Connecting Cavendish has been on the agenda since the 1960s and was studied in the ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s. But now the City of Montreal has taken another step to making the Cavendish Boulevard extension a reality.
On Monday, the Plante administration submitted a notice of project to the province with a $200-million plan the mayor says “will meet all needs.”
Côte Saint-Luc Mayor Mitchell Brownstein believes the current proposal reflects a changing city with changing habits.
“In five minutes you can get to the Métro by rapid transit or by bicycle,” says Brownstein. “It’s a wide space that their building, with a lot of greenery and there will be room for cars. The question is will there be enough?”
The plan showcases a wide urban boulevard with sidewalks, bike paths, designated lanes for public transit but only two lanes for cars. Mayor Valérie Plante believes the new road is how Montrealers should envision urban planning in 2022.
“Offering an alternative where there is room for everybody can support better cohabitation, it’s good for security issues, it’s good for the environment,” she said during a press conference on planting more trees in the city.
The extension would create direct access between Côte Saint-Luc and the borough of Saint-Laurent by crossing under the trainyards. Currently a morning commute could take anywhere between 20 and 40 minutes, forcing most drivers to use Décarie. Connecting Cavendish would cut that time down to about five or 10 minutes and would alleviate congestion on both the Décarie expressway and the boulevard.
Côte Saint-Luc residents are slightly torn on the idea. They say the extension could lead to much heavier traffic on Cavendish if not enough lanes are built for cars, causing a severe bottle neck, more idling and more pollution. Plante disagrees.
“This is how we should be building any type of street, highway in the 21st century,” she says. “If you look around the world, we’ve seen that every time a city or a state or a country decides to do more lanes based on this assumption, it’s as jammed as before.”
She adds that her proposition is also most likely to go through the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) because of what the city is offering in terms of mobility options.
Montreal also has a contractual obligation dating back to 2017 when the province ceded the land to the city. It includes the completion of the Cavendish extension so it can build a promised carbon-neutral housing project where the Blue-Bonnets racetrack once sat.
Quebec’s office of public hearings on the environment is currently studying the proposal and a notice of project is now published allowing the public to ask questions.
“I really want to hear from the residents of Côte Saint-Luc what they want,” says Brownstein. “Do they want to maintain the residential character of our city and ensure we can get to the Métro in five minutes by public transit or bus, or do they want more lanes for cars?”
The city anticipates construction will begin in 2027.