NDG residents say no to new grocery store complex

Some residents in Cte-des-NeigesNotre-Dame-de-Grce are worriedthat building a new grocery store in the area will create too much traffic on their residential streets.

Provigo, which has owned the piece of land on the southwest corner of De Maisonneuve Boulevard and Claremont Avenue for 17 years, wants to build a store.

I don't think this particular area can support that kind of traffic and disruption. Provigo is going to generate a lot of street traffic and vehicular traffic and crossing paths with pedestrians and people waiting for buses, it's not...a good combination, said Elizabeth Shapiro, who has lived in NDG for 16 years.

Provigos plan is to build a 30,000 square foot supermarket. Above it would be 255 apartments, some condos for seniors and some hospital offices.

James Luck, a 40-year resident of NDG who lives a short walk away from the land, says such a big project poses a problem with all of its deliveries.

Their own trucks -- 30 a week they say -- plus vendor trucks plus the people that come there that aren't parking in their parking which is located in their building. So there is going to be a tremendous amount of traffic which I don't think the area can support right now, Luck said.

Luck saidthat with the newMUHCsuperhospitaljust around the corner, a new grocery store would only add to the congestion.

• Parking rates to change at new MUHC superhospital
• 'Vendme For All' group decries inaccessible Metro station next to MUHC

About 13,000 new people will be coming to the area as of April. We don't know the impact of that. There's a lot of access to the MUCH complex that is still not available. There's still the reconstruction of the overpass that was announced last week that will create a lot of traffic havoc in the area, Luck said.

Underground parking

Before building begins, Provigo is trying to reassure residents it has everything under control.

Theproject includes 250 underground parking spaces 80 of which will be reserved for Provigo customers.

The builder told CBC that community traffic concerns are being considered in the plans.

This is going to be a state of the art Provigo the deliveries being underground, said Luc Maurice, CEO of Le Groupe Maurice.

In its efforts to reassure residents, Provigo officials held a public meeting inviting residents to speak their mind.

A spokesperson says the company is trying to mitigate the traffic issues.

Area residents plan to bring up their concerns at a council meeting Monday evening.