Skip to main content

What's this? More Velodrome?

Since Restore Cootes interviewed Dundas councillor Russ Powers, the Velodrome has once again come back from the dead in Dundas. What is going on behind the scenes?
What follows is the relevant excerpt from the October 5 2010 Economic Development and Planning (E.D.P.) minutes:
Ferguson: [1:36:39] Okay, item 8.2 which is addition of lands to the Niagara Escarpment Cootes Paradise lands. Joanne, do you want to give us an overview of this.
Hickey-Evans: The elevator speech?
Ferguson: Yeah, the elevator speech, thank you.
Hickey-Evans: Just very quickly, the Niagara Escarpment has received an order in council to add additional lands to their portfolio, as it were, their plan area, and it’s a two step process. And now as the second part of the process they’ve identified the appropriate designations for this land, and this land is simply a very small sliver adjacent to Olympic Park and the Hydro building, and it’s all publicly-owned land. And the proposed designations are protection and natural. And by and large we don’t have a problem with the designations, with the exception of two sites. And those two sites relate to our city owned park, which is Olympic – it’s called Olympic Park. It has an arena and several sports fields. And then the second is the Ontario Hydro building  including maintenance and storage yard. And we feel that these lands should not be included in the Niagara Escarpment Plan at all. They should just remain within the city’s jurisdiction. And so the recommendation before you is to have these lands removed from the Niagara Escarpment Planning Area. And that we work in conjunction with the province to undertake that. So it’s a fairly complicated regulatory process that we are involved in at this time.
Ferguson: Councillor Pearson
Pearson: Mr Chairman, and I thank for the report there, verbally, and I agree because I was reading through and it could create some problems for us moving into the future, as far as any works that we want to do on facilities on the land, etc. So I report staff’s recommendation.
Ferguson: You’re moving it? Thank you. Seconded by councillor Duvall. Councillor Whitehead.
Whitehead: There is a site for the velodrome, if I remember right, and I can’t remember if this site, this area was identified as one of the sites. So I’m just a bit concerned, that if you do this, that obviously we need to take the site off as potential.
Ferguson: It actually has the opposite effect, because if we take it out of the NEC control then in fact you could put the velodrome
Whitehead: You allow it to happen, okay.
Ferguson: Right, it’s the opposite effect.
Whitehead: Okay, then.
Ferguson: Okay, then further discussion? All in favour? Carried. [1:39:14]

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Binkley's Pond, gone for parking

Jacob Binkley (1806-67), great grandson of Marx [Binkley], built the handsome stone house that still stands at 54 Sanders Blvd at the head of a ravine. The house was completed in 1847 and named Lakelet Vale, as it had a little spring-fed lake at the rear. Binkley's Pond, as it was known, was used for skating, fishing, and good times. It is now the Zone 6 parking lot at McMaster University on the west side of Cootes Drive. Loreen Jerome, The Way We Were "The House that Jacob Built" Ainslie Wood/Westdale Community Association of Resident Homeowners Inc. (AWWCA) http://www.awwca.ca/articles/ Skater's on Binkley's Pond circa 1917, now a McMaster parking lot

Stairs Connect Us: Please Sign A Petition

A group of residents in the University Gardens neighbourhood are seeking improved connections for active transportation.  The neighbourhood sits on a plateau above McMaster's west campus parking lots. A path through a wooded section between Grant Boulevard and McMaster's parking lot "P" is the shortest and most direct route that connects hikers, and commuters walking or cycling, but it is on the side of a hill that becomes treacherous in winter. At the bottom of the hill, a concrete bridge spans the narrow Ancaster Creek that is the dividing line between Hamilton's Ward 13 (Dundas) and Ward one's Ainslie Woods North neighbourhood. SIGN THE PETITION HERE Existing stairs were removed by the Hamilton Conservation Authority (HCA) with no plans for replacement. Area residents have started a petition to request a replacement set of stairs and will use the petition as support when they go to the HCA Board meeting in early June. The text of the petition reads: The Ham...

Where did the water go? Art action in Lot M Parking

West Campus Eco-Art Project  A walking activity and site activation on McMaster’s West Campus.  West Campus Eco-Art Project is a project that incorporates creative walking activities and an artistic site activation connected with the West Campus Redesign Initiative at McMaster University. The initiative provides opportunities for connecting with nature through an on-line informational video, walking excursions and creative activities that deepen knowledge and experience with place in all its complexities (social history, citizen science, ecology and diversity).  Focusing on the Coldwater creek valley on McMaster’s West Campus, participants will learn about the history and unique features of the area and will be invited to then engage with the site through observation, sketching and stencil-making. Stencils will be used to paint text and image on the parking lot asphalt to delineate a blue line that marks an historic water route.  The project is supported by the McMas...