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naturalize it

Section of Parking Lot closed for installation of CSO tank:
Why bother to re-open it at all (it hasn't been needed)
"Expansion [of parking] in the West Campus would also have to take into consideration the Hamilton Conservation Authority's goal of a minimum 30 metre wide naturalized buffer zone along Ancaster Creek."

McMaster University Campus Master Plan March 2002
A Strategy for Circulation and Parking 5-3

McMaster University is still talking to the city about "the restoration" of the parking lot - we need to get back to talking about restoring the natural buffer zone between the creek and the cars. While this major project to install a combined sewer overflow was being undertaken, McMaster was forced to close the corner of the sprawling parking lot, and in the process found that there was enough capacity for parking without it.
Nobody seems aware of the line in the Campus Master Plan about the conservation goal of a 30 m buffer. (The beaver don't seem too concerned mind you: this tree was recently taken down by beaver steps from the parking lot)
The university's botched front entrance at Main Street is still getting millions in reworking to address the abundant safety problems, but down in the more remote parking west of Cootes Drive, the beaver, the hawks, the turtles and the deer need allies.
Ideally, this entire parking lot would be removed and the former wetland and trails (once owned and operated by the Royal Botanical Gardens) restored to the glorious habitat it once was. Parking lots or Wetlands, that really is the question here.
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