Paul Renaud with the Coalition to Protect the South March Highlands said his group wants the the City of Ottawa to stop work on the extension of Terry Fox Drive until a proper environmental assessment can be done. (CBC)

An environmental group is taking the City of Ottawa to court over the proposed extension of Terry Fox Drive in Kanata.

Work on the $47.7 million extension, funded in part with federal infrastructure money, began in April of this year, but the South March Highlands Carp River Conservation Inc. wants the city to stop further work.

The group, the corporate arm of the Coalition to Protect the South March Highlands, filed papers in divisional court on Friday requesting a judicial review of the city's decision to build the roadway.

The coalition claims in its filing that the city relied on an outdated environmental assessment, and that changes to the plan made since then required the city to go back and reassess the potential environmental impacts.

The group said the city relied on an assessment from 2000 that was last updated in 2005. They say there have been significant changes to the plan since then.

For example, the original assessment considered plans to proceed with a 400 metre realignment of Shirley's Brook, a watercourse that crosses the road's right-of-way and feeds into wetlands.

However, plans for the proposed extension now call for a realignment of 1.37 km, though the environmental assessment has not been updated to reflect that change, the group claims in its filing.

The group also wants the city to consider a 2010 report on the impact of the project on the Carp River floodplain when making its assessment. And it wants a reassessment of the project's impact on 17 endangered and threatened species in the area.

City should reconsider plan, group says

Paul Renaud, a member of the coalition, said they want the court to order a stop to the construction on Terry Fox Drive until a full comprehensive assessment can be done.

"It's our hope in fact that the city will respond to this as a wake up call and actually reconsider what they're doing as opposed to fight this in the courts, which we believe they'll lose in the end," said Renaud.

Kanata North councillor Marianne Wilkinson said she understands the group's concerns but said the city has taken steps to protect wildlife.

"Along the entire part through the South March Highlands they are fencing it on both sides, with an angled fence so turtles and small animals can't climb up," said Wilkinson. "This is more than anybody has done in this area before."

Wilkinson said finishing Terry Fox Drive is necessary to keep pace with a growing Kanata.