Notre-Dame-de-l’Île Perrot resident angry over loss of green space

Barbara Etcovitch woke up Monday morning to construction workers running saws and hammering.

It was quite a shock for her since, mere months ago, the area outside her backyard was a healthy patch of woods that had been there all of the 11 years she’d resided along Jordi-Bonet Street.

“It’s disgusting,” she said. “Bylaws need to be stricter so that if private owners want to build something, they have to conform to certain guidelines.”

But the town’s mayor, Danie Deschênes, told Global News the construction conformed to existing guidelines and the owners were free to build.

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Around 70 per cent of the town is green space, but it has grown exponentially in the past decade, from an estimated population of around 8,000 people to one now near 11,000.

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The construction near Etcovitch’s home is part of a slow-growth strategy the town is overseeing to gain tax base.

For years, the green space along the street was owned by the Atlantides Golf Course on Don-Quichotte, which still operates. But the course sold off the land by parcels to private owners in the past decade, and most, if not all, the parcels are zoned residential, according to town officials.

Etcovitch said the owners of the property should be made to obey stricter regulations in how construction projects are undertaken.