Let's sprinkle some Conjecture Dust, shall we?

I tend to be the sort of person who sees more good and capability and potential in a person than is sometimes there. False optimism? Maybe. A personality flaw? Hmm... Perhaps I have so profound a faith in the human spirit, in what people are able to accomplish –if what needs to be sorted in them, is in fact, sorted– that I often let this faith overcome common sense.

Fer instance?

Al Merlo's Battlefield Park Clear-cut.

If you review the posts on this blog, you'll see that from the start, I've been willing to give generously to that charitable cause known as 'The Benefit of the Doubt'. This didn't attenuate my anger at it all. But I reserved a tiny smidgen of chance that maybe his intentions were good, that it was less ill-intent we were witnessing than misguidance of landscape husbandry.

Others close to me, intimate parties to 'the unfoldings' were far more harsh in their presumptions than I was. I won't relate precisely what they said, but essentially, it went something like this:

"If if walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, does Aflack commercials..."

Because the land was clear-cut.

Which is what you do when you're preparing to develop.

Otherwise, why would you desecrate a lovely chunk of Nature?

At your considerable expense.

Hence... Hence the Aflack-factor.

But...but...

But there's no access. The only reason Mr. Merlo was able to get his destructor-vehicle on the property was because of the way the Centennial overpass was constructed, its undercarriage-wise; if it had been more like the south side, it probably couldn't have been executed. (See above photo.) So the idea of 'development' just made no sense at all...so I was inclined to believe the statement he'd given the Stoney Creek News. (Please see this post.)

(I'm no historian, so I have no idea what Mr. Merlo's family, the one that purportedly farmed the land, did regarding access. I'm still scratching my head over this one. I'd love to do a simple title search, to put the puzzle pieces together for all the area lands...but I live in threadbare times, so I'm afraid that the fees are beyond my means. But if any of this blog's readers is better equipped to take on this assignment, please get in touch: mystoneycreek@gmail.com)

Only now, thanks to reader 'Cassandra', another picture entirely is being painted.

Hence the Conjecture Dust.

And me so as I toss a generous handful into the air above my head, putting away all the pragmatism and cogency I habitually walk around with, it sure appears to me...as I type with Conjecture Dust settling all about me, in my hair, on my shoulders, on the tips of my nose and eyelashes...a Conjecture Spell is cast. Resulting in...

Mr. Merlo has designs on getting his slice of the development pie.

He owns an amazing piece of property.

And he wants to build something of value on it.

To turn a tidy profit.

Presumably by way of some kind of housing.

You know, like this (enlarge for best effect):

View Larger Map

Except that in this location, it would obviously be far more exclusive.

And according to Cassandra's comment, he has designs on access via Alba Road, the neighbourhood street east of his property. Here is the junction of Alba and Battlefield:

View Larger Map

Which means, of course-

ACHOO!

Sorry; all that Dust...some went up my nose...

Which means he'd have to have intentions of ravaging Battlefield Creek, either by constructing a bridge...or by constructing a bridge. To here:

Except that...

-shakes head, makes one of those noises cartoon dogs make when they flap their flews, raising themselves out of a stupor-

(I think I might be getting a migraine from that Dust...) Except that not in a kajillion years can Al Merlo do any such thing with that land.

Remember, it's zoned 'OS-3'. For the sake of those who are just getting to the party:

"...those lands zoned "OS-3" by this By-law shall only be used for uses existing at the date of the passing of this By-law, natural forests, wildlife conservation areas, hiking trails, nature viewing areas, passive public parks, archaeological uses, watershed management uses, flood and erosions control uses, transportation and utility uses and uses accessory and incidental thereto."

Never mind the fact that, not to put too fine a point on it, the people of Stoney Creek wouldn't allow it to happen. (Which has me pondering the Public Relations cost of this travesty on Merlo Electric Inc down the road. If things aren't percolating already in certain quarters. Which I happen to know for a fact, they are.)

There's as much chance of Mr. Merlo getting his way (as described in the details of our Conjecture Dust dalliance) as there is me giving birth in the middle of that field in nine months. It just...ain't...gonna...happen.

(Having written all the above, I've taken a better look at the maps...and his property doesn't access Alba Street in the way it would have to, even if he were sufficiently deluded to want to attempt such an undertaking. That land belongs to Battlefield Park. Here, I approximate the classic Bill The Cat 'raspberry' sound: "Thbbbt!")

In a very quiet moment not too long ago, when nothing at all was known about what-was-going-on and I was trying to find some semblance of method to the madness, I muttered to a friend 'This person is either really, really stoopid...or really, really arrogant.'

And as I deal with this pounding in my head, I'm wondering about the possibility that 'It doesn't have to be a case of one or the other, you know; sometimes when two possibilities present themselves...it can be both.'