RESTORE COOTES

This story isn't about Cootes - but a nearby natural area - the Ancaster Councillor exhibits a less than novel argument, that old "Drive-Thru Nature" one where car access trumps environmental integrity. If you don't know this area, it is certainly just barely a road, and a very muddy rutted almost-road at that. Conservation Authority puts Dundas Valley road closure bid on hold Richard Leitner, Dundas Star News Staff, Published on Mar 13, 2009 The Hamilton Conservation Authority is delaying a request to close and acquire a 1.4- kilometre stretch of a Dundas Valley road to allow for discussions with the city on how to limit access by four-wheel-drive trucks, dumpers and bush partiers. Directors agreed to hold off on a bid to close the “badly rutted” dirt track on Martin Road after Ancaster Councillor Lloyd Ferguson implored them to consider other solutions that will maintain it as a public right-of- way. He suggested the road might be upgraded to allow one-way traffic ...

Heritage committee wants Desjardins Canal designated historical Kevin Werner, Dundas Star News Staff Published on Mar 06, 2009 Hamilton’s heritage committee has asked staff to consider designating the Desjardins Canal under the Ontario Heritage Act. “This is a landscape of concern,” said Francis Thorp-Neufield, the committee’s Dundas representative. “It was important to the (community’s) history. I think it is worth it.” Ms. Thorp-Neufield introduced the motion to have the landscape designated at the committee’s meeting last week. She said later the Desjardins Canal needs to be protected because of its historical importance the surrounding community. “This is for history reasons and to preserve the integrity of the landscape,” she said. When asked if the designation was in response to a proposal to build a storage facility in the area, she dismissed the idea. “It has nothing to do with the storage proposal,” she said. “There are buildings and landscapes in Dundas that we, as a communit...

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

Rezoning request denied TheSpec.com - Local - Rezoning request denied Owner says he's not giving up on Dundas storage plan Jackson Hayes , The Hamilton Spectator , (Feb 18, 2009) Doug Hammond's plans to build a self- storage facility in Dundas hit another speed bump yesterday as his rezoning application was denied by the economic development and planning committee. And though he anticipates another rejection when city council votes on the committee recommendation next week, he says the fight could be far from over. "This is going to fall on the taxpayer," Hammond said after the committee's unanimous vote. "The city is going to have to hire a planner ... but that...

Authority, city should swap land: Councillor TheSpec.com - BreakingNews - Authority, city should swap land: Councillor Eric McGuinness (Hamilton Spectator) Hamilton Mountain Councillor Tom Jackson suggests swapping city land for a vacant Dundas site that conservationists say is key to a potential urban eco-park that expands the Cootes Paradise nature sanctuary. He and five other directors of the Hamilton Conservation Authority voted unanimously Thursday night to oppose rezoning two hectares at King Street East and Olympic Drive for a self-storage warehouse. Their position now goes to city council’s economic development and planning committee, which will consider the rezoning application Feb. 17. The directors’ action supports a unanimous recommendation by c...

The Hamilton Naturalist Club is presenting a lecture by Stephen Bede Scharper, Monday, February 9, 2009, at the Royal Botanical Gardens, starting at 7:30pm . I include this short piece here, because it gives a taste of Scharper, but also because we need to re-examine our car habits, especially the way servicing cars destroy nature, as in Cootes Drive/Cootes Paradise. On Sacrifice, Spirituality and Silver Linings - Stephen Bede Scharper Reproduced from the Toronto Star Did you ever think of giving up your car? When I posed this question to my wife two years ago, she rolled her eyes and the bubbles above her head flashed the words “Ridiculous!” “Impossible!” “Recycling and composting are fine, Dear,” I heard her thoughts missile toward me, “but this is going way too far.” I felt like Galileo proposing a heliocentric universe to Pope Urban VIII. Suddenly, I was questioning a sacred tradition. After all, this was the way the world had been since the ancient Greeks. Wasn’t it Heraclitus w...

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...