Vincelli's Garden Centre on 19 May 2024

I walked along Westminster Avenue taking these photographs, adjacent to the old Vincelli's Garden Centre, and I remembered how much I enjoyed visiting here and buying plants in the spring, in May, Ecinachea and other flowers; usually I would purchase perennials, and most of these plants are still flourishing in our garden. One of these days we will return to this site and find bulldozers have cleared away the past, the structures where geraniums hung from rafters, and then a huge hole will be dug, for indoor parking. It will all be cleared away and building will begin, and then people will move in and the condos will be occupied. And all of this, gone forever.

Vincellli's Garden Centre, March 2023

I finally took some photographs of the old Vincelli's Garden Centre; they closed about two years ago. What you see below is about one quarter to one third of the size of the property, and public hearings on building a large condo building here are slated for this week. This is also one of the few unbuilt property lots in the City of Cote Saint-Luc (which is adjacent to where I live in Montreal); it is a mostly residential city but includes Cavendish Mall and Cote Saint-Luc Shopping Centre. Is this the best development of this property? Housing is needed, or seems to be needed, and a growing population means more tax dollars for Cote Saint-Luc. Of course, this might be considered a remote location in this area, but nothing is all that far from something else in CSL; and while there are some stores across the street from Vincelli's, out of five stores only two are still in business, so I am not sure if the commercial part of this development will succeed. I am also not sure other services are available for the future inhabitants of this condo; I expect they will be mostly elderly people moving from single family residences to condos. The development (one tower will have 8 to 12 storeys) will bring a lot of people and their cars into the neighbourhood; stores, bus service, EMS, infrastructure, and so on will have to be improved, or will have to be provided. Would it be better to make this a park instead of more condos? That won't happen because the desire for increased tax revenue is strong and there is no need to promote the area for future residents, many people want to live in CSL and residents are happy to live there. Personally, I don't like what I see slated for this site; if I lived in the area I would oppose it, oppose two years of construction, trucks, noise, pollution, and an influx of people to the area. But it is a prestige condo development as long as no one cares about the noise from the adjacent CPR rail yards. Consider a modified version a done deal. 

This is what is planned at this location

People have begun dumping construction material and other garbage on the site

There is a cardinal on the left, the site is home to many birds and small animals

Walking to Meadowbrook Golf Course at the end of August, 2021

It isn't a long walk to Meadowbrook Golf Course but it's still worth walking; however, it is a different walk than it was just a few years ago since they cut down the trees along the road. My motto is (and the motto of a lot of other people), "if it's not broken, don't fix it." But some people have to change things for the sake of changing them and they spoil it for the rest of us. I expect, one of these days, it will be announced that condos and townhouses will be built on the golf course, I hope not, but I am not optimistic. . . Consider the following, this is a huge tract of land owned by a corporation that isn't sentimental and is out to make money; the road to this land has been cleared of trees so heavy equipment can easily travel to the future work site; and, finally, new hydro power lines have been installed delivering the electricity necessary to service the possible new development. As I said, I am not optimistic but I do support this land being preserved as it is in perpetuity. Money, in selling houses and increased tax revenue, wins out over a poorly paved road and a second rate golf course, especially in a city where there is lots of money to be made from building and selling condos and houses; meanwhile, there is a group of dedicated people who may be able to stop the development of this last large green space in this part of the city and we need them to succeed. .

Walking to Meadowbrook Golf Course on 26 August 2021

Walking to Meadowbrook Golf Course

I've deleted a rant and substituted the following more reasoned and watered down commentary: most of the trees on this stretch of Cote St. Luc Road have been cut down, this is the road that ends at Meadowbrook Golf Course. The town of Cote St. Luc is about as soulless a suburb as you can find so no wonder they've destroyed this last bit of country-like area; developers won't rest until they've built condos on every square inch of land. There were alternatives to cutting down trees in this area, the best would have been to just leave things as they were. I am not convinced by the signs warning people of falling trees, or if the branch of a tree did fall then does that warrant cutting down most of the trees in this area? Well, folks, we'll see if they plant a single tree for every tree they've cut down which is what they said was their plan.

Now compare the road as it was with my photographs of what it looks like now:

Here is Google Street View over a twelve year period, 2007 to 2019: https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4564534,-73.6684001,3a,75y,208.22h,94.22t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sY1druHKghkiV9eiUA42kKQ!2e0!5s20070901T000000!7i3328!8i1664

Here is the road today: