Advocates remind city, province about promise for nature park

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It’s an abandoned highway with overgrown shrubs at knee length, and small hills built by construction crews in order to reduce the noise from passing cars.

But Jean-Pierre Duford is dreaming big for the four kilometres of abandoned land adjacent to Highway 20, between the St-Pierre Interchange and the Turcot Interchange. The area where Highway 20 and the adjacent train tracks were located 10 years ago is set to become a nature park, complete with a body of water, walking trails and reforested woods and plant life. The tract of land is situated between the Lachine Canal to the South and the Falaise St-Jacques woods to the north. Duford was among the roughly 100 climate activists and supporters who came out to the abandoned highway Saturday to show their support for the Dalle Parc and nature park planed for the area around the Turcot Interchange.

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“The potential is incredible,” said Duford, the president of the non-profit UrbaNature. “We already have a path that goes from one part of the Falaise, and people are using it more and more. Ten years ago, no one even knew about this, and our militants worked very hard to put together some trails there. They heard the message and made a nice green belt at the bottom of the Falaise.”

The Quebec government has promised the land will be given to the city and become a nature park. Known as the Dalle Parc, a walkway reserved for bicycles and pedestrians is planned to pass over Highway 20. It would link the top of the Falaise St-Jacques woods at the south end of Cavendish Blvd. in Notre-dame-de-Grâce, to the Lachine Canal, with an entrance to the planned nature park, now known as Parc Turcot.

Dalle Parc was in the original plans for the renovation of the Turcot Interchange — a five-year construction project between 2015 and 2020. However, that portion of the project was scrapped as it was deemed to be too expensive. On Saturday, several people flew kites, and activists placed flags to mark the area where the Dalle Parc has been promised.

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Despite a promise by the province to fund the project, there has been little progress for the last year or so. That’s concerning for Lisa Mintz, the executive director of UrbaNature, and founder of Sauvons La Falaise.

“They did a really good job of renaturalizing the area (around the Falaise), so we have part of the park,” Mintz said. “The other half of the park is sitting right here, and if we can’t connect them then we lose the biodiversity.

“Today’s event was about reminding everybody that we can still get 100 people to come out to this. They’re from all over and everybody wants this project.”

She said the ultimate plan is for the nature park to be interconnected other green spaces like the Parc des Rapides, the Meadowbrook woods, the Technoparc and even as far as the future Grand Parc de l’Ouest in the West Island.

The city has taken some steps toward bringing the project to life. Its Office de consultation de publique de Montréal issued a report on the nature park in 2019.

The city also purchased several tracts of land located on the N.D.G. side of the Falaise, off St-Jacques St., which may serve as eventual entrance points to the nature park.

Mintz said she’s expecting the city to unveil a master plan to develop the sector at the end of this year or early in 2025. Any project would be contingent on funds from the province.

jmagder@postmedia.com

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