Pierrefonds and Kirkland residents fed up with 12-year-old gate separating 2 communities

An imposing metal gate that separates an affluent area of Kirkland from a middle-class neighborhood in Pierrefonds has caused long delays for children trying to get to school, say residents who question why it exists in the first place.

The gate, erected several years ago, protects a passageway between Chateau Pierrefonds Avenue and Houde Street in Kirkland.

It is locked between 7:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. daily. But according to some residents, those hours can vary unpredictably.

Danielle Chouinard, a Pierrefonds mother whose children go to school in Kirkland, finds the gate excessive and inconvenient.

When the gate happens to be locked past those hours, her children (aged 10 and 12) have had a hard time getting to school

"It makes me feel like an outcast, it makes me feel like I somehow don't belong in Kirkland, when these are very similar, fluid communities," Chouinard said.

"I don't understand the justification for having this enormous monstrosity of a gate between two beautiful communities."

Gate will remain status quo, says mayor

The mayor of Kirkland, Michel Gibson, said the gate is needed to prevent vandalism. Earlier this year, Kirkland's city council debated altering the hours the gate is locked.

"Council discussed it ... and decided to leave it," Gibson said. "It's status quo."

He also said the presence of the gate was a "non-issue."

On the Kirkland side of the barrier is a Cineplex movie theatre along with several shops, so it's appealing for Pierrefonds residents to use the passage to access them. 

Patrice Delage says his family likes to walk to the movies, but the gate makes it impossible to do so in the evening. 

And when the gate has happened to be closed on some school mornings, the alternative route by car can take up to 40 minutes by car in traffic, he says. 

"It's inconvenient for everybody," he said. "If it's for people's houses, put some higher hedges or a higher gate, but this looks like Checkpoint Charlie."

But the fence is disruptive to Kirkland residents, too, says Sally Goodwin, who was biking through with two of her daughters Friday afternoon. 

Goodwin says her family has friends that live on the other side whom the gate makes it difficult to visit. They are also patrons of local businesses, including a depanneur and a restaurant, as well as a park, on the other side.

'It really cuts the two communities off'

"We just don't go over there in the evening because it takes you forever to drive around the construction makes it even worse," she said. "It really cuts the two communities off.

"You often see someone sitting in the Kirkland [City] van, waiting for the clock to hit 7:30 and lock it, and unfortunately there's probably other things they could be doing," she said, adding, "In this day and age, you'd think there would be a more open, less aggressive [solution]."

Her seven-year-old daughter, Sammy Lee, said she doesn't like it either. 

"I find it sort of dangerous because you can crash into it [on your bike]," Sammy said. 

Pierrefonds resident Jean-Paul Glinel says he understands the need for the gate. 

"Because at night, young people, they come there, they drink and they are very loud," Glinel said. 

The borough mayor of Pierrefonds-Roxboro, Jim Beis, said he would be in touch with the City of Kirkland, with which he said Pierrefonds has had a good relationship, to see if anything could be done.

"I mean, can we look at this as a community and say, 'Well, what can we do to eliminate this?' so that we don't feel, you know, segregated and we don't feel separated," Beis said.