MONTREAL -- Montreal's public consultation office says the "controversial" project for a new baseball stadium proposed for the Peel Basin requires a separate public consultation.
That recommendation came in a report made public Monday morning by the Office de consultation publique de Montreal on the future of the Bridge-Bonaventure neighbourhood on the southwest of the island of Montreal.
Representatives of Groupe baseball Montreal, a consortium led by Montreal businessman Stephen Bronfman that is working to bring a Major League Baseball franchise back to Montreal, had presented to the OPCM a proposal to build a baseball stadium at the Peel Basin.
But in its Bridge-Bonaventure report, the OPCM said the idea of a baseball stadium in the neighbourhood was "very controversial" and was opposed by more than half of respondents to an online consultation on the matter. (Among the half opposed to stadium, more than three-quarters are strongly opposed, the OPCM said).
It also said that the OPCM was not in a position to decide on the wisdom of the stadium project because the proposal presented during the public consultations did not include important and relevant information on the project.
"The (OPCM) considers that it would be irresponsible to decide on this project on the basis of the information available to it. This is a major project for the City of Montreal, the size and breadth of which require that impacts be measured in various ways. No study measuring economic, social and environmental impacts has not been brought to the attention of the commission."
"The commission believes that the installation of a baseball stadium in the Bridge-Bonaventure sector should be the subject of an independent consultation and be analyzed on the basis of a more developed project," the OPCM added, noting that other sporting installations such as Percival Molson Stadium and the Jarry Tennis Stadium were subject to project-specific public consultations.
