Raise the Hammer

It absolutely has to stay green space! Chedoke is such a beautiful, vibrant green area --- it would be a shame if such a large, contiguous block of ready-made parkland was broken up.

Brilliant idea. I love it and yes yes yes to Gondolas.

I love this idea. Look at London Ont's Boler Mountain with their tree top Adventure: good for school fieldtrips, tourism or just something fun and active to do locally on a weekend. Not to mention spring/summer/fall job creation.

I've long wondered how a city with our geography doesn't have a zip line, tree-top suspension bridge, tubing, Mountain bike jump course etc..... Chedoke could house all of this plus golf, a destination restaurant/patio facility, trails etc......

Great ideas.

I think this is actually a bang on idea.

So like Chicopee or Boler Mountain, all the city needs to do is set some parameters (in conjunction with the Niagara Escarpment Commission, no doubt) and lease the lands to a capable and creative not-for-profit group. (Not sure how the legacy of course architect Stanley Thompson figures into it, but I'm sure that there's precedent.)

Either that or militarize it, as it was a century ago.

This is a great idea! Spot on.

I realize this isn't a popular viewpoint, but imho most of Chedoke should be developed. Think of all the discussions about intensification and then think about Chedoke.

There absolutely should be a park there. A nice park with a sledding/tubing hill and a play-structure and picnic tables and maybe a little disc golf or something. But Chedoke is like three times the size of the massive Gage Park. That's huge. You could probably fit Gage Park, Churchill Park, and Bayfront Park inside of it. You could develop most of Chedoke and still have a respectable great park.

Even if we paved all of Chedoke, it would still have greenspace being nestled under the Escarpment and two trails running through it.

I love Westdale. I love Westdale so much I want everybody to be able to live here, but unfortunately we've only got so many houses. The amenitites of Chedoke housing would be absolutely staggering:

1. Close to the planned LRT stop at Main/Longwood
2. Two trails and whatever hypothetical park is put in.
3. 403 access.
4. A stone's throw from Locke Street village.
5. Some of the best schools in the city.
6. A stone's throw from McMaster and MIP.
7. The beautiful escarpment backdrop.

Look at all the posts we have discussing the importance of intensification. This is a real opportunity for intensification - build this thing right on Studholme:

complete with the shops underneath. Put it next to our hypothetical park so nobody argues about shadows cast over existing homes. Then fill up the rest of Chedoke with those tall dense duplexes and upscale townhouses they build in places like Oakville.

Use the tremendous money from the sale to build the park and to upgrade Longwood (off-street cycle track right to King, widen intersection if necessary, etc) to handle the new traffic.

The problem is the folks in Kirkendall would rightly fight against this, because they get all the downside of increased densification and none of the upside of the money. I mean, you could offer increased bus-service (more density = more buses) and that new park, but something tells me that wouldn't exactly allay their concerns. Traffic on Aberdeen would be a mess.

Although paving greenspace doesn't sound green, this is the green thing to do. High density homes in a transit/bike-friendly area instead of sprawling out over farmlands in car-country.

Of course, I live in Westdale and not Kirkendall, and I don't golf, so it's easy for me to post this. The worst downside I'd be facing would be the construction time of whatever upgrades were done to Longwood. I'd be singing a different tune if somebody, for example, suggested doing this to the Churchill Park soccer fields.

Comment edited by Pxtl on 2015-06-18 10:55:32

Natural barriers encourage increased density. Increasing the supply of empty developable land in the lower city, when we already have a plethora of surface level parking lots and brownfields, would be counterproductive.

More than 10% of all condo units developed in Wards 1-8 between 2001 and 2012 took place in the heart of Chedoke, right on Studholme.

hamilton.ca/sites/default/files/media/browser/2015-06-09/subdivision-condo-development-hamilton-2012.pdf

Roughly half of all Ward 1 condo development in the 2001-2013 period took place in the heart of Chedoke, right on Studholme.

fairwayschedoke.ca
hamilton.ca/sites/default/files/media/browser/2015-06-09/subdivision-condo-development-ward1-2013.pdf

I go the opposite view on this. We need giant natural green spaces through the city as we densify. Gage Park, Bayfront, Chedoke, Cootes, Churchill, Gore, Eastwood, Corktown, Sam Lawrence etc.... should all be preserved and actually connected through safe, green biking/walking paths and trails. Also with direction connections to all rail trails and future trails along possible hydro corridors, waterfront etc..... New development should take place on major corridors, empty lots, one-storey slab buildings, brown fields etc.....

Well, in the meantime new development is happening in the form of 2-car garage detached homes on farmlands in flamborough and binbrook. Not that selling chedoke would stop building elsewhere.

Consider Central Park in New York City. Imagine the massive profitability of developing that land that is surrounded by one of the most densely populated regions of North America. But they don't do it because the people need that space to retreat to to get a bit of fresh air and sun. Just an interesting aside - in the 1800's before the park was established residents of NY would relax and picnic in graveyards in the absence of more appropriate green space.

The entire Golden Horseshoe as you know is now operating under the Places To Grow policy which will be increasing intensification where infrastructure currently exists. If we plow over that land we will have more houses, sure, but where will our Central Park be? The escarpment is nice but it is not a park. You can't picnic on a cliff or limestone boulders. The RBG? Maybe, but it is not very 'central'.

I would much prefer to leave that land as a simple park. Zip lines and tube rides are not for everyone, you would have to pay for it and I think they would detract from the landscape. A park with a splash pad and play structure for kids and just a lot of green space with nice big trees to relax under I think would be perfect.

Comment edited by ergopepsi on 2015-06-18 11:38:50

Absolutely, but would it need to be 3x the size of Gage Park?

Maybe not now but in 50 years future Hamiltonians would probably wish it was.

I think we should turn it into a park people could stroll through. Put pathways for bikes, strollers, etc. Lots of flower beds and gazebos. A gondola would be nice too. Create a few attractions including a tube slide, but don't turn the whole space into one activity. Maybe even a section for go-karting. Anything but golf.