PLANS for a massive expansion of the Ray-Mont Logistics container yard in Montreal's east end require a "complete re-evaluation", Montreal's public consultation office said in its report, reports the Montreal Gazette.

"The findings are unequivocal: there is a lack of social acceptability among the local population," the report said.

Since its inception, the project has faced widespread opposition from locals, who have raised concerns over noise pollution, worsening air quality and a "heat island" effect for the area.

The city initially attempted to halt the project but was forced to allow it to advance after a 2018 Superior Court decision found that Ray-Mont Logistics was entitled to build on the site. Ray-Mont then sued the city for CAD343 million (US$239 million), later coming to a CAD17 million settlement that obliged the city to allow the project to advance.

The company then requested zoning changes, triggering the public consultation.

That consultation, run by the Office de consultation publique de Montreal, was mandated to gather feedback on the proposed zoning changes - a relatively narrow mandate that impeded discussion of the overall project.

That mandate "restrained the opportunity to have a global debate on the cumulative effects of current and future construction", the report said. Its findings thus went beyond the question of the zoning changes, calling on the city to re-evaluate the project in its entirety.

"We don't want the project at all," said Anais Houde, spokeswoman for Mobilisation 6600, the group spearheading opposition to the project.

The planned expansion of the container yard is "too dangerous, in the wrong place and above all too big," she said.

https://www.shippingazette.com/news?news_id=9250300000805