Raise the Hammer

Sheri:

Your article raises a number of valid questions that are difficult for Hamiltonians to assess at this time due to the lack of public disclosure on the apparent amended plans to commercially develop the Barton-Tiffany lands:

My opinion was that the following approach would have been a good one:

1. Build the Pan Am stadium and velodrome on the Barton-Tiffany brownfield. Given that the stadium would probably only be used to its maximum capacity less than 30 days per year, the neighbourhood would have been able to function “as is” for the remaining 335 days or more of each year;

2. Create an impressive, contiguous urban park owned and accessible by all Hamiltonians in perpetuity from the south end of Central Park (at Cannon and Caroline Streets) through Pan Am Park and eventually connected to Bayfront Park by a pedestrian bridge/green roof over the railway lines;

3. Once there was a sense that the waterfront and downtown were connected by the public park, it would make residential intensification more attractive in the area bounded by Cannon and Main and Bay to Queen Streets and the city could have prioritized this goal. This would have allowed the neighbourhood near Barton-Tiffany to continue applying the Setting Sails concept and keep the residential development at a more moderate level of intensity than that of the area south of Central Park;

4. The residential intensification in the Cannon-Main-Bay-Queen area of downtown would have eventually benefited the new stadium, the Hamilton Farmers’ Market, Jackson Square, Copps Coliseum and the downtown commercial district in general.

Steps 1 and 2 could have been accomplished within the next four years. Of course, now that city council has all but “sealed the deal” on building the stadium at the Ivor Wynne Stadium site, it remains to be seen what use will be made of the Barton-Tiffany lands, how long it will take to develop, and, if it becomes a box store, how it will impact upon the neighbourhood as well as the downtown commercial area.

Comment edited by RenaissanceWatcher on 2011-09-12 07:55:17