St. Norbert residents opposed to Lemay Forest development attend developer's open house

Nature, wildlife and serenity — Sandra Valois says she'll miss those things if the forest that runs along her backyard is turned into residential buildings.

Valois was among numerous St. Norbert residents who gathered inside the local community centre Saturday for an open house to explore the transformative plans Tochal Developments has for the Lemay Forest.

The company owns and wants to develop about a nine-hectare (22-acre) section of the forest, which in total covers around 30 hectares between Lemay Avenue and the Red River, south of the Perimeter Highway.

The land is currently off-limits to the public.

Valois has lived in the community south of Winnipeg since 1973, the last 40 of which has been spent in a home on Lemay Avenue. She cherishes the time she spent in the forest.

"I walked the forest. It's the nature, the animals, the serenity," she said at Saturday's open house.

Valois understands there is a need for housing in and around Winnipeg, but argues there are better places than in a wooded area southwest of the Red River.

"This is not the area to do it," she said.

And she's not alone.

Cat Macaulay Gauthier is one of the founding members of the Coalition to Save the Lemay Forest. She, too, was at the open house to answer questions residents may have had, while assuring them that developing the forest into housing is "not a done deal."

"Our strength is in numbers, so the more people that we can reach the better," Macaulay Gauthier said.

Like Valois, Macaulay Gauthier said she believes building housing in the forest, which possesses historical and cultural significance to the Métis, should not take place.

Macaulay Gauthier added that there are multiple other residential plans in development in St. Norbert.

"We need more trees," she said. "Winnipeg is below average for urban canopy compared to all major Canadian cities, which is really sad."

Jaxon Kowaluk shares a similar view.

The St. Norbert-based wildlife photographer and coalition member often walks in the forest, and said it holds an important place in the community.

"It's sad to see that … so much of the forest would be taken up by this development. We would like to see it be left alone," Kowaluk said.

3 options for the forest

While the buzz among some who attended Saturday's open house was against developing the forest into housing, John Wintrup stressed the importance of having multiple options for residents to consider.

A professional planner representing Tochal, Wintrup said he wanted to ensure residents were engaged and aware of the options available for the land.

Option A is the City of Winnipeg purchasing the land and preserving it as an accessible public woodlot. Option B is the land owner's preference, which is to develop it as residential, while Option C is none of the above.

"If it's not going to be a parkland, it's not going to be residential, what will it be? We're trying to get comments from residents on what they think Option C should be if it's not none of the above," Wintrup told CBC News.

The residential options associated with Option B include highrise buildings, low-rise buildings and mid-rise buildings, as well as buildings with one access point, two access points, parks, no parks, open drainage and enclosed drainage, according to Wintrup.

In November 2023, the Riel Community Committee passed a motion from Coun. Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River) to negotiate a purchase price with the owner — a potential Option A for concerned residents.

"They all want Option A. Who wouldn't want Option A? I'd love to live backing onto a woodlot," Wintrup said. "That's up to the residents and government to decide if they can pull it off and make Option A work."

The land last sold for about $1.5 million.

But Wintrup said Tochal has not been contacted by anyone expressing interest in purchasing the section of the forest since sending a letter to the City of Winnipeg on Oct. 18.

"Something is going to happen with the land. The land owner has no intention of privately owning a woodlot by the end of 2024," Wintrup said. "That's not going to happen."

A verbal report on the development history of the Lemay Forest was commissioned in November and is expected to be presented to the city's property and development committee on Thursday.