Arlene VanderBeek is a friend and advocate for St Joseph’s Villa and Margaret’s Place and Councillor for Ward 13. Today Arlene gave her yearly “state of the ward” report to the club. Arlene began by thanking the club for the invitation and congratulated us for our great work in the community. She also acknowledged her pleasure in having Russ Powers rejoin Hamilton City council. She certainly appreciates the breadth of knowledge, skills, and experience that Russ brings to the chamber.

Arlene focused her report mostly on traffic in Dundas. She re-iterated that the reconstruction of the King St. hill was continuing to be “on schedule” but that means the hill is closed until Dec. 2022.
As for the bike lanes on Hatt St., these are here to stay. What is “pilot” in the project is the street car parking. If you have suggestions regarding the traffic flow on Hatt St. please sends these to Arlene now as Hatt St. is also scheduled for reconstruction.
The bike lanes will be extended to eventually run from Sydenham hill to Hatt to Baldwin, past the gas station and link to the multi-purpose path on Cootes, thereby enabling biking from rural Dundas to the west end of Hamilton.
She remarked that constituents have complained about speeding and running stop signs, and in general about more aggressive driving. To date a number of traffic calming devices have been deployed such as raised crosswalks and raised intersections, and PXO crossovers. She reminded both drivers and pedestrians to use these flashing cross walks and stop until the pedestrian is off the asphalt.

Arlene was pleased to support the urban boundary freeze by City Council and hopes the provincial government will accept this decision. However, she stated that Dundas and the entire city will now need to look at zoning reform in order to accommodate the population growth that is expected for this region over the next 30 years. She spoke of inclusionary zoning that complements existing zoning; small multiplexes that fit the neighbourhoods and provide what planners and architects call the “Missing Middle”. Freezing the urban boundary is good for saving farmland and food security, but we must be willing and ready to face the challenges created by this decision.

 

 

Lisa Anderson has been the coordinator of the Dundas B.I.A. for 9 years; previously she was the manager of the Dundas Farmers’ Market. She attended school in Dundas and Hamilton and graduated from Mohawk College.

The Downtown Dundas B.I.A. covers the businesses on King St. between Cross and John St. (north side) and Albert St.  (South side).Created in 1978, the purpose of all B.I.A.’s is the revitalization of businesses on the main street. There are 310 B.I.A.’s in Ontario. Each B.I.A. is run by a Board of Management elected from the businesses and includes the local Councillor. The businesses are assessed a levy; public buildings, residential buildings, churches and not for profits are not assessed this levy. The goal of every B.I.A. is to “make business better”.
There are ongoing beautification projects directed by the Dundas Downtown B.I.A.: in spring and summer 40 hanging baskets and 18 sidewalk planter; in fall cornstalks are erected; and in winter 57 wreaths and garlands are placed.
There is also a series of event based marketing: the “Easter Eggstravaganza”; the” Dundas International Buskerfest”; “Scarecrow Saturday and Pumpkin Walk”; and finally the “Dickens of a Christmas”.