MEADOWBROOK: A PROGRESS REPORT

2012 was a momentous year in our efforts to save Meadowbrook from destruction. We have been busy convincing Montreal to rezone it what it really is- recreational, and to create instead a Meadowbrook Park open and accessible to everyone. Thanks to you, we have had some success. Mayor Applebaum of Montreal has stated that the City opposes building on its half of Meadowbrook. Mayor Dauphin of Lachine has stated publicly that he favours keeping it green, but, confusingly, he continues to help the developer in secret. Côte St. Luc protected the portion on its territory in 2000. If you are new to this story, please see the map by clicking here.

Now, after years of promoting its development plans as somehow “green," the developer has had to abandon this tactic. The public recognized green-washing when it saw it. Destroying green space to build a green development was arrant nonsense and the public wanted none of it.
Unmindful of this opposition, the developer is taking advantage of a loophole that allows it to restart the whole permitting process simply by dreaming up a different building proposal. It has recently applied for a permit to build 1,900 houses on the Lachine portion of Meadowbrook - this time with a project that doesn’t even pretend to be green - and is busy working the back rooms again, trying to bully the City and the public into accepting what has already been refused. “Taking the gloves off” is how the developer puts it.
 
This issue is not just about preserving a precious green space. It’s also about public health, as detailed in the PowerPoint presentation by Montreal’s Department of Public Health (click here).  
It’s also about the abuse of public finances: the last proposal would have required the public to fork over more than $100 million in infrastructure subsidies. Perhaps most shockingly, it’s also about endangering public safety: according to both CP Rail and to the setback standards established by the Canadian Federation of Municipalities, housing built on Meadowbrook would be unacceptably close to the largest railway marshalling yards in eastern Canada. The new building proposal changes none of this. The developer still needs boatloads of cash and the project would still put residents at risk.

The public knows perfectly well that the developer is also a speculator. It bought all 57 hectares of Meadowbrook for $3 million in 2006, when the municipal evaluation was four times that amount. If their Plan B is to gouge the public in a buyout, they have plenty of precedent to tempt them. They are counting on the City to repeat its history of dithering while buyout prices skyrocket.
This must stop.  The City has to recognize that developers cannot be given privileged access to the corridors of power and that speculators don’t have the right to be subsidized or bought out for astronomical sums of public money - money, it should be emphasized, that is desperately needed for legitimate public works. The City’s message should be that no development is acceptable on Meadowbrook and that the true commercial value of the land is the same $3 million that the developer paid for it. The City has to act now to protect its portion of Meadowbrook by rezoning it to recreation status.

Les Amis de Meadowbrook encourages the City to create a new park, open and accessible to all. We have raised funds and hired a landscape architecture firm to draw up formal plans, plans which will be unveiled soon. This fight is not over, and with your help we will prevail. Stay tuned.

City Hall and Conferences
- Our volunteers continued to lobby the City of Montreal, by asking questions at the Montreal City Hall monthly question period, and to meet with politicians to voice concerns that the land may yet be developed.
- Campbell Stuart attended the Green Coalition AGM in May, reporting on Meadowbrook to the many other environmental groups present.


 
 

Meadowbrook Participates in St. Patrick’s Day Parade

For St. Patrick’s Day, the Meadowbrook animals and trees were out in full force in Montreal’s famous parade for the second year in a row.  We proudly marched along St. Catherine Street and past the grandstand in furry, feathered and tree-like costumes. Thanks go to our seamstresses (Wendy Dodge, Flo-Ann Hamilton, Joann Egar) who ran up birds, skunks, rabbits, squirrels, trees and, of course, the legendary Meadowbrook fox.

 
 

AWARDS              
Prix Rescousse : Villes et villages à la RESCOUSSE – 

Last March in Joliette, Green Coalition and   Les Amis de Meadowbrook members Al Hayek, David Fletcher and Sylvia Oljemark, along with   Côte St. Luc City Councillor  Dida Berku, received the Prix Rescousse.  
The award recognizes collaboration between municipalities and environmentalists in order to protect natural green spaces and biodiversity in peril. Meadowbrook has been zoned recreational on the CSL portion of the 57-hectare area.

2013 Calendar Fundraiser

This was our second year of creating a beautiful Meadowbrook calendar, with photos by our photographer-in-residence Nigel Dove, and graphic design by Sia Tsatoumas. It again proved to be a successful fundraiser.

Successful sales were made at Art etc, the Montreal West craft fair, with the help of our Meadowbrook animals, Muffy the squirrel, Campbell  the fox, Al the rabbit, as well as Deanne, Jo Ann G., Joann E., Irwin Rapoport, Daniel Boulerice coordinated by Flo-Ann Hamilton. Our members also sold calendars to their friends and neighbours, as well as door to door.
Thanks also to Action Sport Physio sports medicine clinic in Montreal West for participating once again in selling calendars for us.

There are just a  few copies of the 2013 edition left. If you want one for yourself ($15 each) or to give to a friend or potential supporter, contact us at lesamisdemeadowbrook@gmail.com.

This calendar provides a daily reminder of why this important green space must be preserved

SOSMEADOWBROOK
OUR MISSION: To protect Meadowbrook from development and transform it into Meadowbrook Park, a new 57-hectare nature park open and accessible to all Montreal Islanders and connected through a greenway to a network of parks including the falaise Saint-Jacques.