Montreal announces $88M for greenbelt around contentious container yard in east end

The City of Montreal announced it's investing $88 cardinal into a greenbelt meant to insulate immoderate Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough residents from the impacts of the likely, and controversial, expansion of a instrumentality yard.

The city's program includes planting trees, adding greenish abstraction and improving streets astir the Ray-Mont Logistics (RML) tract to negociate postulation flow.

The metropolis has acquired immoderate lands for the greenbelt, bordering the grid formed by Viau, Hochelaga, Dickson and Notre Dame East streets, including the Boisé Steinberg park and parts of CN's land, said metropolis councillor Alia Hassan-Cournol during a quality league Monday morning.

"We've protected besides the Boisé Vimont and we privation to proceed acquiring if we could immoderate different spaces," she said.

Hassan-Cournol says she wants to get each affected residents progressive successful the greenbelt which is presently successful its readying phase.

"What we're announcing contiguous is really: we're not abandoning the citizens here," she said.

WATCH | City invests to make greenbelt: 

The city's enforcement committee approved regulatory changes to its zoning laws past week, truthful that RML can spell up with its expansion.

The project, located connected the northbound broadside of Notre-Dame Street East, aims to alteration the tract into a proscription hub wherever containers and bulk goods volition beryllium received, stored and transferred via obstruction and motortruck for the adjacent Port of Montreal.

The metropolis had antecedently contested the task successful 2 lawsuits — at the Quebec Superior Court successful 2018 and astatine the Court of Appeal successful 2021. It mislaid successful some cases.

The executive committee member responsible for economical development, Luc Rabouin, said those losses have forced the city's hand. Now, it tin lone enactment successful the anticipation of improving the prime of beingness for residents and summation greenish spaces wherever it can, helium said.

"We fought against the task doubly successful tribunal and the City of Montreal lost. So present what we person to bash is to usage each the levers, each the powers that we person to amended the neighbourhood," said Rabouin.

The enforcement committee's determination came conscionable nether a period aft a study by Montreal's nationalist consultation committee suggested the metropolis postpone approving regulatory amendments and reassess the task plan, highlighting its interaction connected neighbouring residential sectors.

Longtime Hochelaga-Maisonneuve resident Cassandre Charbonneau-Jobin has been warring the task for 5 years arsenic a subordinate of the section advocacy group Mobilisation 6600 Parc-Nature MHM, which has organized protests and accused RML of destroying 2 wooded areas portion subjecting residents to regular noise. 

"There's precise fewer greenish spaces successful Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. We request to support everything that's there," she said successful an interview. "Even though it's concern land, it doesn't matter. Trees are increasing backmost and it's beauteous and it's bully for some carnal and intelligence health."

She believes the metropolis could inactive bash much by rejecting regulatory changes astatine Monday's municipal assembly gathering and instrumentality to the dialog array with RML.

Whether the metropolis gets sued oregon not, she says Montrealers volition beryllium paying either way.

A spokesperson for Rabouin says the $88 cardinal announced contiguous was already acceptable speech successful the city's latest budget.

Charbonneau-Jobin and her chap advocates volition beryllium protesting astatine City Hall portion the municipal assembly continues to conscionable Monday. They're asking that the city acquires each of CN's onshore successful the affected country "to physique a existent municipality wood there."

"We're going to combat to sphere everything that tin beryllium saved," she said.