02-26-2024, 03:32 PM
(02-26-2024, 02:30 PM)nms Wrote: That lot has been for sale since at least some time last year. What was there before the parking lot? Is there a chance of industrial contamination in some form?
It appears to have been a parking lot by 1955, but prior to that I think it was just grass? Looking at the aerial maps it shows that it was undeveloped and what I think is grass (since there are trees) in 1945. It may have become contaminated due to the factory nearby, though if it did it was probably minor (runoff, residual contaminants from the factory etc).
You can check out the maps for this area here. Interestingly, it seems like this was basically the far edge of the city at the time, with very little development occurring until the 1950s. Most of the land west past Westmount was just fields, with only a scattering of houses and other structures. Even into the 1960s, there were almost no houses or buildings anywhere near the train tracks.