Skip to main content

Maplewood Not Out of the Woods Yet

From the Conservation Advisory Board, to the Full Conservation Board last Thursday, and now back to the Conservation Advisory Board we go. Maplewood isn't quite dead yet. Soon, hopefully, the idea of a private school in the middle of public conservation lands will be dealt a final blow, and the natural lands will be allowed to regenerate, as suggested by HCA staff in a thorough report (that keeps getting ignored by the board)

I'm using more time than I thought I would need on this file, getting my car-less self to far flung meeting locations only to see this thing kicked around despite all the good arguments for demolition, so I'm going to borrow from the recent update from the Hamilton Naturalists Club.
Hamilton Conservation Authority Meeting: Thursday, January 16th, 7pm at Ironwood Hall, Westfield Village (follow Hwy 8 north-west through Dundas, cross Hwy 5 and continue to Kirkwall Road/RR#552 just past Rockton. Turn right and follow for 1.5km)
The Club reports that
"There has been a lot of support for the demolition of the Maplewood building in Dundas Valley in the media and at the last HCA meeting....Our own Paul Smith presented at a public meeting a couple of weeks ago and many others including the Chair of the HCA when the property was acquired in 1968. http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4270168-bulldozer-or-school-for-maplewood-hall-/
There has been a good deal of interest in the conservation community to manage this property strictly in the interest of conservation and there has been a good deal of demonstration of financial support for this course as well. I conservatively count $128,000 from private sources widely reported in the media.
If you are interested in conserving conservation areas in a natural state, or as the HCA puts it "for the demolition of the building and support for the naturalization of the site and its access" then please try and attend Thursday's meeting.   
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

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
3 comments
Read more

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...
2 comments
Read more

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...
1 comment
Read more