A huge shopping and entertainment complex project in the Town of Mount Royal will be a traffic nightmare, according to a new report released Tuesday.
The $2-billion Royalmount development is planned for where the Decarie Expressway meets the Metropolitan and will include a mall, offices and a hotel.
Released by the City of Montreal, the report shows there would be 140,000 additional trips daily to the area once the development is completed. Half of those new trips would be in vehicles, the other half in public transit.
The area is already congested: there are currently 360,000 vehicles passing through the Decarie Interchange every day.
The estimated 70,000 additional car trips would add between 20 and 30 minutes in rush hour for cars passing through on Highway 40.
Drivers taking Decarie from Cote-de-Liesse Blvd. would see an extra 15 to 25 minutes added to their commute, according to the document.
Even though the Royalmount will be in TMR, the City of Montreal said it's concerned about the social and economic impact of the development and wants to find ways to ease congestion.
“Having a complete neighbourhood in Montreal, the type of activity that will reduce specific transit at specific hours, is one part of the solution,” said Montreal executive committee member Eric Alan Caldwell.
“Instead of creating a mid-20th-century shopping mall, we want to create a complete neighbourhood – work with the Town of Mount Royal and the promoter for elaborating a complete neighbourhood,” he added.
The development is expected to generate $25 million in taxes annually for both Montreal and TMR.
Montreal stressed Tuesday that it is not opposed to the project at this point, but it wants to see changes to the plan.
The Montreal Island Economic Development Commission will hold a public hearing on Nov. 27 and offer its input on the project in January.
