Clearing the air over sale of Chedoke brow lands

Mark Newman, Mountain

(Oct 26, 2007)

Neighbours group meets with CHC officials

They weren’t able to stop the sale of the brow lands, but a group of Chedoke area residents came away with a better understanding of what the Chedoke Health Corporation does after a meeting with some CHC board members earlier this month.

“It was information gathering on our part,” said Barry Colbert, one of the four residents who attended the meeting along with Ward 8 councillor Terry Whitehead.

The Oct. 11 meeting at the Hamilton Yacht Club was organized by CHC planner Don May at Mr. Whitehead’s request.

Some west Mountain residents wanted to question CHC officials about the sale last spring of the 9.6 hectare (24 acre) brow lands to a Mississauga firm that is looking to build 750 condominium units on the property.

Chedoke Health Corporation president Paul Southall was one of three CHC officials, along with Mr. May, who attended the meeting.

Mr. Colbert said the residents were told the sale of the brow lands had been talked about by the CHC for more than a decade.

“Part of what they were telling us…they’ve been talking about this (land sale) for 16 years and they’ve been notifying the city and the community that something is going to happen to this land and it’s only recently that there’s been a real groundswell of opposition around it,” Mr. Colbert said. “What they said was it is out of our hands now, it’s up to you and the city and the developer.”

Mr. Colbert said the issue of a covenant in the 1935 sale of some of the brow land from the landowners to the Hamilton Health Association (forerunner of the CHC) that restricts future use of the property to parkland or for residential purposes was also discussed.

But the west Mountain resident doesn’t put much stock in the covenant.

“We’re all living here now and in 100 years there’s going to be a bunch of other people living here and I don’t think I should be able to control things from the grave and I don’t think other people should be doing that either, it should be us as a community who are here now and try to decide what do we want to do with the land,” Mr. Colbert said.

The CHC and Deanlee Management, who purchased the brow lands, have stated previously they feel the restriction no longer applies because covenants expire after 40 years.

Mr. Colbert said he found the meeting to be useful for getting information, adding he did not go into the discussion expecting they were going to get the CHC to reverse the decision to sell the brow lands.

Mr. May said the two sides had a frank and open discussion for more than an hour.

“I think the telling part was at the end where everybody shook hands,” he said.

Mr. May said some of the residents were relatively new to the area and did not know much about the CHC’s mandate to help provide funding for healthcare programs in the community through land sales or of the previous consultations the organization has had with the community.

“For 12 years we’ve been saying the brow land would be sold,” said Mr. May, who noted many of the healthcare programs they support at other hospitals in Hamilton were once offered at Chedoke.