Conservation efforts not quite out of the woods

Even as environmentalists from the usually embattled Green Coalition heaped praise upon Montreal's agglomeration council for their recent announcement they would purchase a swath of land in L'Anse à L'Orme Park to conserve it, Ste. Anne de Bellevue Mayor Bill Tierney pointed out at yesterday's agglomeration council meeting the transaction was unfair toward his town, and hoped the next one would take all parties into consideration. "I don't want them to go ahead with that part of the deal," Tierney said in an interview with The Chronicle.

L'Anse à L'Orme, a park that lies at the borders of Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Kirkland and Ile Bizard/Ste. Geneviève, has been a bone of contention among environmentalists, who would like to see it protected, and the city of Montreal, for a very long time.

According to Green Coalition member Ryan Young, who also sits on Ste. Anne de Bellevue's environment committee, the park is home to some rare species of flora and fauna, with flowers such as wild leek and white and red trilliums, as well as species of amphibians like salamanders and grey tree frogs. "We tip our hats off to (Montreal agglomeration council executive committee member) Helen Fotopoulos and everyone else that got involved in the negotiation," said Young's Green Coalition colleague, David Fletcher.

However, though environmentalists are now happy, Ste. Anne's town council is dissatisfied. The 87 lots that Montreal will purchase from real estate developing giant Grilli to the tune of $5.2 million were slated for a development project. "We're talking about $100, 000 a year in tax revenue (being lost)," Tierney estimated.

About sixty homes were to be built on the Ste. Anne's part of the land.

Though Tierney told The Chronicle he would voice his opposition at last night's council meeting to the projected sale, he did not expect that particular transaction to stop.

However, he did state he wanted to be part of the negotiation process for the sale of the 30-acre land in the hands of the SGF. "If we stopped negotiating now, Ste. Anne's would lose out," he said.

He added he was not necessarily against the land's conservation, but would like to see a fair deal for his town. "If we could somehow generate revenue from this land, we wouldn't be against it," he said.

The Green Coalition expects the fully conserved park would eventually be open to eco-friendly activities. "I hope that (the newly conserved land) becomes part of a park that crosses the entire L'Anse à L'Orme," Young said. "I only agree with light impact human activities," he said, adding even mountain biking and dog walking would be too much.

The City of Montreal and Grilli development group did not return phone calls for comment as of press time.