{"id":1735,"date":"2013-09-25T18:33:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-25T18:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rf.podcastfixit.com\/index.php\/2013\/09\/25\/misleading-reports-fuel-angell-woods\/"},"modified":"2015-06-01T19:41:37","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T19:41:37","slug":"misleading-reports-fuel-angell-woods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2013\/09\/25\/misleading-reports-fuel-angell-woods\/","title":{"rendered":"Misleading reports fuel Angell Woods controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beaconsfield council caught in Mexican standoff <\/i><\/b>
\n
<\/b>
\nBy Robert Frank<\/b>
\nwww.thesuburban.com<\/a><\/p>\n

A three-way deadlock reminiscent of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, involving environmentalists, landowners and the city is coming to a head in Beaconsfield. <\/p>\n

With accusations flying in the lead-up to an Oct. 1 vote on the zoning of Angell Woods, proponents of all sides have very different tales to tell. <\/p>\n

Several recent news reports have led many members of the public to jump to the conclusion that the entire forest will be razed for development. However, a number of city councilors have said flatly that this is a suburban legend. <\/p>\n

The city has so far mooted limiting development to a small, family-friendly footprint close to the Woodland commuter train \u201cthat would occupy, at most, 20 per cent of the forest,\u201d said Councilor Rhonda Massad. <\/p>\n

Both Massad and Councilor Wade Staddon told The Suburban<\/i> that they had been given verbal assurances that Montreal was negotiating with landowners to buy the privately held property in Angell Woods in order to turn it into a regional nature park. <\/p>\n

Association for the Preservation of Angell Woods (APAW) president Stephen Lloyd told Le Devoir that Montreal was on the verge of protecting the forest, and that if Beaconsfield would wait another six months, it would be protected. <\/p>\n

The main private landowners, though, have unequivocally refuted Montreal\u2019s claim that it had engaged them in negotiations. <\/p>\n

\u201c[Montreal officials] seem to have contacted them but don\u2019t seem to have followed up,\u201d said Staddon. <\/p>\n

Both Diana Shahmoon (Seda Holdings) and Menashi Mashaal (Yale Properties) discussed their experiences with The Suburban<\/i> in separate interviews. They confirmed that Montreal official Guillaume Topp had made phone and e-mail contact, but insisted that no business discussions have taken place. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was at work [May 30], when Mr. Topp called my cellphone,\u201d said Shahmoon\u2019s daughter Sarah Blustain. \u201cHe introduced himself and wanted to see if we were interested in selling our land.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised to hear from him and said that of course we were interested,\u201d she continued. \u201cI made it clear to him that we had been in a stalled situation with the city of Beaconsfield for years and that at some point we had held out some hope that Montreal might be able to help with the situation.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of that conversation we exchanged e-mail addresses,\u201d Blustain said. \u201cA couple of weeks later, he wrote to say that the offer was being prepared.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mashaal said that he had even less communication with Montreal about Angell Woods. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe received a phone call from Mr. Topp in mid-July saying that he would contact me in mid-August to set up a meeting with him and his boss to present us with an offer.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Suburban<\/i> has obtained e-mail messages sent by Topp which appear to corroborate the private landowners\u2019 claims. <\/p>\n

A spokesman for Montreal executive committee member Jos\u00e9e Duplessis, however, told The Suburban<\/i> that he had been briefed that the landowners had said that they did not wish to pursue negotiations, and asked the city to cease its communication with them. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why the city thinks that we rebuffed them,\u201d Blustain insisted. \u201cNo offer was made to me or to my mother and no further communication took place.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe never received any phone call since then,\u201d Mashaal also affirmed. <\/p>\n

Meantime the Angell debacle has already cost Beaconsfield taxpayers well over $400,000, Councilor Massad said, an amount that continues to climb and is already equivalent to more than two per cent of the town\u2019s annual budget. <\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil was told that the negotiations had started in January, which is evidently untrue,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were supposed to have been in advanced negotiations by this point, with the end in sight.\u201d <\/p>\n

At Lloyd\u2019s insistence, the city held a consultation immediately prior to Monday\u2019s council meeting to include APAW-owned land in Beaconsfield\u2019s upcoming zoning vote. <\/p>\n

Angell Woods is literally in Lloyd\u2019s Lakeview avenue backyard. The forestry lawyer told The Suburban<\/i> that during APAW\u2019s early days, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (Quebec) provided ample \u201cadvice and support\u201d. <\/p>\n

Lloyd is the Nature Conservancy\u2019s vice-president, and the APAW web site directs prospective Angell Woods supporters to send their donations to the Nature Conservancy.<\/p>\n

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Beaconsfield council caught in Mexican standoff By Robert Frank www.thesuburban.com A three-way deadlock reminiscent of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, involving environmentalists, landowners and the city is coming to a head in Beaconsfield. With accusations flying in the lead-up to an Oct. 1 vote on the zoning of Angell Woods, proponents of all<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMisleading reports fuel Angell Woods controversy - Newscoverage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2013\/09\/25\/misleading-reports-fuel-angell-woods\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Misleading reports fuel Angell Woods controversy - Newscoverage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Beaconsfield council caught in Mexican standoff By Robert Frank www.thesuburban.com A three-way deadlock reminiscent of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, involving environmentalists, landowners and the city is coming to a head in Beaconsfield. 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