The planning proposal for 1065 Paramount Drive in Stoney Creek, Ontario presented by @IBIGroup has left our community in an uproar. From what I can see the values listed on the Arcadis | IBI Group  website appear to be bogus and four of the six values listed should be deleted entirely.

Integrity – We do what is right

Nothing about the proposal submitted by John Ariens @IBIGroup is right for our community. In the largest neighbourhood meeting in his 40+ year career over 250 residents jammed the local meeting hall to let him know under no uncertain terms that we are unanimously opposed to a High-Density Urban development being jammed into the middle of our Low-Density 40+ year old neighbourhood. During our second neighbourhood meeting John Ariens said repeatedly that the traffic study was done and that we could have it the next day. He didn’t want to give it to us before the meeting for some incredibly vague reasons. When the next day came he emailed us stating that it wasn’t ready and needed to be revised. We still haven’t received it. John Ariens is putting a High-Density Urban development in the middle of a Low-Density Suburb, which is in complete opposition to generally accepted Urban Planning Guidelines which state that any High-Density developments should be on the periphery. Our community is already suffering greatly from over-development with terribly congested roads but John Ariens told us that Parking and Traffic would take care of themselves. Unfortunately John Ariens didn’t do his homework because ours is a Suburb, a bedroom community in which 97% of our residents drive to work. Which begs the question: Why is an URBAN planner  entering into a SUBURB? None of the High-Density arguments presented by John Ariens pertain to our community. We don’t transit, walk or bike to work. The proposal is woefully inadequate in terms of parking spots and green space. Almost every household in our community has at least two cars and only 2% of residents actually use transit because it takes forever to get anywhere.

Partnerships – We work together

Although we heard a lot of talk from John Ariens about wanting to hear our input and make this a made in Hamilton plan he completely ignored our concerns and came back with a second proposal that actually increased the density of residential units further (this could be listed above under ‘Integrity’ too). Either this was meant as an incredibly disrespectful gesture to our community or John Ariens simply doesn’t care about our community at all. Not much a partnership here. From where we stand Arcadis | IBI Group is not a partner that we want and is not welcome in our neighbourhood.

Excellence – We pursue design excellence

The concept drawings of the townhouses and apartment building are some of the ugliest I’ve seen. They look like flat army barracks with no design effort at all. 

Community – We build community.

The planning proposal submitted by Arcadis | IBI Group is tearing our community apart. Many of the long-time residents who invested their life savings here 40+ years ago are talking of moving because of this. It’s no longer the type of community we planned to retire in. The stress and anxiety created by the proposal submitted by John Ariens in our community is unforgiveable.

Personally, I think Arcadis | IBI Group should re-write their values because it certainly isn’t living up to them.