Côte St. Luc Public Works has placed two concrete blocks on each side of the road adjacent to Montreal West’s Sheraton Park, in anticipation of closing off the stretch which leads up to the gates of Meadowbrook.
Avrom Shtern, a member of the Friends of Meadowbrook, told The Monitor he was relieved to learn it was Côte St. Luc that decided to shut the road, and not a developer that wants to convert Meadowbrook into a housing development.
Friends of Meadowbrook, a nature preservation group, has been trying for years to have the sprawling golf course declared Montreal’s eleventh protected eco-territory. “The alarm bells started ringing, but then it was a relief to find out that it wasn’t Groupe Pacific doing it,” he said.
Côte St. Luc mayor Anthony Housefather said in reply to an e-mail from The Monitor that the decision to shut the road “was a temporary operational decision made by public works and generally related to noise complaints and general contractors who dump garbage and other debris on that stretch of quiet road. It is not a permanent decision at this time as it needs to be reviewed by me and by council before any final decision is made.”
However, on Monday, The Monitor found that the road was not blocked and had been plowed up to the Meadowbrook gates, which were wide open. The roadway leading into the golf course had also been cleared. A caretaker at the club house said he knew nothing of the City of Côte St. Luc’s plans to close off the road for the winter.
In a phone interview on Monday, David Tordjman, director of Côte St. Luc’s department of public works, said, “We certainly haven’t closed the road and for fire protection services we do need to clear it … We were discussing it, but the actual closing never went through. We were going to discuss it with the owners of the Meadowbrook Golf Course, but we never actually closed the road. We never got the authorization to and that’s why it never went through.”
In another issue related to Meadowbrook: At a recent meeting of the Montreal Agglomeration Council, Alan DeSousa, vice-president of the City of Montreal executive committee, who is responsible for environmental issues, told Paul Wilkinson of the Green Coalition that it was “premature” to conclude Meadowbrook would soon be declared an eco-territory. “Probably early in the new year, once we have the budget out of the way, we’ll be able to focus on some of these issues,” said DeSousa. Responding to questions from Shtern on Meadowbrook during the same meeting, DeSousa said he was reluctant to take formal steps at this stage, like launching a committee to look into Meadowbrook’s preservation, but that some kind of action could be taken next year.
