Comment 33363

By realitycheck (anonymous) | Posted September 10, 2009 at 22:13:54

It may be in order to tone down the rhetoric. No one posting here has seen the p roposal for the former Connaught. the only description we have to go by is a couple paragraphs in an motion to apply for funding for six projects that would contain subsidized housing in Hamilton.

What we do know is that the Connaught proposal is not to turn it into a multi-storey ghetto. Of the 206 rental units proposed for the building, only half will be subsidized housing. And by subsidized, we are talking rates at 80% of the market value - certainly not the welfare flophouse rates some are trying to portray here. The other half will be market-value rental units. There is also an allotment of 20,000 suare feet of commercial space, presumably some main floor retail and a couple floors office space. There is also some allowance to introduce a small scale hotel to the site when market conditions support that use. In short, this is really a high density multi-purpose infill proposal, exactly what is being called for in the core.

Whether or not a multi-purpose redevelopment of the Connaught is appropriate for this building specifically is a reasonable debate. However, the hysterical cries of ghettoization a over the top and unwarranted. I suspect that most of this opposition is brought on by who is making the proposal and not necessarily the contents of the proposal itself.

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