🆕 UPDATE -- Getting Unstuck In Park: Shifting Gears for Broughton East Park

UPDATE (November 4, 2025)

RE: BROUGHTON EAST PARK STATUS UPDATE

To My Broughton East Community Members,

As the fight for ownership of the Broughton East Park lands continues, I can appreciate the growing frustration from my Broughton East community members, as I too share the same frustration with this long, ongoing file. I have been persistently working for over a decade with City staff and French School Boards, to push for the land exchange between the City, the French Boards, and now the Developer Paul Silvestri (Silvestri Developments).

To recap the most recent events, Paul Silvestri has sold 14 acres of his property at 700 Garner Road East to the City of Hamilton, for which I forcefully advocated. This will eventually lead to the land exchange between the French Board-owned Broughton East Park, and the City owned site at 700 Garner Road East. City staff were expecting to receive the developer’s submission in early April 2025, which meant the draft plan of the subdivision was expected to come to the Planning Committee on July 8, 2025. Unfortunately, the developer’s submission was not received by the City until April 30, 2025.

To provide sufficient time to review the submission, formulate draft plan conditions, and prepare their report to the Planning Committee, the Planning Department staff selected the revised date of July 29, 2025 for the report to come to Planning Committee. This staff report to finalize the tri-party agreement for the land exchange was heard and debated that day, however, unfortunately the decision was deferred to the September 9 Planning Committee meeting. It was then again postponed to the October 21, 2025 meeting, at the request of the City’s Planning Department. The new anticipated date for the staff report to be at the Planning Committee is November 14, 2025.

I will be attending the meeting on November 14 to provide my full support for the City Staff report that will be recommending approval for the Silvestri Development at 700 Garner Road. In addition, I will be further assisting with any necessary permits required for the Mon Avenir/Viamonde French Board’s School to move forward and start construction. I continue to communicate regularly with the new General Manager of Planning, Arvin Prasad, the Francophone Community and Silvestri Developments, to resolve the last three outstanding issues before the land exchange can happen: 1) drainage costs, 2) grading costs, and 3) preservation of wetlands.

Once Broughton East Park (BEP) lands are officially owned by the City of Hamilton, I will call for a Town Hall meeting to establish a Broughton East Park Redevelopment Committee. This will provide an outlet for community members to share their input on what to include in the new 9.5 acre park. I know the original 12 member Broughton East Park Citizen Committee (that led the 400 named petition back in 2014 to save and preserve the green space) will be interested in continuing their volunteer participation. Currently there is approximately $500,000 set aside between the Parks Department budget and my Ward 6 Area Rating Reserve Fund to design and carry out the new park redevelopment. My goal for working with the Broughton Community will hopefully produce a spectacular outcome similar to the two recent park redevelopments in Ward 6 at Hampton Park (Summer 2025) and Eleanor Park (Summer 2022).

I will continue to do everything in my power to keep the momentum going strong, even if additional funding from my Ward 6 Area Rating Reserve is required. Your enormous patience is much appreciated and thank you for your continued advocacy for this community.

Should you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact my office at [email protected] or (905) 546-2707.

=======================================================

UPDATE -- For the most recent update, please click on the link below to watch a video snippet from a recent Planning Committee Meeting (Tuesday, July 29):

https://www.youtube.com/embed/UpcWiz-OBzQ?start=10832&end=11445

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the inception of the Broughton East neighbourhood in the late 1980s, a 9.5-acre parcel of land southwest of Grayrocks Avenue and east of Ashridge Place was designated as a future Hamilton Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) site. From then to 2014, when it was apparent the land would not be used for its intended purpose – and before HWDSB declared it as surplus – community volunteers, the Ward 6 Office, and the City of Hamilton collaborated to fundraise for park amenities. Although transitioning to a park was unofficial, it was done in good faith between the City and HWDSB. In 2014, the City was unable to buy the land from HWDSB since the Ontario Education Act gave purchasing priority to the Conseil Scolaire Catholique MonAvenir of the French Catholic School Board (FCSB). Undeterred, the political action and hard work of the community – including a petition with over 400 names – resulted in negotiations between the City and the FCSB with the aim of finding an alternate FCBS site to preserve Broughton East Park (BEP). In the fall of 2023, the City entered a tri-party agreement with the FCSB and a land developer in Ancaster that would see a land swap for a future FCSB school in Ancaster, leaving BEP to be City-owned. This has been an 11-year journey for which my office has fought to protect your open space area and park amenities from becoming a 3-storey school with a massive parking lot and a regular presence of school busses. My office, in conjunction with your volunteer BEP Citizens Committee (co-chaired by Josie Cosco and Dianne Brunetti) fought to preserve the green space for generations to come. Last term, I convinced Council to purchase the alternate 14-acre site at 700 Garner Road in Ancaster. On June 4, 2024, then-former Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce, approved the land swap between the City and the FCSB.Since then, however, the City has been caught in the middle of a legal matter between the Ancaster developer and the FCSB involving the Garner Road site. Recently, I hosted a meeting at City Hall with all parties to resolve outstanding matters. Meanwhile, I wish to assure beyond any doubt that BEP will be owned by you – the taxpayer and residents of Broughton – someday soon. Between my Ward 6 financial reserves and the City’s Parks Department, $500,000 has been earmarked for BEP revitalization including the replacement of the nearly 30-year-old amenities with modern equipment.