By Pepper Parr and Walter Byj.
BURLINGTON, ON. August 8, 2013. It’s a great park, closer to Hamilton than it is to most Burlington residents, and it has a chance of being a small part of the PanAm Games when they come to town in 2015.
There was a time when Burlington looked as if it might get quite a bit of the PanAm action but some slipping and sliding on the part of city hall and a real dose of NIMBY from the west end of the city and all Burlington gets now are some practice games to watch. They will take place at City View Park.
Located at the intersection of Dundas and Kerns Road the park will have five soccer fields along with two baseball diamonds for the sporting enthusiasts with seating for approximately 1,500 spectators. In addition there would be playground areas, walking trails though the wooded area along with large open areas. Parking could accommodate 650 vehicles and a pavilion would be built for washrooms and change room facilities.
The site takes up 165 acres and will be the largest park in the city. Ireland Park is 19 acres; Central Park is 22 acres; Lowville Park is 26 acres and Sherwood Forest Park is 29 acres.
Opposition has been a part of this park’s development almost from the beginning. There was some debate over the decision to use what got called plastic grass – Astro Turf was the product name. Margaret Lindsay Holton, now a Hamilton resident, was consistently vocal on the way the park was being developed and called the decision to use artificial turf an eco-disgrace. An appeal to the Niagara Escarpment Commission reduced development to a crawl but that got settled and in went the construction equipment.
Then there was opposition to cutting down a decent stand of trees to put in maintenance sheds. BurlingtonGreen wasn’t able to convince the city to put the equipment housing somewhere else.
The idea of an additional park came to the surface in 2002 and by 2010 the city decided upon what it believed it needed and what it would take to fully complete the park – $22 million. Parts of the Bruce Trail run through the property; there are several ponds and lots of walking space at the south end of the park. There is a great view of Burlington Bay and the Skyway Bridge from the edge of the old Kerns quarry which is the southern limit.
With seating for 1500 people going in at some point – could the park become “home” for the Bandits? We could pull in some of the Hamilton traffic from that location?
beautiful park, for our generations to enjoy
I’ll still refer to it as PLASTIC PARK or the Mistake on the Escarpment.