Being confused is expected

Image source: Owen Wager, 2019. ncsoy.org.

You may be forgiven if you are confused about Tuesday’s downtown public consultation on whether or not to pave over more farmland. There are at least four separate sources of possible confusion.

At the first level, you may not know what the acronyms mean. There are so many that planning staff included an appendix of the short forms when they explained this consultation plan to councillors last month. They list 15 of them – from MCR and GRIDS2 to LNA, PPS, RI, DGA and P2G.

And once you convert these to actual words, you may still be confused as to what they might mean. MCR, GRIDS2 and DGA are particularly key ones. The acronyms stand for Municipal Comprehensive Review, Growth Related Integrated Development Strategy Update (from GRIDS1), and Designated Greenfield Area.

But even with the acronyms spelled out, you may be forgiven if you don’t understand what they actually mean. Try comprehending “municipal comprehensive review” for example. Would you even dream that it refers to a provincially required study that municipalities must do if they want to expand their urban area to accommodate forecast population growth (such as Elfrida)? That’s set out in the PPS (Provincial Policy Statement), in case you want to know. Some of that growth could occur by RI (residential intensification) or on the DGA (designated greenfield area) which refers to vacant lands already in the urban area but not yet built upon.

To add to the confusion, planning staff got permission from council last Wednesday to add an entirely new element to the “consultation” process. Part of what you can comment about on Tuesday is how you feel about whether more than 40 separate properties scattered across the city should be converted (or not) from industrial zoning to something else.

It was just a bit rushed which may explain why the on-line staff report file is called “New Fee for Official Plan Amendment” – the title of a report from some time ago and quite different from the subject of this one.

You can get up to speed on this added piece by reviewing the 159 page report that details the city’s “employment land review”. This might be connected to where Hamilton’s population growth could be located or it might not, but since the planners have to “consult” on this, why not toss it in with the other stuff already on the table.

The “consultation” runs Tuesday from 2 pm to 4 pm in the David Braley Centre at the corner of Bay and Main (the McMaster health sciences building that replaced the former Education Centre). It’s also scheduled for 6 pm to 8 pm. And similar timed sessions will take place Thursday at Battlefield House in Stoney Creek, next Monday at the former Dundas town hall, and two days later at St. Naum of Ohrid Macedonian Orthodox Church, 1150 Stone Church Rd E.

But none of the sessions offers any actual opportunities for public discussion. There won’t be any power point or verbal presentations. No meetings where ideas might be heard or exchanged. You’re just invited to drop in, look at displays, and maybe leave your comments. At the last MCR-GRIDS2 session you got a write-in ballot on the weighty question of whether you prefer houses to be built with garages at the front or at the back.

And just in case there were still some dedicated folks out there who really wanted to have a say on how the city should grow and whether or not that means less farmland, more condo towers, or something in between (not currently offered as an option), then the October council meeting where most of this was explained was designated as a “workshop” so no citizen delegations were permitted.

There is one more option you might try: Phone: 905-546-2424 ext. 4168 or email: grids2-mcr@hamilton.ca.