The city will have public consultations on the north baseball field at Jean-Mance Park, despite the fact that the field has already been demolished.
The park was initially demolished last May because of the need to resurface the nearby tennis courts.
Today the opposition released a report the city commissioned last year that studied the safety of the baseball field.
The report found that the risk was high for pedestrians to get hit with errant balls.
Foul balls hit on the north field land outside the field of play just five per cent of the time, compared to forty per cent at the south field.
The south field is still open for use.
The study also found that the backstop on the north field was too short.
The study claimed that the speed of a ball hit out of play could be up to 90 miles per hour. However, the average speed of a pitch in American college leagues is between 75 and 85 miles per hour.
Lionel Perez, interim leader of opposition party Ensemble Montreal, criticized the way the field’s closure has been handled. He says that with adequate fencing, the field could have been saved. The city, however, says that fencing isn’t an aesthetic option because it’s a heritage park at the foot of Mount Royal.
“It clearly indicates a desire on behalf of the Projet Montreal administration to get rid of the baseball field,” he said.
“The second they had some pretext…to claim security issues, they were ready to toss it aside.”
The Plante administration declined a request for comment, saying only that the consultation would happen “soon.”
This is the second time in six weeks that the Plante administration has planned to hold a public consultation for infrastructure decisions that have already been made.
In May, Plante announced a public consultation for a pilot project beginning June 1 to block off traffic on a stretch of Camillien-Houde Way after a cyclist was killed on the road last summer.
The project was announced in February, with the consultations expected to take place in the fall.
