Royalmount mega-mall public consultation centres on hot topic — will it bring more traffic?

The first public consultation into the new Royalmount shopping centre project centred on a crucial question: how much more traffic it will bring to the area?

A representative from developer Carbonleo showed a polished video of the project and talked about its "ecosystem of happiness."

But Côte Saint-Luc Coun. Oren Sebag wasn't impressed.

"What I'd like to do is invite him for breakfast at 7 a.m. in my district, for him to see what the ecosystem of unhappiness looks like," he said.

Construction has already begun on the $1.7-billion mega-mall, which is being built in Town of Mount Royal's industrial sector and slated to open in 2022.

It will span an area larger than 40 football fields and feature restaurants, entertainment venues, office space, residential units, a hotel and plenty of stores.

Carbonleo says concerns about traffic are overblown. It says the project will bring in 20,000 cars daily, with the rest of shoppers arriving via other transit options.

But Montreal's economic and urban development commission has found that during evening rush hour, drivers on Highway 40 East between Cavendish Boulevard and Highway 15 can expect an additional 20 to 30 minutes of traffic.

That's based on an estimate that 70,000 cars will travel to and from the mall daily.

The city and the developer used the same data to come up with their estimates. It's unclear why they are different.

The next phase of the public consultation, being held at Montreal City Hall, begins Dec. 19.

All-day traffic jams

Mount Royal resident Michel Faure said the area is "already jammed all day long."

"I don't see why a small municipality has the right to hold hostage a big city like Montreal, because these decisions, made by the mayor [of TMR], have an impact on the citizens of Montreal."

He called the transportation alternatives farfetched, and thinks building an overpass from the nearby De La Savane Metro is unreasonable.

TMR Mayor Philippe Roy, who supports the project, says people want to go to a new generation of shopping mall, and this project will bring one to Montreal.

Roy said he doesn't believe everyone is against the mall.

"It's a huge project, with a lot of money and job creation. [It] would bring a lot more people to Montreal, staying in Montreal, instead of going back to the South Shore or Laval."

He said with other development projects coming to the area, there will already be a need to mitigate traffic in the area.

The stakeholders know it will be a challenge to get people to the mall, and they are working together to bolster the public transit options and find solutions to those challenges, he explained.

Roy believes 30 per cent of Royalmount shoppers will take the Metro.

"We're working on a shuttle between the REM station from TMR and the Royalmount project, which is hopefully going to bring more people from there," he told CBC Montreal's Daybreak.