Plan sets stage for investment in future

The Environment Committee is hoping to challenge and stimulate their fellow citizens —especially the younger ones — into helping to shape the future.

It begins with the almost certain presumption that carbon-based fuels will be enormously more expensive. Consequently, so will transport and food. Life will be different by 2030!

We will have much more to say in the months ahead, but we are starting with the urban plan that Council has deposited and is the subject of a public consultation at City Hall on Monday evening. The present version can be found at www.westmount.org

On reading it, one has to be optimistic at the recognition of many of the environmental concerns that we have. While accepting the difficulties in achieving the lifestyle changes that go with the good intentions, it is heartening to read that the city plans to “make the urban environment….less dependent on individual automobiles” (page 10).

There will be promotion of public transportation use, and I hope that this will include increasing the convenience factor, with bus shelters and wait-time information, for instance.

Tupper and Richelieu

The proposed revitalization of the Tupper area is overdue, but the reuse of the old industrial buildings on Richelieu Street will have to be approached with caution. There certainly is a need to encourage young families to live here (page 14).

One of the most threatened parts of the city is Summit Park. Thanks to the pressuring of Les Amis de la Montagne and others, this nature reserve is now included in the Mount Royal district and subject to considerable outside influence. Les Amis did Westmount no favour in recent lobbying to get the Summit opened to mountain biking.

Even the limited use it has now consistently loads the capacity to withstand it.

The plan (page 15) commits the City to maintaining the Summit “in its natural state.” However, this may already be a lost cause; the area is full of invasive species and it would be a demanding task.

As a daily user, I am grateful for the care our horticultural staff are able to give the Summit, and I hope this can be maintained despite Montreal’s attitude.

Conviviality

Steps to preserve the “conviviality” and “diverse character” of our mainly small shops (page 20) are needed, because of the impact of the megahospital on their doorstep.

There is a pretty full acknowledgment of environmental obligations (page 22), including awareness of toxics, various noise sources, wastes and efficient use of energy.

I would like the plan to be much more demanding on using geothermal sources of energy, and also for the city to be leading by example.

As a geothermal user for 17 years, I not only have my background heat taken care of year round, but the capital cost has been paid off several times.

Bike flow

While the bike path is being extended eastwards to downtown (page 23), the plan avoids a commitment to a westerly link into NDG. Nevertheless, this traffic-flow seems inevitable and may place an undue burden on the section through the park.

Although acknowledging the need for more bike paths, it does not address the core issue of where and how they might be expanded. Should there be safe corridors in the shopping areas and to Victoria Hall, the Arena and the Library? Can we connect to the Lachine Canal areas?

It is important that the city wants to preserve its “natural features” (page 31), add to its tree stock and reduce road width in favour of pedestrians. I would like to see “recovered green space” added to, as car space is reduced.

In the end, it will be our willingness to control, or otherwise, the streetscape (page 27). I expect that there will have to be a maintenance bylaw, but this must be in parallel with tax benefits offered for preservation, and perhaps other forms of conservation, not least energy.

Ensuring that sustainable development principles are incorporated in municipal buildings and any new private construction is a welcome commitment.

But most housing work will continue to be in reconstruction and maintenance. My personal view is that the time has come for energy consumption restrictions to become mandatory when building permits are issued and even, eventually, as a condition of supplying power.

The new version of the plan gives a mandate to Council to pursue certain directions, therefore it is important that citizens become involved in these decisions. Our investments — financial and environmental — are intimately bound up in the plan and its implementation.



Jenny Patton is chair of the Environment Committee of the Westmount Healthy City Project. She can be reached at jennypatton@ sympatico.ca