Skip to main content

Creek Buffering Success!


November 26, 2012
MEDIA RELEASE
RESTORE COOTES

SCALED BACK PARKING MAKES ROOM FOR
EXPANDED CREEK BUFFER AT McMASTER

A grassroots campaign to enhance the natural habitat and protect the health of Ancaster Creek at McMaster University's west campus parking lot “M” has resulted in the University agreeing to remove parking to allow for the minimum standard of a 30 metre naturalized buffer zone between parking lots and this coldwater creek.

While scaling back parking means 318 less parking spaces according to measurements taken by the Hamilton Conservation Authority, a surplus of available parking at peak demand of over 1,000 spaces means no drivers will lose the ability to park on campus.

The news comes from a presentation given by university administration to the President's Advisory Committee on Cootes Paradise on Friday, November 9/12, at McMaster University.

The 30m campaign began with a letter from Restore Cootes to the University Planning Committee in March 2011 requesting the fulfillment of the minimum 30m naturalized buffer mentioned in the 2002 Campus Master Plan. A ongoing series of “Ponds to Parking” history-hikes led by Restore Cootes began in December 2011, introducing dozens of students, faculty, staff and community members to the significant but degraded natural area in west campus dominated by pavement, where previously there were ponds, streams and wetland habitat.

Restore Cootes followed up with the UPC a year later (March 2012) with a repeat of the request for the 30m buffer, as well as an argument against re-paving a section of Lot M closed for three years. This second aspect of the campaign remains alive, as a group of professors have since formed a committee to seek access to this environmentally important section to create an outdoor research facility to restore the paved-over wetland.

The 30m buffer is a small but significant step toward our 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.

Over the period of the campaign to date, Restore Cootes has been joined by and drawn invaluable assistance from student volunteers at McMaster, the Hamilton Conservation Authority, the President's Advisory Committee on Cootes Paradise (PACCP), MacGreen, OPIRG McMaster, and the professors in the "McMaster Marsh" group, among others.

Restore Cootes seeks opportunities to enhance and restore natural areas on the periphery of Cootes Paradise that have been degraded or lost to development.


Comments

AuroraBorealis said…
Wonderful to hear of a responsible decision based on reason and sound logic. Congratulations to the team of folks who did the research and put together the proposal and to the team of people who listened and made the decision!
Congratulations to Randy and all~

Popular posts from this blog

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

McMaster's Parking Problem: Next Level

I'm sharing a recent article published in the Dundas Star News about McMaster's plan to build a - get this - $17-million dollar parking structure. Seventeen million. Yes, $17,000,000.00 That's a lot of money to provide temporary shelter for vehicles of people who choose to drive to campus. We will be following this closely. Here's the article.  Cootes Drive six-storey McMaster University parking garage under review Variances or amendment to zoning bylaw expected to permit parking structure Craig Campbell, Dundas Star News, Friday, March 5, 2021 Zoning bylaw variances, or amendments, could be required for a planned six-storey, 567-space McMaster University parking garage west of Cootes Drive, and north of Thorndale Crescent. University spokesperson Michelle Donavon said the $17-million structure on parking lot K at Westaway Road will help ongoing efforts to re-naturalize parts of the west campus, by moving some surface parking into the structure. “These plans will increa

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 McMaster Museum of Art (