After about two decades of residents trying to stop condominiums replacing the Notman Garden, the City of Montreal is planning to expropriate the land from the current owner and turn it into a park.
“We couldn’t believe it, we’ve been fighting for so many years, and now, finally, we got it,” admitted Tony Antakley, who lives across the street from the 1000 square-metre garden, which grows at the corner of Clark and Milton Sts.
“All the neighbours are very happy that finally we got the garden. We’ve been fighting for this space for many years.”
Residents have fought one developer after another over the years, refusing to allow the former piece of William Notman's historical estate to be lost.
“They wanted to cut the trees and build condos,” Antakley said. “For us, this is a no-no, you can’t lose those trees, those are the lungs of our neighbourhood.”
There are dozens of tree species in the 1000 square meter garden, including several rare ones like centennial silver maple trees and imported Kentucky coffeetrees.
City council will formally approve expropriating the land at a meeting on Monday, Plateau-Mont-Royal city councillor Alex Norris confirmed. The Plateau-Mont-Royal borough and the central city are expected to split the costs of buying the property.
The land is valued at $1.86 million according to the latest municipal assessment., but the City of Montreal real estate arm of city hall estimates it could cost voer 3 million to buy the garden. real-estate division estimates the cost of expropriation at $3.3 million, plus taxes.
The current owner could not be reached for comment.
—with files from Kelly Greig of CTV Montreal