By-law 18-068 is a City of Hamilton by-law passed on March 28, 2018, and registered under municipal file number 18-068. Its primary function was to permanently close and sell a segment of unopened road allowance between Ancaster and West Flamborough, adjacent to 786 Governors Road (in what was formerly Ancaster) City of Hamilton. https://www.hamilton.ca/sites/default/files/2022-05/18-068.pdf

🧭 What the by-law does:
Closure of the road allowance
It permanently closes a portion of the unopened road allowance (Part 2, Plan 62R‑11957).
Sale of the land
The closed stretch is sold to the Estate of William Arthur Kennedy for a nominal fee of $2 City of Hamilton+4City of Hamilton+4City of Hamilton+4.
Effective date
The by-law becomes effective once it is registered with the Land Registry Office—meaning the closure and transfer happened immediately at registration in early 2018 City of Hamilton.

🎯 How this affects the Ancaster Well and its buffer zone
The Ancaster Well is housed on public conservation land in the Dundas Valley Conservation Area. Historically, the adjacent road allowance acted as a part of the buffer zone around the well. Here's why that mattered:

Building constraints: The unopened road kept private development at arm’s length from the well, helping to preserve the integrity of the water source.
Change in land use control: Once that road allowance was permanently sold, the buffer was significantly reduced. That land became private property with fewer restrictions.

💥 The core impact:
By transferring that parcel to private ownership, the by-law effectively removed municipal control over a strip of land that functioned as part of the well’s protective buffer. This change allowed the property owner to potentially use or develop the land in ways not previously possible, which could pose risks to the well's water quality—through runoff, construction, or other land uses.

Supporters of Save Our Spring have flagged this change, citing it as a key enabler of development pressures—especially when concerns over arsenic were raised—as a mechanism to justify relaxing land-use restrictions City of Hamilton+9Facebook+9conservationhamilton.ca+9.

✅ Bottom line
By-law 18-068 closed and sold a formerly municipal road allowance.
That land served as part of the protective buffer around the Ancaster Well.
Its sale weakened that buffer, making the well potentially more vulnerable to nearby private development shifts.