Hamilton asks residents: Do you want to temporarily transform King St. into a park?
Published June 2, 2022 at 2:15 pm
The City of Hamilton is asking residents to weigh in on whether or not they’d like King Street to be transformed into a temporary park this fall.
The Open Streets pilot project would turn King Street into a Temporary Urban Linear Park from Gage Park to Gore Park.
The pilot, first brought before Hamilton’s General Issues Committee in early May, would see four kilometres of roadway transformed into additional public space that could be used for cycling, physical activity stations and small urban activations for one day on a weekend.
There will also be some opportunities for non-commercial programming from community organizations.
In the meantime, the City of Hamilton has launched an online survey through its Engage Hamilton platform in an effort to gauge the community’s support for such an endeavour.
“Hamilton has successfully run Open Streets-style events in the past, including an event on James St. N and one in Westdale,” the City of Hamilton said on its website.
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“Your input will help the City of Hamilton understand the interest in this project from local residents, and to help guide the final design of the project.”
The notion of Open Streets differs from a traditional street festival as an open street event would not involve full road closures, (the closure would impact vehicular traffic) and would allow for the remainder of the corridor to function as an open space for cycling, rollerblading, scootering, running, and walking.
This project is being conducted as a pilot, and if determined a success, could move forward with additional dates in 2023.
Residents who would like to provide their two cents via the City survey can find it on Engage Hamilton.
City staff expect to bring a draft recommendation to City Council in August with more project specifics based on the public’s feedback.
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