Mayoral candidates spar over Blue Bonnets development and who can get it done
On the municipal campaign Tuesday, Projet Montreal was promising to finally get started on the development of the old Blue Bonnets racetrack.
It’s a project that has seen more than a decade of delays in the Cote-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grace borough.
The former Blue Bonnets site, known as Namur-Hippodrome, has been sitting empty for over a decade, waiting for a major redevelopment to get off the ground.
Incumbent mayoral candidate Valerie Plante says a large carbon-neutral community will be built there in the coming years if she's re-elected.
“What we're saying this morning is that now we're ready to move forward,” she said. “We will be able to say to developers by 2023, ‘Here's the land.”
If it sounds familiar, that's because the idea of a development been on the back burner or a very long time – and was first announced by Denis Coderre in 2017.
When Plante was elected, she launched public consultations and overhauled the project to make it carbon-neutral.
The new blueprint calls for 7,500 housing units, 2,000 of them subsidized and an additional 2,000 affordable units.
Like her main rival, Plante said she too would cover a portion of the Decarie Expressway around Jean-Talon Boulevard to improve access to Namur metro station.
She also promises that Cavendish Boulevard will now be connected between Cote St-Luc and the borough of St-Laurent, a project first announced in the early 1970s.
“The original project was not satisfying. It was not based on today's needs, which means leaving place for cars, leaving place for public transit,” she said. “It has to be very present and active.”
Coderre says Plante has done nothing to advance the project during her four years in power.
“They had the opportunity,” he said on the campaign trail Tuesday.
Coderre's candidate for mayor of the borough, Lionel Perez, said if Ensemble Montreal takes back city hall, the project will go ahead, but will just be less ambitious. The land would remain in city's hands.
“Projet Montreal has been negligent for the last four years and now they’re promising the world because it's an election year,” he said.
Either way, both parties are saying the project will go ahead, with the developers pitching their proposals for housing by 2023 at the latest.
The municipal election is on Nov. 7.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Latest updates on air quality alerts, and when the smoke may reach Ontario and Quebec
Wildfires have led Environment Canada to issue air quality advisories for parts of B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, as forecasters warn the smoke could drift farther east.
Steal a car, lose your driver's licence under new Ontario proposal
Repeat car thieves may face lengthy licence bans under proposed changes to Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act.
Ellen DeGeneres addresses the 'hurtful' end of her talk show in new stand-up set
Ellen DeGeneres is reflecting on how her talk show came to an end in her newest Netflix special, 'Ellen's Last Stand ... Up Tour.'
What to pack during an emergency
Knowing what to have at home, or take with you for an evacuation, can be useful and even life-saving.
LIVE UPDATES Star witness returning to the stand for more testimony at Trump's at hush money trial
Donald Trump’s fixer-turned-foe returns to the witness stand Tuesday for a bruising round of questioning from the former president’s lawyers.
B.C. brings in law on name changes on day that child killer's new identity revealed
The BC NDP have tabled legislation aimed at stopping people who have committed certain heinous acts from changing their names.
Regulated area for invasive box tree moth expanded to parts of the Maritimes
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has added much of the Maritimes to a regulated area for an invasive species.
Already expensive, planning for fertility treatment difficult as costs vary widely
Being unable to have a child naturally can be extremely difficult. But when you factor in the high costs of fertility treatments, the range of individual circumstances and the fact that the industry itself is secretive about fees, it can make the whole ordeal even more devastating and hard to plan for.
A healthy lifestyle can mitigate genetic risk for early death by 62%, study suggests
Even if your genetics put you at greater risk for early death, a healthy lifestyle could help you significantly combat it, according to a new study.