[SteelTown]

North End gating plan too exclusive: architect

September 09, 2008
Eric McGuinness
The Hamilton Spectator

Architect Bill Curran, who lives on Macauley Street, says some of his neighbours want to turn the North End into a gated community and make the waterfront their exclusive domain.

He expressed that provocative view to city council's public works committee yesterday in objecting to elements of a two-year, traffic-calming pilot project that would impose a speed limit of 30 kilometres an hour on most North End Hamilton streets. It would also stop traffic going any further toward the water on Bay Street North. The suggested cutoff point would be at Burlington Street West.

Project manager Justin Readman said it might be the first neighbourhood-wide, 30-km/h limit in Canada. He cited several European cities with similar limits in downtown areas, but said he could find none in this country.

Members of the North End Neighbourhood Association, which has been pushing to slow cars and keep through traffic out, sent a letter asking to make a presentation next Monday, when the works committee will decide what to recommend to council.

Curran, who is chair of the Hamilton-Burlington Society of Architects, said the neighbourhood association doesn't speak for all residents, that closing eight of 14 entry points to the neighbourhood goes against good planning principles and that not all the proposed road closings are necessary.

To stop speeding, he said, "Residents around me feel enforcement is needed."

John Dolbec, chief executive officer of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, which has its offices and meeting space in the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club building at the foot of Bay Street North, said the organization doesn't mind traffic calming on side streets, but "streets that are access points for the waterfront should be exempted."

He said making the north end of Bay one-way southbound would shelter six houses while diverting traffic past 24 on MacNab and Burlington streets.

"We are more concerned about restricting access on Bay with the 30 km/h limit and one-way. I don't see a lot of rationale for that that makes sense. The restrictions on Bay are something of overkill."

Readman said signage would be improved to direct traffic from Highway 403 to the bayfront, and Bay Street would remain two-way with a 50 km/h limit to Strachan Street and the entrance to Bayfront Park.

East Mountain Councillor Tom Jackson said, he too, had concerns about Bay Street, and Ancaster Councillor Lloyd Ferguson said, "I tried doing 30 this morning and it was tough; I'm really having reservations about that."