What 30 metres looks like

View McMaster 30 M buffer between parking and creek in a larger map

This map illustrates a very rough outline of how much space a 30m buffer would look require, though more accurate measurements have been taken by OPIRG McMaster on the ground since this map was created in 2008.

The 30m naturalized buffer is to undo the damage to the creekside riparian zone when parking lots were built over a wetland. Restore Cootes has been trying to get McMaster University to act on the 30m buffer since discovering that the buffer is included in the Campus Master Plan.

The long Westaway Road that extends along the southern edge of parking to the western edge of Lot M needs to be considered as well for restoration. Cold spring-water bubbles to the surface on the slope just south of the roadway, and has been contained by culverts and pipes to prevent the formation of creeks that existed in the 1960s. The creeks were of course in the way of the parking lots being constructed in the late 1960 and early 1970s.

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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

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