After elections, can new Beaconsfield mayor change the future of Angell Woods?

BEACONSFIELD – The 105-hectare forest of Angell Woods sits just off the Highway 20, near the Woodland exit, and is one of the largest green spaces left on the island of Montreal. It’s currently slated for the development of 500 residences, and because it’s both zoned residentially and privately owned, there doesn’t appear to be anything on the horizon that would prevent that.

“We’re sort of waiting to see what happens,” said Jamie Parker, a resident of Pierrefonds-Roxboro who walks his dog in the woods. “I’m originally from Ontario and I’ve never found anything like this.”

On the ground, a straw poll would reveal that people in Beaconsfield overwhelmingly oppose developing the land, which is owned by a clutch of different parties including Ducks Unlimited, the St. Patrick’s Society, the provincial transport ministry and individual families. Preventing development was a priority of all four candidates who ran for mayor, including Bourelle.

After island elections, one former Montreal City Councillor, Josée Duplessis, revealed in an interview that there was a plan to use a $36 million fund to buy the woods and keep it green space, but that the plan was shelved after Beaconsfield’s own council moved ahead with plans to allow it to be developed. Beaconsfield Mayor George Bourelle said he hopes to reopen negotiations with Montreal and investigate the possibility of buying the landowners out using money from the fund.

“We’re going to have to negotiate,” he said.

One of the most problematic aspects of Angell Woods involves how it is currently being used – as a public park, specifically as one of the island’s few leashless dog parks. By all appearances this is true; a community organization has put up maps, marked trails and put out free dog bags. The city has even put up (ignored) signs outside the area reminding users to keep their dogs on a leash.

All of that, of course, seems to exist in direct defiance of the fact that the woods aren’t even a park at all.

“Theoretically, it should be respected as private land,” Bourelle said. “It’s very nice that the owner has turned a blind eye.”

This has been a source of tension in the past, however, with the low-point occurring about a year ago when one owner hired a 24-hour security guard to block entry to the land. The guard tried in vain to keep people away from Angell Woods, as residents found other entries, and he eventually stopped patrolling the area.

“Nobody wants this developed,” said Roger Larocque, a resident. “Nobody who lives in the area anyhow.”