waterfront

Friday August 25, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday August 25, 2017

Concept Designs unveiled for Pier 8 Promenade Park?

The City of Hamilton has released the six shortlisted designs for the Pier 8 Promenade Park. The public will be able to comment on the proposals after an official unveiling is held Thursday afternoon.

The concepts, part of a contest to design the park, will be assessed by a volunteer jury that will select the winning project based on “design excellence, innovation, response to the vision and goals for the park, and community opinions.”

The six design concepts are found here. 

The winning project will be announced in late September. The jury decision-making process will be explained in a report after the winner is announced.

The park is part of the Pier 7 and 8 Urban Design Study, with the competition being funded by a $185,000 donation from the Patrick J. McNally Charitable Foundation. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Saturday July 29, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday July 29, 2017

Waterfront Trust owes City of Hamilton $325,000 in taxes

The Hamilton Waterfront Trust owes the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes.

The arms-length agency — whose mandate is helping Hamiltonians connect with their waterfront — has unpaid arrears of $325,000 from 2016 and 2017, city tax director Maria Di Santo confirmed Tuesday.

The money owed stems from two properties — $280,000 for 57 Discovery Dr., the home of waterfront restaurant Sarcoa; and $45,000 for 17-47 Discovery Dr., which includes Williams Fresh Café.

According to the city’s property inquiry tool, 2017 taxes for 57 Discovery Dr. are $176,790; and $20,670 for 17-147 Discovery Dr.

In May 2017, the trust owed an additional $164,665 in taxes and interest on 57 Discovery Dr. from 2015. That was paid by July, according to a tax certificate.

HWT executive director Werner Plessl declined comment and referred all questions to board member and Ward 2 Coun. Jason Farr.

Farr said the board directed a tax payment be made of about $175,000 about six weeks ago.

“This wouldn’t even be an issue if certain people paid their rent,” he said Tuesday.

He said the board is trying to manage its priorities, which include legal fees, maintaining their services and paying taxes.

“We are not ignoring any of them,” he said. “As a responsible councillor and board member, I feel we are living up to our fiduciary responsibility.”

The trust has racked up “many, many thousands of dollars” in “unaccounted for” legal fees, Farr said.

HWT has been locked in a $15-million legal battle that waterfront eatery Sarcoa launched against the trust and the city in late 2015 for preventing it from throwing patio parties with amplified music.

The trust began its life with a $6.3-million endowment to settle a lawsuit by the City of Hamilton that contended it hadn’t been properly compensated by the former Hamilton Harbour Commission for its share of port profits dating back decades.

But the seed money has run out and the trust’s revenues now come from capital project funding from other levels of government and sales from the various businesses that the trust operates around the western end of the harbour front.

In the past, the trust has struggled to stay out of the red. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Thursday December 20, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday December 20, 2012

Plan for Hamilton’s Randle Reef cleanup

It almost looks like a toy. The notion of putting a lid on a mass of coal tar contamination may sound odd, but it’s actually a common method for remediating these situations, says the project manager of Randle Reef.

Jonathan Gee, manager of the Great Lakes Areas of Concern division of Environment Canada, said the plan to encase the worst part of the contamination in steel has worked in numerous other places.

“This is not a brand new creation,” he said. “This is pretty well established.”

The project will see the highest concentration of coal tar — about 130,000 cubic metres — put into “a big steel box,” Gee said. The surrounding contamination — some 500,000 cubic metres — will be dredged into the containment facility, he said.

“It’s really pretty simple,” he said of the facility, which has a 200-year lifespan. “Conceptually, you build a big steel box. You fill the big steel box. Then you put a lid on the box and turn it over to an organization that will use it as a port facility and maintain it in perpetuity.”

Gee spoke with CBC Hamilton Tuesday morning when federal environment minister Peter Kent announced Ottawa’s share of the $138.9-million project. The clean up is a joint commitment between the federal and provincial governments, the Hamilton Port Authority, the cities of Hamilton and Burlington and the Halton Region. (Source: CBC News) 

 

September 29, 2007

With news of renewed demands for a new stadium to replace the old Ivor Wynne, I was looking through the archives and came across a story from almost 15 years ago. It could easily be an article written in the present:

It’s an area sorely in need of attention. The stadium search North-end catalyst?
The Hamilton Spectator – February, 03 1993

Hamilton’s search for a potential stadium or “multi-use professional sports complex,” focused on the waterfront, has advanced with city council’s decision to study possible sites in the west harborfront.

Council approved a $300,000 feasibility study, in the capital budget, to examine vacant or under-utilized industrial properties in the bayfront area west of Victoria Avenue. The study will include long-range economic, transportation and leisure plans for what’s being described as the “west harborfront precinct.”

Some eyebrows could be raised with the city’s decision to reject possible stadium sites further east, and the fact that potential alternatives in the suburban municipalities won’t be studied.

Some good arguments, however, can be made for a potential facility in the west harborfront. The area is touted as having the best potential along the bayfront, partly because of proximity to downtown. Together with the waterfront parks and marina complexes now taking shape in the west harbor, a stadium could be a catalyst for investment in a part of the city which sorely needs it.

Industrial properties east and west of Bay and north of Barton are possibilities. That would put the project close to the new Harborfront Park, the impressive new open space on the western shoreline being established on the former Lax property. We trust that in their enthusiasm for a stadium with a waterfront ambience, as developed in some American cities, the politicians don’t get the idea of attempting to put the sports project in the new park.

Alderman Terry Cooke, who first proposed a waterfront sports complex last year, says the Harborfront Park isn’t being considered as a locale. That’s good, but it would be reassuring if the new park is explicitly excluded when the study gets under way.

Any stadium in the North End raises major questions of proper access, adequate parking, and potential problems with the use of industrial lands which could be contaminated. In regard to the latter problem, Mr. Cooke sees a sports complex as one way to tackle the issue of a degraded environment head-on. He believes the future of the entire bayfront will be compromised if the problems of contaminated waste aren’t addressed.

As for an alternative locale in the suburbs, Mr. Cooke doesn’t preclude the idea. However, he suggests that if public money is involved in the project, there’s a stronger case for spending it in the west harborfront than in the suburbs. His perspective could make for interesting debate at the region.

While a new stadium has long been seen as inevitable in ensuring a better future for the Tiger-Cats and other professional sports franchises in Hamilton, the right place for the facility is another question.