The City has announced that it wants to officially acquire Boisé des Tilleuls for an amount of $9.5 million.
This agreement puts an end to a dispute between the City and the owner of the land, who wanted to carry out a residential construction project of more than 100 dwellings. In accordance with this agreement, the City will acquire the wooded area and the lawsuit will be terminated in return for an amount of $9.5 million.
We hope to finance this amount with 66% of subsidies, but even without, we would go ahead “, indicated to the newspaper the mayor of Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Ludovic Grisé-Farand.
In July 2022, the City announced that it had reached an agreement for the conservation of the Boisé Sabourin, south of Route 116, for an amount of eight million dollars. The amount disbursed by the City minus the subsidies received is $3.5 million. The Municipality is doing it again here by buying the Boisé des Tilleuls.
The last pebble that the City of Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville drags in its shoe, concerning the protection of its wooded areas, is that of the wooded Hirondelles. The case is still before the courts after the City appealed the decision of the Superior Court of Quebec. The latter asked the City to compensate the owner of the Boisé des Hirondelles following what it considers to be a “disguised expropriation”. The former administration of Saint-Bruno had passed a by-law prohibiting the cutting of trees on all of the wooded areas concerned. A regulation thus preventing any construction.
An election promise
Mr. Grisé-Farand reminds the newspaper that the protection of the Boisé des Tilleuls was “an electoral promise. It is the last green space to be protected at one of the entrances to Saint-Bruno since the former administration destroyed the wooded area opposite. It made no sense for a real estate project to set up in place of the Boisé des Tilleuls by offering 100 housing units in a cul-de-sac”.
According to the mayor, it was necessary to act quickly, because nothing prevented the promoter from moving forward very quickly. We had no choice, either we bought the wooded area or it was razed this fall. ”
» This amount will not have an upward impact on taxpayers’ tax bill, because it will be absorbed from the existing room for maneuver in the budget.
from the city. – Ludovic Grisé-Farand.
a register
The holding of a register is set up, from April 3 to 6 by the City, to find out if the citizens want a referendum poll to be held to move forward in this decision.
For the purchase of the Boisé des Tilleuls, the City plans to borrow one million dollars. The amount borrowed will have a financial impact per residential dwelling unit of $6.89.
“However, this amount will not have an upward impact on taxpayers’ tax bills, because it will be absorbed from the existing room for maneuver in the City’s budget,” said the mayor. Louis Mercier, elected independent of District 5, does not agree with the mayor’s vision. He criticizes “the lack of financial transparency in this transaction where an insignificant loan payment is made to minimize the appearance of cost while the balance of $8.5 M (9.5 M $ less the 1 million loan). Thus, we will have to tax other projects later rather than paying for them in cash, which we do not say, of course. The citizen is put to sleep and rolled in flour. And, of course, businesses and industries, with rates respectively 4.8 and 5 times that of citizens, will take a big hit. However, the City has created a committee to help businesses, “said Mr. Mercier.
For the mayor, the strength of the Municipality’s industrial park allows him to undertake these projects without placing the burden on his citizens. » With the real estate project at Promenades St-Bruno and all that is coming to the industrial park, we can afford to be the City of the agglomeration that has the lowest tax increase for its citizens. These projects give us the leeway that will allow us, even by buying the Boisé des Tilleuls, to carry out all the projects that were planned, “said the mayor.
Protection of woodlands
Since 1993, when the City acquired the first lots to form the Tailhandier woods in 2004, Saint-Bruno has repeatedly demonstrated its proactivity in the conservation of natural environments of interest, of high ecological value, and consequently its commitment to the protection of biodiversity on its territory.
More recently, the acquisition of Boisé Sabourin, one of the main woodlots south of the 116, with its 19 hectares, or nearly 2 million sq. ft., is a fine example.
In doing so, Saint-Bruno contributes to the achievement of the objective of the Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM) to protect 30% of the natural environments on its territory by 2030.
“Today, I think we exceeded our objectives. We have another small wooded area that we would like to protect, next to the Sabourin wooded area, but we have not yet started discussions with the owners. It would be the last wooded area to be protected,” concluded the mayor.