On April 19, the revised MUHC access plan was presented to citizens at the Saint-Raymond Centre in NDG. The three-phased plan should last approximately until 2013 and will see 12 changes made to the existing road system. These modifications include setting up an emergency entrance on the Glen, extending the bicycle path and installing an underpass aligned with Claremont Avenue.

MUHC planner Pierre Major said he and other hospital workers are convinced that the new adjustments create "an optimal plan to access the Glen." Still, for some citizens, the road to persuasion is a long and winding one.

Former Westmount city councillor Stuart Robertson isn't convinced that 1,300 parking spaces will properly accommodate the hospital's patients, visitors and 8,000 projected employees. At the meeting, Major told Roberston that the MUHC will monitor the situation very carefully and that if the current plan isn't sufficient, other options are available in the neighbourhood.

"They're already starting behind the eight ball in terms of being in a minus position providing parking for the demand that's going to be needed there," Robertson said. "So where's that excess parking going to go? It can only go to the neighbourhood regions."

As a traffic reporter for CBC Radio, Robertson said he has seen the effects of congestion and noted that the MUHC's surrounding area is already renowned for its circulation problems. The changes presented last week, he said, will only further existing traffic-related difficulties.

"They are designing a system which is, politely, a dog's breakfast of spaghetti turns and left and right turns and traffic lights, and they're all choke points, they're all potential for congestion," Robertson said. "There is very little clear, easy access to the area and it's not easy – they don't have and easy job because they've stuck it down in the middle of some very complicated existing infrastructure like railroads and highways."

Although he wasn't able to attend last month’s presentation, Westmount Municipal Association President Henry Olders was disappointed to learn that the MUHC has yet to post the revised traffic plan on their website. He said it's important for residents to have access to this information in order to visualize what the project might look like in the future.

"We're talking about people – it's a neighbourhood there (and) it's a community," Olders said. "There's a great potential for good but there's also a great potential for harm."

NDG Community Council President Gail Tedstone was happy to note that some of the changes made to the previous access plan were changed thanks to the concerns presented by local citizens in 2005. Now, she would like to see a continued, ongoing dialogue between the MUHC and residents.

"This is not all going to happen tomorrow and there are many pieces of the plan that are not complete," she said. "There should be just a little more open communication about what they plan to do."

For more information on the MUHC access plan, call 934-8317, or send an e-mail to: po@muhc.mcgill.ca.