New Urban Parc

[Doc_Avid]

Hi,

I guess many of you saw the announcement made by our mayor yesterday about the creation of an huge parc here in the west island. Here's a link to an article from radio-canada: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle...e-vert-canada: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle...ce-vert-canada

This new parc will encompass the Wimac club; the mayor hinted that negotiations will start for the city to acquire lands that are presently privately owned (such as Wimac's). As you know, parcs are usually off limits to RC controlled airplanes and drones. I think the club will have to lobby actively to retain it's advantages and rights to remain where it is. Anyway, I do not yet have much info about this project and I wanted to start a thread so that everyone can participate in the discussion.

Best,

[Sempai-mj]

Thanks for the info, I did see the announcement.
Let's not jump the gun, WIMAC is located on private land owned by Grilli
Let's see what conspires in the next couple of months.

[pauldaigle]

Ya, this is still just a pipe dream and will take some time to negociate with the land onwners to transfer property titles. Depends how much they want to spend.
Meanwhile I think WIMAC is going to have a say one day as a organization if and when the land changes hands and becomes a municipal park. Then we all go to park flyers hehehehe…..

[ImFM]

There was news yesterday that Grilli sold more development land to the city :

https://montrealgazette.com/news/loc...ds-from-grilli

Montreal purchases 140 hectares in western Pierrefonds from Grilli

[Michael O'Bree]

Originally Posted by ImFM

There was news yesterday that Grilli sold more development land to the city :

https://montrealgazette.com/news/loc...ds-from-grilli

Montreal purchases 140 hectares in western Pierrefonds from Grilli

Thanks Frank.

As you will see from the text in red on our Home page that was updated in November, we have been aware of this sale of the land we use for a while. The executives and members of our club have been actively working on this situation since that time and we provide members of our Club regular updates regarding our initiatives and progress on the Members Only section of our website.

[Doc_Avid]

Have you met with the city officials to check if the club could stay where it is?

[Michael O'Bree]

Originally Posted by Doc_Avid

Have you met with the city officials to check if the club could stay where it is?

In progress - as mentioned earlier, details of our progress on this situation is available to members. As we are all volunteers we are too busy right now to answer all questions from non-members.

[Doc_Avid]

Originally Posted by Michael O'Bree

In progress - as mentioned earlier, details of our progress on this situation is available to members. As we are all volunteers we are too busy right now to answer all questions from non-members.

Hi Michael, This member might want to join, but according to the home page, you are looking for a new place... I might want to help with this situation if you guys want to stay at the present place. Feel free to contact me privately: 514-516-5451.

[ImFM]

I understand you're keeping the discussion open to members, makes sense. I just felt an update here was useful for those who are not members yet, just like myself and the news about the agreement between Grilli and the city was news a few days ago (before the developers were intend on suing the city instead). I was hoping to join in the new year and am still hoping to start flying again.

Many many years ago, when I was flying in Germany, the club I was part of there actually faced a similar situation. It was located in a protected natural habitat of fields and there were also "sewage fields" (?) in the area that were used to bring back already cleaned water into the ground water. There were mostly gasoline planes flown there back then and also a number of protected birds were in the area. I remember always biking there, a lot of it along the wall that divided Berlin (West-Berlin) and Brandenburg back then.

We collected signatures to keep the field back then, and also had a media outreach for local coverage. I remember actually doing a radio report with interviewing people on the street about the issue and submitted it to a youth reporter contest with one of the local radio stations. It looks like they ultimately moved outside Berlin after the wall came down, but I remember we were allowed to keep the field for many more additional years.

Please let me know if there's a way I can help.

[Michael O'Bree]

Steps taken so far:
- 14 Nov.: Emergency meeting of WIMAC Directors and a few members, two days after we heard from Grilli they were in the process of selling the land- the buyer was not disclosed.
- 15 Nov.: Directors shared their strategy and action plan with members which had been agreed at the emergency meeting. All agreed to continue to operate the Club going forward as normal, even though we may have to face the possibility of moving to a new location. All memberships for 2020 would be accepted, and the Indoor activities at College Charlemagne would proceed as planned Jan to March. If the Club lacked an outdoor Field for part of 2020, 2020 members would be entitled to an appropriate refund or future year credit based on reduced expenses.
- 15 Nov. to 12 Dec. - WIMAC Directors and a number of members work on implementing the strategy, which, until we learned who the land was being sold to, focused on searching for a new field. Various sites were being considered and some pursued from St. Eustache to St. Zotique.
- 12 Dec.: City of Montreal announces they have purchased the land.
- 12 Dec. - 17 Dec. Directors refocus their effort on extending our stay on the current Field. A document is developed to present our case to the City to stay where we are. Communication strategy developed to present case.
- 18 Dec. First contact made with Pierrefonds official. As expected, our next stop is with representatives of City of Montreal who are responsible for Grands Parcs Montreal.