Skip to main content

No plan for this place?

Two weeks ago, Restore Cootes was asking "How well thought out is this plan?" to put a Velodrome on Olympic Park. The question was mostly rhetorical, and our concern is borne out in this latest news from the Dundas Star.

Zoning and soil do not support velodrome at Olympic Park, say city, RBG officials

Craig Campbell, Dundas Star News Staff

Published on Jun 03, 2010

Olympic Sports Park is on top of a former landfill and not capable of supporting a building, according to one conservation expert.

City of Hamilton planning staff would not elaborate on the comment made by Tys Theysmeyer, head of conservation and natural lands for the Royal Botanical Gardens, which owns property not far from the Olympic Drive natural area. But according to the city’s planning department, the property’s zoning only permits outdoor recreation.

The National Cycling Centre of Hamilton says a feasibility study it completed on building a cycling velodrome in the city concluded the Dundas park, currently home to soccer fields and a baseball diamond, is the best possible location for such a facility.

Now the NCC is suggesting the City of Hamilton relocate a Pan Am velodrome from its planned location next to a stadium at the west harbour to the Olympic Drive site.

“Number one, the area is a landfill and thus not capable of supporting a building as is,” Theysmeyer said. “Aside from that, there would be a collection of standard topics for discussion relating to site design, lighting, building footprint, traffic patterns, stormwater management and sensitive species.”

There is currently no official proposal or application to actually put a velodrome or anything else on the Olympic Drive site.

Tourism Hamilton’s David Adames has previously noted Pan Am organizers have chosen a velodrome site, and a very convincing rationale would have to come forward to change the plan.

Meanwhile, the Hamilton Conservation Authority has no information on the Olympic Drive property itself, and watershed officer Darren Kenny said the HCA only has regulatory authority over the southwest portion of the property.
“The regulated area corresponds to the erosion hazard associated with the steep ravine banks along Lake Jojo. We have no floodplain identified with this property,” Kenny said.

Community park zoning Although NCC chair Andrew Iler and other supporters of a velodrome at Olympic Park suggest the property is zoned recreational and would not need to be changed for an indoor cycling facility, city planning department spokesperson Debbie Spence said the property actually has a community park zoning, with a permitted passive recreation use.

The zoning only allows “activities that involve relatively unorganized recreational pursuits, generally in the outdoors, such as walking, sitting and picnicking.”

In addition, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment would require an environmental assessment and record of site condition before the existing land use at the park were to change.

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

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 (

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