Twenty Road West urban boundary expansion

What’s happening: Forced urban boundary expansion by the Twenty Road West landowners consortium at the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT).

Speculators and their agent Corbett Land Strategies Inc have appealed to the OLT under Doug Ford’s new Bill 185 “Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, 2024” to try to force the City of Hamilton to expand our urban boundary, despite the unanimous 2023 Council decision and massive public support for a firm urban boundary. Hamilton has chosen to build a mix of housing types and price points close to jobs, transit and amenities, inside our current urban boundary.

Who: Land speculators (in yellow above) are trying to force sprawl onto Hamilton farmland.

Where: Ward 11 properties between Glancaster Road, Twenty Road W, Upper James, Dickenson Road.

Why:

  • 2021: 16,000 Hamiltonians write to City Council who in turn vote for NO urban boundary expansion.

  • 2022: The Provincial Conservatives under Mr. Ford, reverse Hamilton Council’s decision, expand our urban boundary in four different locations in rural Hamilton by over 4500 acres and remove 200 acres of Hamilton Greenbelt on the same day.

  • 2023: After intense public pressure Mr. Ford reverses the urban expansion and Greenbelt grab, restoring Hamilton’s urban boundary.

  • 2024: In June, the Province pushes through new Bill 185 “Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, 2024” which grants land speculators the new ability to appeal to the OLT to try to overturn Hamilton’s decision for a firm urban boundary. Twenty Road West is one such appeal.

Read more in the Hamilton Spectator: Hamilton urban boundary battle heads to provincial tribunal

What you can do:

  • Email a message and SHOW UP to the virtual OLT meetings and the final hearing! Details below on how to register.

  • If you live in Ward 11 where the Twenty Road farmland is located please write to your Councillor Mark.Tadeson@hamilton.ca to affirm that you live in Ward 11 and do NOT support urban expansion.

How to send your message and attend the OLT hearings

This is a city-wide issue so anyone and everyone can and should send a message and register to become a Participant at the OLT, and it is easy to do as hearings are virtual, so please encourage friends and neighbours to also sign up.

Fill out the Participant request and statement form.

  1. Case number: OLT-24-000748

  2. Date: October 3, 2024

  3. Include your contact info

  4. Type your comments against urban expansion in the box or email them in a separate document. When you’re done hit “save” and email the form and your comments to the Case Manager at this contact: Azeem.Patel3@ontario.ca

You will then be sent a link that allows you to join the online meetings. Please feel free to share it with everyone you know and encourage them to also show up!

There may be several meetings before the actual hearing date so please attend them all to keep the pressure up.

Follow the status of the case HERE

Online meeting link for Thursday October 3, 2024:      https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/442599157 Passcode: 442-599-157

Talking points for your Statement:

-In June 2021 the City of Hamilton conducted a survey on whether or not to expand our urban boundary. This led to the largest public response in Hamilton’s history with residents voting overwhelmingly for the “No Urban Boundary Expansion” option which was selected by 16,636 out of a total 18,387 (90.4%) of all respondents.

-As a result, Council voted to freeze our urban boundary and shortly after approved zoning changes which permit more density within all neighbourhoods in Hamilton, including fourplexes as-of-right, through the Re-imaging Neighbourhoods Residential Zones Project.

- Thanks to the desire to build a mix of housing types, sizes and price points within the urban boundary, housing approvals in Hamilton have skyrocketed. In March 2024, the Province of Ontario recognized the City of Hamilton for exceeding the 2023 provincial housing target, with 120 per cent of the target achieved in 2023 all within a firm urban boundary. As a result, the City received $17,587,390 in funding through the Province's Building Faster Fund.

-Hamilton’s Asset Management Plan, completed in July 2024 to meet Ontario Regulation 588/17 has revealed that our city currently has a $3.8 Billion infrastructure funding gap. Over the 10-year planning horizon Hamilton’s funding gap for core assets is estimated to be $1,959 million or $195.9 million annually. Clearly we need to build sustainably where services and infrastructure already exist within our current urban boundary. We do not need more sprawl infrastructure which future Hamiltonians will be stuck funding for its lifetime.

-Hamilton is a sprawling city with too much infrastructure and not enough tax base to pay for its upkeep. Empty buildings, hollowed-out neighbourhoods, abandoned strip malls all need to be revitalized by adding affordable, attainable, family-friendly housing close to jobs, transit and amenities.

-The Twenty Road West landowner consortium characterizes their parcel as urban “infill” but it is not. The parcel borders an urban neighbourhood to the north while to the west, south and east it borders active prime farmland which is undeveloped but zoned “employment industrial” due to its close proximity to Hamilton Airport. If this urban expansion is approved this new residential area would be surrounded by an industrial warehouse zone and less than 1.5km from Canada’s busiest 24/7 all night cargo airport which on September 23, 2024 announced plans to expand its taxiways.

-Hamilton declared a Climate Emergency in 2019. Suburban sprawl such as this flies in the face of sustainable development, instead creating car-centric communities far from transit, jobs and amenities. Hamilton has chosen to prioritize a more compact urban form and walkable communities, which brings huge benefits where climate and GHG emission reductions are concerned - by providing climate resilient living.

-Hamilton City Council and residents have chosen, and many developers are electing to build much more housing where jobs and transit exist, within the current urban boundary. We know that suburban sprawl does not pay for itself in the long run as is evidenced by our astronomical $3.8B infrastructure spending gap. There are multiple developers who are eager to build within our existing boundary as is evidenced by record approvals in 2023. The Twenty Road West landowners, a group of land speculators who gambled on urban expansion, should not be allowed to force the City to develop in a way that enriches only them while plunging Hamilton further into debt.