Last week’s settlement between the city and airport-area land owners could more than double the amount of foodland converted to urban uses since Hamilton politicians adopted a target of “no loss of agricultural land” more than two decades ago. The aerotropolis deal was unsuccessfully challenged at the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) by Environment Hamilton and Hamiltonians for Progressive Development.
Features of the settlement struck between the city and land owners affect considerably more than the 1370 acres approved for the Airport Employment Growth District (AEGD) also known as the aerotropolis. Last minute additions set out immediate or future urbanization for an additional 1540 acres.
Firstly, 80 extra acres are being immediately included in the urban boundary for institutional uses. Most envisions expansion of Redeemer University onto farmland across from its existing campus on Garner Road, and the remainder urbanizes a church property at Garner and Fiddlers Green Road.
The deal also creates three orphan islands squeezed between the existing urban boundary and the new aerotropolis lands – two along the south side of Twenty Road East, and one on the south side of Garner. These islands together comprise 311 acres and are completely cut off from other rural lands.
The owners – Silvestri Investments Inc and Twenty Road West Landowners Group – have argued for years that their properties are best suited for residential purposes – a contention that council unanimously rejected almost exactly a year ago in line with what city planners maintained for more than a decade. But the deal proposed by these owners and endorsed by council in secret session last month excludes these areas from the AEGD on the grounds that there is “insufficient information” to decide how these lands should be used.
Instead the settlement calls for inclusion of these lands in a “review of the city’s future employment, commercial, institutional, residential land needs” that scheduled to start immediately. The planner representing Silvestri Investments predicted at last week’s OMB hearing that will take 2-4 years.
The settlement reiterates the city’s commitment that “the Elfrida lands are its first priority for non-employment lands” expansion. These comprise nearly 2800 acres at the corner of Upper Centennial and Rymal which the city is trying to include in its official plan polices. The Ontario government says such bookmarking is not permitted and the issue is currently before the OMB.
A surprise addition to the AEGD settlement is the first-ever commitment of the city (in clause 14) to also include 1150 acres along Twenty Road East in future expansion plans. These are identified as “the city’s next priority for non-employment lands after the Elfrida lands”.
All of this is additional to 2800 acres of agricultural land lost to boundary expansions that have taken place since the 1993 adoption of Vision 2020 which called for “no loss of agricultural land” as one of the key features of the Region of Hamilton Wentworth’s sustainability plans.
That plan, which remains the guiding strategy for the amalgamated city, promises “to ensure Hamilton has healthy soil and water from which to produce food for our community” and “to ensure sufficient land is available to grow food for future generations.”
By the time of amalgamation, 765 acres of foodlands had been lost. That was tripled to 2305 acres by the end of 2003 with addition of the area south of Rymal where Summit Park and a Walmart-centred big box complex are now located. The Stoney Creek Urban Boundary Expansion (SCUBE) helped pushed the total over 2800 by 2011.
Seven years ago, a Vision 2020 update pointed hopefully to “a new Provincial Policy Statement which permits urban boundary expansions only after a municipal comprehensive review and a set of strict criteria are met” including “the requirement to prove that there are no remaining opportunities for growth through intensification, redevelopment and existing designated growth areas within the existing urban boundary.”
Loss of Hamilton Agricultural Lands
|
Hectares |
Acres |
|
|
1993-2000 |
310 |
766 |
|
2000-2003 |
623 |
1539 |
|
SCUBE 2007 |
162 |
400 |
|
Other 2003-2007 |
35 |
86 |
|
2007-2014 |
4 |
10 |
|
TOTAL to 2014 |
1134 |
2801 |
|
AEGD deal |
||
|
Industrial |
555 |
1371 |
|
Institutional |
32 |
79 |
|
Cumulative TOTAL |
1721 |
4251 |
|
Planned additions |
||
|
Orphan Islands |
126 |
311 |
|
Elfrida |
1130 |
2791 |
|
20 Road East |
466 |
1151 |
|
TOTAL planned |
1722 |
425 |