Canal lands resurrection: From brownfield to green space
(Hamilton Spectator, Matthew Van Dongen, Apr 5 2013)
Walk the birthplace of the former cactus capital of Canada today and you risk doing a face-plant in the debris of history.
The famed Veldhuis greenhouses on King Street East in Dundas, once the largest exporter of prickly plants in the country, are now merely an obstacle course of cratered concrete and scattered rubble.
Wander south towards the historic Desjardins Canal and you’re in danger of slip-sliding down the muddy, eroding banks of what is now more of a bathtub than a waterway.
But the same walk next year should take you back in time.
The Hamilton Conservation Authority is overseeing a $3-million rehabilitation of the polluted brownfield into public green space — a first step in building a 1,300-hectare urban park in Hamilton. The planned eco-park between the escarpment and Cootes Paradise represents the largest effort to preserve city natural lands since the Dundas Valley was protected in the 1970s.
The rehabilitated canal property will be a “public gateway” to the valley and Cootes, said landscape architect Sandy Bell, the agency’s design and development manager. “From our perspective, ecological restoration is a key element — but so is public access and a chance to tell the story of the site.”
You should eventually be able to walk — or paddle — right into this story. A historical highlight of the project is a plan to recreate a section of wooden wall along the Desjardins Canal that once served as a watery highway into Dundas in the 1800s.
“We want it to be a public gathering place with a sort of old industrial feel, with a heavy timber deck and wood pilings in the water,” said Bell, standing on the brambly edge of the canal during a recent property tour.
It’s hard to visualize now, amid the mud, greenhouse detritus and towering power lines. The Great Western Railway killed the shipping canal by the late 1850s. Today, it is basically a recreational paddler’s path to Cootes Paradise and the harbour.
“But can you imagine having a glimpse of what (the canal) looked like a century or more ago, in its heyday?” asked Clare Crozier, chair of the Dundas museum. “I’m personally excited about it and I’m sure I’m not the only one.