Montreal buys out another developer in bid to protect Angell Woods

The city of Montreal has reached a deal to pay $14 million to one of the owners of Angell Woods in Beaconsfield.

The future of the land has been an ongoing dispute between environmentalists and developers for decades.

On Thursday, Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante claimed victory for those who want to protect the green space.

“We can say victory,” Plante told reporters at a press conference on Thursday.

The deal with Seda holdings protects more than 180,000 square metres of the site.

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Environmentalist and Green Coaltition member David Fletcher has been following the case since the mid-1980s.

“We are delighted because it is one more piece of the exceptional forest that has all of the iconomic wildflowers, birds and trees that one would expect to find in the Quebec landscape,” said Fletcher.

A similar $3.5-million deal was reached in 2015 with another set of landowners.

The final portion of Angell Woods, 40 per cent, is owned by Yale properties. Most of what Yale owns, can’t be developed because it has already been classified as protected land.

Only a sliver of land on Elm Street would possibly be built on.

“There is not very much left that could be developed on and if we bought the rest, then Angell Woods would be 100 per cent protected,” said Beaconsfield Mayor Georges Bourelle.

Yale is currently in a legal battle with the city over that piece of Angell Woods.

Montreal’s mayor has long-term plans for the site and the l’Anse-À-L’orme green space that touches several West Island municipalities.

Plante says the city is hoping to one day turn the l’Anse-À-L’orme area into a national park.