With the City of Montreal set to OK the Hippodrome/Blue Bonnet housing development, local politicians have renewed hope that the Cavendish extension will get done.
However, it is easy to find residents who are skeptical that the Cavendish Boulevard extension will actually happen.
“The Messiah will come first or my hair will turn black, they’ve been talking about this for years,” Côte Saint-Luc resident Irving Itman said.
The longtime resident showed up at a recent town hall meeting with a press announcement from 2006 saying the extension of Cavendish Boulevard to Decarie Boulevard would be completed by 2012.
“We are now 2017 and they’re talking about 2021, 2025 – enough,” Itman said. “Don’t tell me anymore until the shovels are in the ground.”
“One of the conditions for the Hippodrome development is that the Cavendish extension will finally be resolved,” Coun. Marvin Rotrand explained.
Côte Saint-Luc’s mayor says strides have been made to make the project – the idea for which has been floated since the 1940s – a reality.
“Negotiations with CN and CP Rail for the land are going well, and there is an agglomeration budget of $220,000 for a study to determine whether it should be an overpass or underpass,” Mayor Mitchell Brownstein explained.
An official announcement for the Hippodrome housing project is set for Tuesday afternoon,
Residents in Côte Saint-Luc said they hope details of a Cavendish extension will follow shortly after.