent behavior, even worse, perhaps cause new low density construction. Also these garages are not free, they cost millions of dollars. That spot on the map you pointed out is one of the few active farmlands left on the island, we kinda want to protect that sort of thing.
If the Caisse wanted to build some and charge for parking, its not as bad, but recall that we really do not want to encourage more sprawl. The goal is to density and develop the regions we already have. The Buzzword here is “sustainable Development”
I think the way they did it is ideal. They have a couple hundred spots to assuage the locals, but they are mainly relying on a very large bus terminal to bring people in from all the exurbs. These buses are much more scalable and will promote density and sustainable development in towns like Dorion, St-Lazard, Vaudreuil.
They’ve done the same at all 4 west island stations. None of them have much parking, all of them have large new bus terminals and large dropoff/taxi zones. The amount of outrage from commuters when this was announced was massive, but they’ve held their ground on not adding any.
Most importantly, all the surrounding municipalities have master plans in the works that envision replacing existing commercial and industrial zones with new development, and they are all promising to limit new fringe suburban development.
I’m skeptical that last bit will actual hold, but as long as the new Rail line will not have much parking, but offer excellent performance, it will force users to shift modes or else keep driving downtown.
We want to get people out of their cars, and more parking is the worst thing we could build right now.