Comment 83314

By Meadowlands, then (Spec,1992) (anonymous) | Posted November 29, 2012 at 17:04:12 in reply to Comment 83309

Shea here,
This is a partial response to the X Guy, above, who wonders what the original plan for the Ancaster Meadowlands may have been. It's a bit geographically off-topic from AEGD and the aerofraudolis, but this July 7, 1992 Spectator article may be of interest for its own sake, since you asked:
'Last jewel' of wetlands under siege by progress
Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday, July 7, 1992 Author: ROSS LONGBOTTOM, THE SPECTATOR. See excerpts below.
Ryan may prefer that I not copy the whole article here--copyright concerns. But the Hamilton Spectator archive is available to any Hamilton Public Library card holder. Ask by phone or at a branch, or follow this from HPL's home page Discovery Tools tab; then click on Magazines & Newspapers; then click on The Hamilton Spectator title; insert your library card number. Then click on the name of the newspaper (Spectator). This is simpler than it sounds. What's NOT simpler is that the various search boxes are not immediately intuitive to use--click in the boxes to the right of the one you just tried that didn't do anything. The archive goes back to 1991 which is as far back as the Spec database archive goes.
--------------------------------
---"Conservationists hope Meadowlands ' owners might even give up the land in return for some favorable zoning elsewhere, or have the town include it as part of the land developers are required to give the town for park purposes.

The big Meadowlands subdivision will double Ancaster's population to 40,000 in the next 10 years. With its development, and the encroaching Falkirk West neighborhood in Hamilton, elimination of the natural area would leave no wilderness on Hamilton Mountain, west of King's Forest Park, or in the neighboring area of Ancaster, except a band along the brow." ...

---"There is a far better chance the area will be saved than in the 1970s, when Ancaster fought the whole Meadowlands concept.

The Ontario Municipal Board, and later the Ontario cabinet, ruled the then-owners could build, and approved the road alignments.

But today, environmental matters take precedence. A environmental assessment by the region is underway, and Ancaster has already had a study done. Ecoplans Ltd. of Waterloo has determined it to be an environmentally sensitive area worth saving.

Mr. Kelly said Meadowlands supports such concerns, but worries sometimes if the environmental pendulum has swung a little too far.

"With the advent of the environnmental issues, your land is not really your own." "

----..."(Managing partner Alec) Mr. Kelly said such requirements, while cumbersome and expensive, are part of life today. "These things are here and let's do the best with them."

Brian McHattie, conservation director for the naturalists' club, said it realizes it's hard to "play catchup" with a plan already much in place, but hopes for compromise. He argues that natural areas enhance the marketability of the area.

"The option is to design with nature."
Caption: Mike Baldwin, Spectator graphic Proposed new roads intersect the heart of a 58-hectare environmentally sensitive area //

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