BEACONSFIELD – The City of Montreal has taken another step toward permanently converting Angell Woods into a nature park.
City officials bought 7.85 hectares of the green space for $3.5 million or $45 per square metre.
It’s the latest effort toward eventually buying the entire land mass of 100 hectares to guarantee it remains in the public domain and void of development.
“The vision is that we can make the nature park or part of the nature park that will go from Beaurepaire train station all the way to Cap St-Jacques and l’Anse-à-l’Orme ,” said Beaconsfield Mayor, Georges Burelle, at a news conference on Thursday.
The purchase means about 29 per cent of the park know remains in the public domain.
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Montreal officials are hoping to buy the remaining land from two owners in the near future.
”The City of Montreal, the agglomeration council is interested in acquiring through direct negotiations the remaining lots from the private land owners,” Russell Copeman, Montreal’s executive committee member in charge of urban planning said.
While outstanding private land needs to be purchased to adopt a by-law that would guarantee the green space can’t be developed, a interim by-law currently exists protecting the green space and precluding private owners from building on it.
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The $45 per square meter gives the city a starting point to negotiate according to Copeman.
”Without saying definitively that is what we’re going to pay or willing to pay, as I say it gives us a reference price. Gives us a range,” Copeman said.
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