Post by L Roebuck on Jul 29, 2006 9:10:36 GMT -5
Authority finally set to take ownership of geological gem that features caves, more
Richard Leitner, Mountain
(Jul 28, 2006)
It's taken nearly four years, but the province is finally poised to act on a promise to donate Stoney Creek's Eramosa Karst to the Hamilton Conservation Authority.
Ontario Realty Corp. spokesperson Jim Butticci said his agency's board of directors is expected to approve shortly the transfer of the 72-hectare geological gem to the authority after receiving an order-in-council from the McGuinty government.
The board had initially been expected to OK the transfer last week, "but that didn't happen," he said. It will now likely deal with the matter in mid to late August, he said, allowing the transfer to be finalized by the end of September.
The order-in-council comes almost four years after the land donation was first announced by former Stoney Creek MPP Brad Clark at a retirement dinner for the ex-authority general manager Ben Vanderbrug.
Created in the wake of the ice age, the 13,000-year-old Eramosa Karst features a series of caves, dry valleys and sinking streams caused by dissolving limestone. It was designated as a provincially significant area of natural and scientific interest by Mr. Clark's Conservative government in 2003.
Bruce Duncan, the conservation authority's chief administrative officer, called the area a "geological treasure" that packs a large number of karst features in a small area.
He said the authority plans to develop the site as a passive park with trails, signs and a large interpretive kiosk.
"It's a wonderful donation," Mr. Duncan said. "It preserves all of the karst's features and puts a buffer around them and protects the feeder streams coming into the karst features as well," he said.
"There's a lot of residential development in that area and it's continuing, so this will be a very large park in the middle of a largely developed area."
Plans for the site are part of a larger project to create a nine-kilometre urban trail that will run underneath the Red Hill Creek expressway and also pass through the Felkers Falls and Mount Albion conservation areas and Valley Park.
The $1.6-million project -- which the city has billed as compensation for lost habitat in the Red Hill Valley -- is one of the centrepieces of the authority's 50th anniversary celebrations in 2008.
Although hailed as the best of its kind in Ontario, the Eramosa Karst's real estate value is nominal, Mr. Butticci said.
The authority will pay $2 to seal the deal for the site, roughly bounded by Highland, Rymal and Upper Mount Albion roads and Second Road West.
Article:
www.hamiltonmountainnews.com/hmn/news/news_628891.html
Richard Leitner, Mountain
(Jul 28, 2006)
It's taken nearly four years, but the province is finally poised to act on a promise to donate Stoney Creek's Eramosa Karst to the Hamilton Conservation Authority.
Ontario Realty Corp. spokesperson Jim Butticci said his agency's board of directors is expected to approve shortly the transfer of the 72-hectare geological gem to the authority after receiving an order-in-council from the McGuinty government.
The board had initially been expected to OK the transfer last week, "but that didn't happen," he said. It will now likely deal with the matter in mid to late August, he said, allowing the transfer to be finalized by the end of September.
The order-in-council comes almost four years after the land donation was first announced by former Stoney Creek MPP Brad Clark at a retirement dinner for the ex-authority general manager Ben Vanderbrug.
Created in the wake of the ice age, the 13,000-year-old Eramosa Karst features a series of caves, dry valleys and sinking streams caused by dissolving limestone. It was designated as a provincially significant area of natural and scientific interest by Mr. Clark's Conservative government in 2003.
Bruce Duncan, the conservation authority's chief administrative officer, called the area a "geological treasure" that packs a large number of karst features in a small area.
He said the authority plans to develop the site as a passive park with trails, signs and a large interpretive kiosk.
"It's a wonderful donation," Mr. Duncan said. "It preserves all of the karst's features and puts a buffer around them and protects the feeder streams coming into the karst features as well," he said.
"There's a lot of residential development in that area and it's continuing, so this will be a very large park in the middle of a largely developed area."
Plans for the site are part of a larger project to create a nine-kilometre urban trail that will run underneath the Red Hill Creek expressway and also pass through the Felkers Falls and Mount Albion conservation areas and Valley Park.
The $1.6-million project -- which the city has billed as compensation for lost habitat in the Red Hill Valley -- is one of the centrepieces of the authority's 50th anniversary celebrations in 2008.
Although hailed as the best of its kind in Ontario, the Eramosa Karst's real estate value is nominal, Mr. Butticci said.
The authority will pay $2 to seal the deal for the site, roughly bounded by Highland, Rymal and Upper Mount Albion roads and Second Road West.
Article:
www.hamiltonmountainnews.com/hmn/news/news_628891.html