City comes under fire over Sunnyside Park project

Responding to several residents whose homes are near the lookout and the park, Mayor Karin Marks said the majority of the 120 trees cut down as part of the strategy were very small ones that were not in the original layout for Sunnyside Park.

"This was a restoration of the park," she said, listing a number of other refurbishment projects the City undertook in recent years, including the public library, Victoria Hall, the Flower Conservatory and the lawnbowling club house. About three years ago, the City spent about $500,000 restoring the wall of the 75-year-old lookout, she added, and is now following up with the restoration of the park.

"It was never created as an urban forest as the park behind it is," Marks emphasized, referring to Summit Park. "We made the decision to return the park to what it had been. Unfortunately, a few of the larger trees that could have been left in terms of the view couldn't because they were damaged."

"Many people who do not live on the summit are very, very angry about the destruction of very fine trees," said Melville Avenue resident Patrick Barnard, a vocal opponent of the City's proposal to put artificial turf in Westmount Park.

Barnard questioned Councillor George Bowser, the City's commissioner of public works and parks, about the number of trees felled and Bowser's claims in a recent Examiner article that some of them would only be pruned while others would be cut. "You've carried out a massive act of ecological amputation, unfortunately," said Barnard.

"There were no trees cut down that I didn't know about — there were no trees cut down that weren't scheduled to be cut down," Bowser replied. "What I wrote was what I believed to be true and that what we have now is not the end state. It is the beginning.

"I know that the idea of proceeding in stages would have been less painful," he added. "I also know, from what I was told and was given to understand, that the opportunity would be jeopardized. And therefore the decision was taken to proceed in one fell swoop and get on with the process of building a park that people will enjoy."

Summit Circle resident Douglas Averith said Sunnyside Park, Summit Park and the lookout have been "grossly abused by taxpayers' money … I always thought that the council and the political representation of Westmount was to represent the best interest of the residents and to utilize our tax funds in the best possible manner." Cutting down the old trees to restore the lookout as an attraction for tourists "is a travesty" and "insulting to the residents of Summit Circle," added Averith.

"When you talk about tourism, it's not to draw people from all over the island," replied Marks. The lookout, she said, "is an area that is a public place that also is available to all of our residents and many of our residents go up there also to have a chance to look at that. They don't all live in that area but it's a wonderful opportunity for them to be able to go."