Rita Giulietti, spokesperson for Friends of the Eramosa Karst, said the government agency’s push to allow development on the feeder area to the immediate east and south of the geologic formation sets a bad example to private home-builders.

Both city council and the Hamilton Conservation Authority’s board of directors want the area preserved, arguing its water flows are crucial to the 73-hectare karst, a network of caves, sink holes, dry valleys and sinking streams.

Based on a commissioned 2003 report, the province donated the karst to the authority nearly three years ago and the site is now a conservation area.

But recent changes to the city’s official plan, which still require Queen’s Park’s approval, now also identify the 37-hectare feeder area for special protection.

That’s a reversal of previous city plans to allow for the type of survey the ORC favours on the land, located to the west of Second Road West between Highland and Rymal roads.

“The province needs to respect the municipality’s decision on that, and if the province doesn’t, we can never expect developers to,” Ms. Giulietti said. “They’ve got to set the example. They can’t just have policies and not live up to them.”

But ORC spokesperson Julia Sakas said the new feeder-area protections go beyond those recommended by previous city and provincial studies.

200920092009