By Pepper Parr
September 23, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
It’s gone
Two willow trees went first followed by the destruction of the gazebo that once sat in a small bowl of land at the east end of Spencer Smith Park.
The Gazette first reported on this last May when a city staffer quietly mentioned the plans during a Jane’s Walk put on by the Sustainability Advisory Committee,
There are some good reasons for the changes that are being made.
The old gazebo and the willow trees that used to keep it company are gone. No new Willow trees but there will be a new gazebo and a pathway carved into the park leading to it.
The bowl of land tended to collect water – and when we get rain we get a lot of it.
The Gazebo that will go up on the spring will be a little bit bigger and it will be accessible and it will be located a little to the west of where it was and set back further from the water’s edge.
There will be a new pathway leading to the gazebo.
The new gazebo – slightly larger and accessible will get put up in the Spring in that area in this photograph, upper left.
A new pathway is being cut into the park that will lead to the gazebo’s new location.
You would not know any of this had you not been a regular Gazette reader.
But there is a bigger story developing around the changes to the gazebo.
The Waterfront Hotel to the immediate east of Spencer Smith Park, currently an eight story structure will undergo a significant change if the talks underway between the city and the hotel ownership come to a positive conclusion.
The plan it to tear down the hotel and put two – perhaps three structures in place. A new hotel would be something in the order of 20 storeys – similar to what the Bridgewater condominium that is east of the Waterfront Hotel.
The thinking the Gazette last heard was for the hotel property to be re-oriented so that it looked west right down the Naval Promenade at the edge of Spence smith Park.
If all this comes about – the downtown core of Burlington will have a totally different look.
If the talks taking place come to fruition – this structure will come down and be replaced by two – perhaps three – buildings that will be south of the current Waterfront Hotel.
Add to that a dream a developer has to put two – perhaps as high as 40 storey structures – on the north side of Lakeshore Road between Brant and John Street.
For the immediate future – look for a considerably different look to the eastern end of Spencer Smith Park in the spring.
The one thing you will probably not see next Spring is any work being done on those two Windows to the Lake that were supposed to get built between Market and St. Paul.
The Market Street Window on the Lake and the St. Paul Street Window on the Lake haven’t even been started yet. What’s taking so long?
The money for those is in the bank – that came from the sale of an incredibly precious stretch of edge of lake land the city sold to property owners whose land abutted what was once public land – a dream opportunity that got away on us.
Good questions for the “saviour of our waterfront”. I think Green St. has been drop kicked off the agenda.
What about the Green Street Windows to the lake? A tender went out the Market and St.Paul windows and Bam Bam construction won the bid approx$79K. https://www.biddingo.com/*.main?toPage=landingpage/StPrivateBidResult.jsp&bidOrgId=11000013&tndrId=25359628
The agreement passed by council was Market, St.Paul and Green. Green may require some shoreline remediation that appears to be partially done as of this spring – I’d love a solid update on this.
1. What about Green St.
2. When’s the start date for Bam Bam construction to start work on the windows?
The neighbourhood fought hard for these windows – we’d like to see them completed
Some (hopefully many!) of you will recall Councillor Meed Ward’s “save our waterfront” election campaign.
Seemingly, that focus has been abandoned as well as any responsible commitment to densification (let’s call it what it is) in the downtown. The province will dictate what our downtown will look like. That’s a position that Meed Ward has defaulted to due to her lack of understanding of our need to expand the City’s tax base and create an urban landscape that takes us out of a frozen 1970’s mindset.
Sorry to see the gazebo go but the Park needs a bit of an uplift. Also unfortunate that the Windows-to-the-Lake are taking so long to put in place. Since Burlington Waterfront was very instrumental in pushing for these ‘Windows’, after their opposition to the sale of the land failed, I tried to get some information from their website. It seems that it is dormant – the lasted posted article is from July 2015 and apparently there have been no meetings since a workshop last December. Does the organization still exist? If so, what is their position to the planned developments along the Lakeshore?
Editor’s note: They sort of gave up – but they do delegate on significant issues.
Thank you for the story on the Spencer Smith Park re-design, well done and very informative!
Nancy