Montreal announces plans to make Mount Royal Park bigger

Mount Royal Park is about to get a lot bigger and greener.

On Monday, the City of Montreal announced plans to expand the 470-acre park and remove roughly 40% of the area’s parking spots.

Coinciding with the COP 15 Biodiversity Conference, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante says three patches of land behind the old Royal Victoria Hospital will now become part of Mount Royal.

The city plans to remove some 725 parking spots in the lot adjacent to the park in 2024 and turn the land into green space.

Plante also announced the city would add 200 trees on the eastern flank of the park in honour of the countries currently in the city taking part in the UN’s COP 15 conference.

The mayor says roughly 30,000 sq metres of land will be ceded into the park.

#COP15 | Grande nouvelle : nous allons agrandir et reverdir le mont Royal! 🌿

Ce vaste projet collectif se déploiera sur 20 ans et ajoutera l’équivalent de 5+ terrains de soccer au parc du Mont-Royal.

C’est le plus grand agrandissement du parc depuis 100 ans.

Les détails ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/m82uaJzya2

— Valérie Plante (@Val_Plante) December 12, 2022

Inaugurated in 1876, Mount Royal is a magnificent urban green space featuring over 400 acres of natural beauty. Often regarded as the most popular park in Montreal, the park is a symbol of the city’s heritage, geography, and history.

The all-season park has an abundance of activities, including hiking, jogging, cycling, skating, sledding, tubing, tobogganing, dog-walking, picnics, and of course, Tam-Tams.

The park’s prized spot is the Kondiaronk Belvedere at the summit, which has become synonymous with taking photos and soaking up the city’s skyline as the ideal backdrop.

Renderings of what Montreal’s namesake mountain will look like were shared with the public on Monday afternoon:

“Mount Royal is an emblem of the metropolis that is dear to us,” said Plante in French on Twitter. “Today, we are making a historic gesture with its expansion!”

🏥 ROYAL-VICTORIA

La Société québécoise des infrastructures cédera gratuitement à la Ville de Montréal, d’ici 2036, trois terrains désaffectés au nord de l’ancien hôpital Royal-Victoria.

👉 Ces terrains seront verdis pour créer une nouvelle entrée au parc via le centre-ville. pic.twitter.com/PV8JOphavb

— Valérie Plante (@Val_Plante) December 12, 2022

One of the three sections of land will be given to Montreal in 2023, and the other two plots (both parking lots) will be handed over in 2033 and 2036.