The fellow cuts a wide swath, with his generalities. The writer also has the ability to read minds… “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men….The Hammer knows”

Attacking one’s fellow citizens, requires at the very least, a well-crafted argument, otherwise, “if you can’t say something nice”… Zip it!

Up the Escarpment

Jason Leach

Finally, I saw a pile of these signs last night on Scenic Dr. The sign has pictures of ugly “commie blocks” with a cross-out line through them.

Their website does a good job of trying to take an ‘environmental’ angle and make it sound like residents want to see this area protected as some wildlife reserve. In actual fact, they want a gazillion single family homes and associated four car driveways and two car garages to be built.

Hopefully the city holds their ground and realizes the potential of such a great site overlooking the city close to downtown and easy biking access to downtown. From this location it’s about a 10-15 minute ride to Locke South and Hess Village.

Jason Leach is a youth pastor at Living Hope Christian Assembly in Hamilton. He and his wife live downtown and have two children. Jason was a founding member of the Green Berets.

The terms and conditions for the land sale were all tied up with the HHSC. I think their basic terms and conditions were — give us the money.

It’s all going to boil down to residents hammering away on the mayor, and the councillors — to make them adhere to the official city plans.

The suggestion behind the scenes is that this qualifies as ‘brownlands redevelopment’. I think the message has to be delivered loud and clear: “Nice Try!” The area is green — not brown; and should be preserved as such; especially in a sensitive area like the escarpment brow. Letting this go through carte blanche sends the message that it’s open season on escarpment development in Hamilton; and any ” schmuck with a buck” is welcomed to build whatever they want along one of the most significant natural features in the country.

The second message is that HHSC has shown very little regard or caring as to the end use of their former properties. Their fund-raising campaign is all about caring for the community; which seems contradictory at best, and hypocritical at worst, considering their callous disregard for the destruction of a significant community asset. Perhaps the citizens of Hamilton should reconsider their donations to the hospital and pause to ask; does the HHSC really care about the community? Or is their primary concern simply money?

And finally; the city’s own development guidelines all require a plan to deal with infrastructure, a cost analysis, and a “who will pay what” plan, before the development goes in. Here’s a direct excerpt from GRIDS … the official city plan for growth:

” co-ordinate the environmental assessment and land-use planning processand infrastructure planning to ensure that appropriate infrastructure capacityis in place to support planned growth;include infrastructure plans and financing plans to support intensification and growth within priority urban centres and to ensure the costs of development are borne fairly by beneficiaries; ”

So … it’s time to contact both politicians, and HHSC corporation representatives, and “hold their feet to the fire”.

Here’s a contact list:

Terry Whitehead 905 317 6001

Mayor Fred Eisenberger 905-574-FRED (3733)
Fax: (905) 546-2340 Email: mayorfred@hamilton.ca

Heres a link for all other city councilors: Click Here

Ed Swatinski City of Hamilton Traffic Czar 546 2424 xt 2066

Brenda Khes Secondary Plan file SR. Project Mgr. 546 2424 xt 1224Planning & DevelopmentDepartmentPhone: (905) 546-2424 Ext. 1224
Fax: (905) 643-7250
Email: bkhes@hamilton.ca

Bill Janssen Dev.& Real Estate Section / Planning Dept. 905 546 2424 xt 1261

Alexandra Rawling Clerks Dept. 546 2424 xt 2729 arawling@hamilton.ca

Carolynn Reid Brownfield Dev. 905 546 2424 xt 4381

Ron Marini Downtown Dev. 905 546 4222 rmarini@hamilton.ca

Mike Farrell HHSC Hospital Foundation farremic@hhsc.ca 905 522 3863

Murray Martin Pres. & CEO HHSC 905-521-2100 ext. 77964
president@hhsc.ca
Murray Glendining Exec. V.P Corporate Affairs HHSC 905 521 2100

William B. MacLeod V.P Research & Corporate Development 905 521 2100

Martin Kilian Niagara Escarpment Commission 1 800 263 1035 xt 43917

Joe Whitehead Ontario Municipal Board 416 314 7203

Ronald Starr: Deanlee Management 905 272 3780 info@deanlee.ca