Do not look for the Bois du Trait-Carré in the official documents that will guide the implementation of the Green and blue frame these next 15 years in Laval!
Acquired last year at a cost of $ 27.7 million by expropriation, this wooded area located in the heart of downtown does not appear anywhere in the 520 pages totaling the 3 master plans that the City has adopted. this month.
“When I saw the total absence of our woodlot, I was surprised, shocked and above all very disappointed for the citizens of Laval-des-Rapides”, deplores the municipal councilor of the sector, Isabella Tassoni, in a published press release. September 17th.
The representative of the Action Laval party calls on the administration of Marc Demers and his advisor Virginie Dufour, responsible for environmental issues, to whom she asks to “rectify the situation and add woodlot to the Trame”.
In addition, Mrs. Tassoni denounces the fact that this oasis of freshness is left “to the abandonment”, adding in the passage that “the preservation of this wooded area is a citizens’ initiative, it is not the project of Isabella, but of everybody”.
Explication
At the mayor’s office, it was reported that Ms. Dufour personally responded to Ms. Tassoni’s call the day before.
From the outset, spokesperson Robert-Charles Longpré specifies that the master plans draw up “the major key ideas which will direct and frame the actions of the City over the next 15 years” and the fact that they cannot find the name du Bois du Trait-Carré “does not mean that it is not in the plans of the City or, even, that the City does not want to deal with it”.
That said, the Plan for the conservation and enhancement of natural environments, adopted on 1is September, nonetheless identifies 22 woods of interest and 16 special ecological development zones (ZAEP) located within the urbanization perimeter.
As for the Master Plan for parks and public spaces, it notably provides for “protecting and enhancing the Bois Armand-Frappier and the Bois du Souvenir”, which green spaces are adjacent to the Bois du Trait-Carré.
Consultations
The 12 wooded and uncultivated hectares enclosed between the boulevards of L’Avenir, Laval, Saint-Martin and Du Souvenir will be “kept for the purposes of parks and greening”, the mayor’s office said.
“In accordance with the approaches mentioned in the master plans, we will make a complete inventory and we will plan its development following public consultations with citizens,” we continued in an email exchange.
Recall of facts
We will recall that in 2018, the Bois du Trait-Carré caused a lot of ink to flow.
Initially, the Demers administration’s desire was to preserve 5 of the 12 hectares for park and green space purposes and to cede the remaining 7 hectares to the FTQ Real Estate Group in compensation for the expropriation that it had suffered in 2013 to build Place Bell.
This had sparked a heated debate in the community and a standoff with environmental groups who had mounted the barricades. They, who demanded the complete safeguard of this island of freshness in the heart of a strongly mineralized city center, would win their case at the council meeting of August 7, 2018.
That evening, in the midst of a political crisis that divided the caucus of the ruling party and relegated mayor Marc Demers to the rank of a minority, the city council had ruled by 12 votes to 8 in favor of preserving the entire woodland.
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