CATCH Articles:
Karst lands still in limbo
Apr 22, 2009
The fate of eighty acres of karst lands in upper Stoney Creek remain will remain in limbo until at least November. Councillors and residents are awaiting peer reviews of technical studies done for the Ontario Realty Corporation which owns the lands and wants to sell them for development.
Brad Clark told the planning committee yesterday the reviews being prepared for the provincial Ministry of Natural Resources and the Hamilton Conservation Authority have not been released to the public. The ORC, an agency of the Ontario government, had been expected to hold a public meeting on the issue by the end of this month, but that’s been delayed.
“The ORC’s hope is to have a public meeting by June of this year, but they can’t hold the public meeting – and we’ve made this very clear to them,” explained Clark yesterday. “We don’t want a public meeting if these peer reviews aren’t made public prior to that.”
The 485-acre karst formation straddles Rymal RoadHighland Road. The ORC donated 173 acres to the conservation authority – an area that Clark and a residents' group want expanded to include 80 acres of feeder streams for the rare limestone cave and sinkhole structure. between Upper Mount Albion and Second Road West, south of
Maps in the city’s draft official plan released earlier this month show the entire karst formation as a core area in Hamilton’s natural heritage system – something that Clark says “is very nice to see”. Public comments on the draft plan are being received until the end of this month after which the final document will go to public meetings of the planning committee in June for approval.
The ORC had expected the 80 acre karst feeder area could be sold for residential development in line with city plans, but objections from karst scientists and local residents convinced council in September 2007 to ask for the lands to be donated to the Conservation Authority.
That request had a four-month deadline and temporarily put on hold a city assessment of a major new roadway through the area. The latest delays have will extend that decision deadline past the two-year mark.