Thank you for your comments and suggestions on redevelopment of our 85 Holton Ave. S. campus. Our team has reviewed the results of our community engagement to date. The most recent results can be reviewed below — June 19 2021
Summary-of-June-10-Town-Hall-FindingsHere are the questions posed during the June 10 Town Halls and the panel’s answers:
Q-and-A-from-the-June-10-Town-HallsHere is a comparison table of the studies that our development partner United Property Resource Corporation prepared for the June 10 virtual Town Halls.
Comparison-of-Studies-with-LegendBelow are the lead paragraphs and a link to a Hamilton Spectator report (June 12 2021) on the Town Hall forums on June 10, 2021 that gives a summary of the redevelopment studies done to date. More information on which to base your comments and suggestions is available at www.85HoltonAve.com
“A condo tower of up to 25 storeys — and no affordable units — is what it would take to restore St. Giles United Church, once on the path to destruction.
“But the team behind a plan to redevelop the site of the former church at 85 Holton Ave. S. says it doesn’t want the condos.
‘Our goal here is to build safe, stable housing for all,’ Tim Blair, CEO of the United Property Resource Corporation (UPRC), told a virtual forum Thursday.”
Click through this 5 page overview of the June 10th presentations:
Three-Studies-OverviewNew Vision United Church and The United Property Resource Corporation are working with Ward 3 Councillor Nrinder Nann to continue community consultation on New Vision’s campus at 85 Holton Ave. S. and come back to the City of Hamilton Planning Committee.
Joachim Brower writes in the Hamilton Spectator on May 17 that “A now too often repeated term about St. Giles “working class heritage” begs explanation and correction. Hamilton’s King Street is topographical feature of great antiquity and importance.” “Will the Real St. Giles Working Class Please Stand Up?” Brower is the founder of the Gibson-Landsdale (GALA) Heritage Action Team.
Hamilton Spectator columnist Mark McNeil on May 18 2021 writes, ‘Clearly old churches have big problems staying open. And finding an afterlife for ones that close down is not easy.’ “Crumbling Heritage and Declining Congregations — the Challenge of Hamilton’s Old Churches”
Broadview Magazine’s web editor Emma Prestwich published “Inside the Tug of War over St. Giles” under her own handle on April 23, 2021. She writes that Dixon Challoner, chair of New Vision’s Church Council,
“says the congregation would love to see the church preserved if the plan wouldn’t compromise the affordability of planned housing and would be appropriate for the neighbourhood.
‘It’s not as if anyone at New Vision has any sort of antipathy towards the current building, the St. Giles building, it’s not like we want to take it down,’ he says. ‘Obviously, we would be thrilled.’”
Two New Vision Threshold Partners, Jennifer Hompath and Miriam Spires, share thoughts behind New Vision’s redevelopment plans for our Holton Ave. S. campus in this opinion piece published by the Hamilton Spectator on Saturday, April 17 2021.
UPRC-Media-Statement-April-14-FINAL New-Vision-United-Church-Statement-on-Holton-Ave-13-Apr-2021-Final