By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban
The City of Montreal late last year proposed a link between Mackle Road in Côte St. Luc east to Jean Talon in Côte des Neiges-NDG, it was revealed during a Jan. 13 CSL public consultation on the city’s master plan, held at CSL city hall.
During the meeting, attendees were assured that any redevelopments of CSL’s three malls and changes in other locales will not take place in the near future, and only after an extensive process. Some attendees said nothing should be redeveloped until the Cavendish link between CSL and St. Laurent takes place, and there was also concern about traffic on a completed Cavendish link.
CSL associate city manager Tanya Abramovitch told audience members that the Cavendish extension is not happening any time soon. “I wouldn’t fret about Cavendish Blvd. just yet,” she said. “There’s a huge setback with Montreal right now, where they’re reprioritizing and having cockamamie ideas about Mackle. They’re worried about hooking up [with] the Hippodrome, so as it stands right now, I don’t see Cavendish happening for quite a while. And whatever version it is, it’s so far away right now. [Montreal’s] number one priority is Jean Talon, and they’re struggling with that one. I wouldn’t worry about Cavendish just now, at all.”
CSL Mayor Mitchell Brownstein told The Suburban that, “In principle we are not opposed to Montreal looking at creating other links, but only after it has kept its decades-long commitment snd built the Cavendish Link. And Montreal should get no money from Ottawa or Quebec for the Hippodrome until Cavendish is done because the Link was a condition of Montreal getting the Hippodrome site from Quebec.
Councillor Dida Berku, who is deeply involved in the Cavendish dossier, publicly revealed late last year that current plans have Jean Talon not connecting with Cavendish Blvd., even with the planned Hippodrome housing development. Instead, westbound Jean Talon would end within the border of Côte des Neiges-NDG. As for Mackle, Berku told The Suburban, “when the City of Montreal pulled the plug on Cavendish and decided to divert funding towards a Jean Talon tramway bike path, they put forth another option, which is to drive the Jean Talon corridor all the way into CSL through Mackle. This has been proposed since October, November. They presented it to us as an option, which I consider to be a total non-starter because there’s wetlands, train tracks and it’s of absolute no utility nor any practicality to it.”
There will be meetings in the coming weeks involving the master plan — a virtual information session 7 p.m. Jan. 23 on the Westminster corridor, a virtual session on the area of Caldwell and Kildare 7 p.m. Jan. 29 and an in-person/virtual hybrid session at CSL city hall on the proposed town centre area on and around Cavendish at 7 p.m. Feb. 3. For more information on how to participate, go to cotesaintluc.org/en/engage/planning-program. n