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Unpaving paradise

McMaster giving up 300 parking spaces for buffer zone near Ancaster Creek

The Hamilton Spectator, November 27, 2012 (online version)

A McMaster University parking lot will scale back more than 300 spaces to create a 30-metre buffer between the asphalt and a local creek.

Parking lot M is located off Cootes Drive next to Ancaster Creek and at present, it can accommodate more than 1,300 vehicles.

The move comes after a campus environmental group called Restore Cootes urged university officials to create a naturalized buffer at the lot, because a campus master plan calls for such buffers and the Hamilton Region Conservation Authority requires a 30-metre buffer when new parking lots are constructed.

Gord Arbeau, McMaster’s director of public and community relations, says 200 spaces in the same area — previously out of use because of a construction project — will be put back in circulation, lessening the impact of the move. He said more than 1,400 staff and students have transponders allowing them to use the lot, but the usage is spread out over the week and not everyone wants to use the lot at the same time.

Arbeau said he does not know the final cost of removing the asphalt and naturalizing the landscape.

Restore Cootes has been leading an ongoing series of Ponds to Parking history-hikes since last December that raised awareness about the issue of parking lots affecting natural areas that used to be ponds, streams and wetlands, said spokesperson Randy Kay.

Creating the buffer is “a small but significant step toward a goal of full rehabilitation of the floodplain that was previously known as the Royal Botanical Gardens’ Coldspring Valley Nature Sanctuary, paved over in the late 1960s when McMaster took over the RBG property,” the environmental group said in a statement.

Comments

Slow Sign and Turtle Time

THEY SAY: Information Report: April 3, 2017 SUBJECT/REPORT NO: Rare Turtle Recovery, Wildlife Corridor Issues and Roads of Issue at Cootes Paradise (PW16024a) - (City Wide) Traffic Issues on Cootes Drive Traffic Operations & Engineering has been working with the Ward 13 Councillor on traffic signage along Cootes Drive. Four (4) traffic signs (with flashing lights) operating during turtle migration season will be installed in the spring of 2017. The migration period for turtles is generally around the months of June, early July and September but can vary due to weather conditions. The traffic signs are useful in alerting motorists of potential turtle crossings on that roadway. RESTORE COOTES SAYS: Is it working? Is there any evidence that it is helping turtles or even slowing vehicles? We're betting it has little to no impact - the light is always flashing, if turtles are present or not, the road is built for speed and it makes it dangerous to slow down. We hope

a vision for nature in Cootes

View the Eco-Park Document here Make Cootes national park, group urges TheSpec.com - Local - Make Cootes national park, group urges Create eco-park in urbanized area Eric McGuinness , The Hamilton Spectator (Jan 28, 2009) The idea of a Cootes Paradise National Park is being revived by local conservationists. But they say it is jeopardized by plans for a self-storage warehouse beside the Desjardins Canal at the east entrance to Dundas. They point to a new vision of an urban eco-park -- maybe a national park -- incorporating the Cootes marsh, drafted by Urban Strategies Inc., the firm responsible for McMaster University's campus master plan among other Hamilton projects. Joe Berridge, a partner who has helped reshape waterfronts in Toronto, New York and London, produced the concept document at the invitation of Ben Vanderbrug, retired general manager of the Hamilton Conservati

Urquhart Butterfly Garden speaker series

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