Restore Cootes at McMaster's Parking Lot "M"

RESTORE COOTES Outreach Coordinator : Randy Kay Contact Info: restorecootes.blogspot.ca Phone: 905-525-9140 ext. 26026 email: dundastard@gmail.com

McMaster’s Parking Lot “M” Lose a parking lot, (re)gain a floodplain: Restore Cootes proposes a new vision for Dundas

PARKING NUMBERS

and Hamilton, one that enhances and restores natural areas on the periphery of Cootes

• 3963 parking stalls (McMaster

Paradise that have been degraded or lost to development.

McMaster’s parking lots in west campus were developed in the late 1960s for a projected parking demand that never materialized. Lost in the plan was the floodplain for Ancaster Creek, and an important Royal Botanical Garden nature sanctuary known as Coldspring Valley.

Capacity Study, April 2011) • 2803 peak parking demand (McMaster Capacity Study, April 2011) • 1,160 vacant spaces at peak • 7,057: The 1969 projected parking demand for 1980 (Revised Interim

Restore Cootes has pushed for improvements to the natural environment in this area, and

Internal Traffic and Parking Report,

this spring McMaster will be removing hundreds of parking spaces to create a 30m

June 1969)

naturalized buffer between the creek and the parking. This is a good start, but falls short of

• 27% of parking permit holders at

the potential to erase the footprint of excess parking and rehabilitate the beauty of this river

McMaster live within 4 kilometres of

valley to its more natural function: as a floodplain, as specialized habitat for at risk species, a

campus (Becker 2007)

natural system integral to the health of Cootes Paradise. McMaster researchers are

• 37% live within 5km (Becker 2007)

interested in creating an on-campus outdoor research facility here, so we are encouraging McMaster to take the next logical step to make this innovative teaching facility a reality.

RESTORE COOTES www.restorecootes.blogspot.ca!

www.facebook.com/restorecootes

RESTORE COOTES

To create parking on the floodplain,

SPECIES AT RISK in the COOTES TO

McMaster moved Ancaster Creek into a

ESCARPMENT PARK AREA (partial)

trench west of its natural channel, filled in the floodplain and obliterated the RBG Trails that wandered the varied landscape

• Blanding’s Turtle • Common Musk Turtle

of what was Coldspring Valley Nature

FUTURE PARKING? OR PARADISE? McMaster administration is being asked to make a choice for the future: keep paving for a parking supply that exceeds demand, or start planning to return this

Sanctuary (1958-1965).

• Eastern Box Turtle

natural river valley to its former function.

Such land use conversion would likely

• Eastern Fox Snake

In the process, professors at McMaster

have troubled T.B. McQuesten, the Hamilton bred politician who was heavily involved in bringing McMaster University to Hamilton in 1928. McQuesten went to great lengths to ensure “that the university would be indistinguishable from the neighbouring Royal Botanical Garden

from various disciplines such as • Eastern Milk Snake • Eastern Spiny Softshell • Jefferson Salamander • Northern Map Turtle

parkland.”

• Northern Ribbonsnake

The founding vision of a campus in

• Cerulean Warbler

harmony with nature has been eroded

• Golden-winged Warbler

over the years by land use that degrades the natural and aesthetic setting. We have reached an historic moment when we can choose to undo the damage and put people to work learning and practicing skills in rehabilitation of habitat.

Engineering, Biology, Geography, Earth Sciences, History, Philosophy and English are advocating for a section of the parking lot closed for 4 years to become phase-one of an on-campus outdoor research facility. A “MacMarsh” facility would be the first of its kind in Canada, and would benefit students and researchers interested in land use issues, habitat rehabilitation, hydrology, and more .

• Henslow’s Sparrow McMaster administration is also being • Hooded Warbler • Least Bittern • Loggerhead Shrike

asked to create a Traffic Demand Management strategy to ensure parking demand is planned and controlled into the future.

COOTES PARADISE is at the heart of Hamilton’s ecological existence, yet despite its importance, surrounding lands have been lost to incompatible developments such as Cootes Drive (1937), Chedoke Highway 403 (1965),and McMaster parking (1968): yet the turning point is at hand, as the Dundas Eco-Gateway and the Cootes to Escarpment Park project begin the process of reclaiming and rehabilitating the natural lands surrounding Cootes. Our goal is to see McMaster make a lasting contribution to the ecological recovery by phasing out parking in west campus and creating a MacMarsh research facility.

RESTORE COOTES supported by Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) McMaster!

opirg.ca