Second and Final Draft submitted to Field Notes, the newsletter of the National Association for Olmsted Parks.

P. Barnard …Friday. Dec. 22, 2006

Frederick Law Olmsted did not plan Canada's Westmount Park, but his ideas shaped its design from the very beginning in 1899, with Olmsted brothers acting as the first consultants for the rectangular park. It is truly a child of Olmsted, a progeny of his majestic Mount Royal Park looming above.

This smaller, but very natural-looking urban space, with its now vanished gorge and wicker bridges, became so popular that in 1910 Westmount City Council spent $300,000 dollars -- millions today -- to extend the area to the south. A series of purchases were made "for the purposes of a public park," and over the last ninety years these southern fields have served as a multi-purpose recreation space giving free access for all sorts of activities. The 1910 acquisition has proven to be the wisest type of stewardship.

But suddenly the fate of the park became threatened when, on October 3, 2006, Westmount City Council announced its "intention" to cover this southern section with synthetic turf, a polyvinyl carpet which would remove 20% of Westmount Park's total greenspace of 26.19 acres. Residents and Westmount citizens were outraged, and they formed a group, Save The Park! Sauvons le parc!, which is now a NAOP member. The whole park is a miniature jewel of North American landscape design, and the placement of a synthetic surface over the southern area would have the same effect as covering New York's Sheep Meadow in Central Park with artificial matting. The architectural plan used by Westmount envisages a "new sports area" which would effectively cannibalize the park -- shifting a bike-path, decreasing CO2 fixation, vastly increasing heat, imposing concrete walkways (no organic material on turf), destroying valuable trees, and worst of all, privatizing public space through intense rental to private schools. With two full-length soccer fields envisaged, these athletic areas would be so closely wedged together they would need a huge net between them, and citizens are faced with the prospect of a soccerplex dumped on a park whose ecology is under stress.

Meanwhile, in November 2006 Westmount City Council administered a second shock to its own citizenry, clear-cutting 120 trees in another of its greenspaces, Sunnyside Park (1.72 acres) on the immediate perimeter of the Mount Royal protected zone watched over by the NAOP member organization, Les Amis de la montagne, which had formally told Westmount Council not to proceed with the draconian cut.

Down “below,” Westmount Park awaits its fate. The only way the City of Westmount, already 38 million dollars in debt, will be able to afford this sportsplex will be through the commercialization of once public space. Gone will be the open, public use for which this southern part of the park was set aside in 1910. Save The Park! Sauvons le parc! is fighting with all its heart and soul to keep our park healthy and whole. Visit our site: www.savewestmountpark.com.