Three layers most Dundas projects touch
- Spencer Creek. The creek flows straight through town with houses immediately adjacent, and flooding is enough of an issue that Special Policy Areas are in force. Lots near the watercourse sit in Hamilton Conservation Authority regulated territory, so grading, additions and structural work there need HCA sign-off before the City permit.
- Heritage districts. The Cross-Melville district (38 properties, By-law 90-3899) already protects part of the core, and the Melville-Park West district plan reached final draft for community review in February 2026, which would give Dundas two of the city's designated districts.
- The valley itself. Dundas sits in one of the escarpment's two ancient re-entrant valleys, which is why escarpment-edge properties here can carry Niagara Escarpment development control on top of everything else.
"Dundas is my favourite kind of complicated. The brick is local, fired in the town's own 19th-century brickyards, the streets are intact, and every second project needs one more approval than the owner expected. Know the creek map and the district boundaries and it all runs smoothly. Guess at them and you lose a season."
Mitch Fraser, owner, Ontario Contracting Co.
The housing stock, honestly
Dundas brick is the real thing: the Melville-Park West heritage study traces the neighbourhood's dominant red brick to local 19th-century brickyards, with Late Victorian, Worker's Cottage and Edwardian Classicism the prevailing styles. That means the masonry rules matter here: inside a heritage district there is no sandblasting, no high-pressure washing, and repointing must use lime-based mortar, never the hard cement mix that spalls historic brick through freeze-thaw. The full rules live in our heritage-district guide, and the pre-1960 hazards that come with stock this age, knob-and-tube wiring, plaster and rubble foundations among them, are covered in the older-home hazards breakdown.
What we build in Dundas
Sympathetic century renovations, kitchens and bathrooms inside protected shells, additions that clear both the HCA and heritage layers, and basement water management in a valley town that understands flooding. Permits run through the my.hamilton.ca POSSE portal like the rest of the city, with the Municipal Service Centre at 60 Main Street for in-person needs; the full process, fees included, is in the Hamilton permit walkthrough.