There is growing opposition to the city’s attempt to urbanize over 1200 hectares of farmland and creek headwaters in the Elfrida area of upper Stoney Creek. Both local councillors are expressing concerns, Environment Hamilton is organizing opposition, and new provincial rules are making it more difficult to proceed with plans to put 80,000 people on rural lands east and south of the intersection of Rymal and Upper Centennial (map).
Developers who own lands further west also want to derail the Elfrida plans in order to increase the chances that their aerotropolis area properties will be first in line for urban expansion. In a September letter to council they argued that new provincial mapping designates the Elfrida as a prime agricultural area.
“The Provincial Policy Statement specifically states growth cannot be allocated to a prime agricultural area unless there are no reasonable alternatives on lower priority agricultural lands”, argues the letter on behalf of the Twenty Road West Landowners Association. It also points out that the province rejected the city’s official plan designation of Elfrida as a “future growth area” – an issue still before the Ontario Municipal Board.
Partly in response to that letter, Glanbrook councillor Brenda Johnson extracted an admission from city planning staff that approval for the Elfrida plans has not been obtained from the OMB. That’s despite several million already having been spent on consultants as the city tries to finalize a secondary plan for the area.
“We’ve started the studies already, but in theory the OMB could pull back just like they did for the AEGD lands and say you have way too much land here, you need to pull it back,” declared Johnson. “So it’s almost like we’ve got everybody jump starting and they’re going through this race and there may not even be a finish line.”
Johnson’s concern about “way too much land” highlights that the decision to use the rural Elfrida area for suburban growth is now nearly 15 years old. City planners committed to it before the province established the Greenbelt and started pushing for more cost-efficient intensification in built-up areas that already have roads, pipes and other public infrastructure.
Rules now in place require greenfield sites like Elfrida to support at least 80 jobs or residents per hectare, so the lands originally expected to be much lower density now could accommodate a city the size of Peterborough. Those changes are being cited by Brad Clark who has just reclaimed ward nine from Doug Conley in the recent municipal election. Clark also points to upgraded provincial rules that now require at least half of the city’s growth to take place within already built-up areas rather than on greenfields like Elfrida.
Citizens’ group Environment Hamilton has long opposed conversion of rural lands to more urban sprawl. Its current “Mind How You Grow” project focuses on protecting and expanding the Greenbelt and how that connects to decisions like Elfrida.
“A resilient Greenbelt is not possible without effective urban growth management,” argues the group. “It is urgent that community members become more informed and engaged in dialogue about how Hamilton is evolving and growing.”
It recently held a “Not Your Normal Nature Hike” along the escarpment rail trail with the Tenant Solidarity Network that focused on smart growth measures, provision of social housing, and the density bonusing opportunities open to the city in connection with the LRT. The group also contends that agricultural land is becoming more crucial for food security as climate change gets worse.
Elfrida along with the city growth study being used to justify another urban boundary expansion are the subject of open houses on Tuesday November 13 at the new McMaster health sciences centre at the corner of Main and Bay streets from 2-4 pm and 6-8 pm. These are being repeated the following week in Marritt Hall in the Ancaster Fair Grounds and at Heritage Green Baptist Church in upper Stoney Creek.