Raise the Hammer

I would gladly pay $1000 to see this happen.

"Industrial" zoning means manufacturing right? Factories?

If so, when the hell will politicians get it into their thick heads that manufacturing is dead in North America? It's too expensive to make stuff even in Mexico these days. Everything is being manufactured in China and South East Asia. It sucks, but there it is, and that's not going to change unless Canada makes some drastic changes to it's import laws.

clarification question, the $1000 for each resident is just dividing the projected servicing costs by Hamilton's population, right? If so then the reality will be more like $150 per resident due to the DC discounts - if we're only talking about direct costs.

Why not prioritize repairs to infrastructure that already supports existing businesses, the economic engine of today and tomorrow?

Very good question. With our infrastructure deficit at $2B in Hamilton only getting worse, the thought of putting off much needed infrastructure upgrades in places where people already live and work so we can lure a bunch of warehouses to the land around the airport seems absurd.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but the Mayor is dead-on. This is only a recipe for sprawl. Expensive sprawl.

There are manufacturing places in North America. They primarily assemble and paint things made from parts imported from Asia, but they still use factories here. Less shipping that way.

Still, they don't ship by plane, obviously.

The only comment I don't understand is the reference to the use of the land as residential. On June 1, 2012, the OMB ruled that all lands within the AEGD are precluded from being Residential. This is consitent with the places to grow plan and the OP and zoning bylaws approved by the City. I also know of a few residential developers who own land in the AEGD that are trying to unload it. So if everything points to a ban on residential sprawl, why is that always mentioned? I don't care what Brantina says is in his heart. I care about what the planning authorities have to say.

Simple: what happens when the commercial and industrials plans fail and the city has all this conveniently serviced and uncontaminated lands waiting for development?

Hmmm....

My father seems to remember back in the 70’s that the Meadowlands shopping area was originally designated as Industrial, and the city had a long term plan for developing this area since it anticipated the hwy 403 extension and the Red Hill Creek Expressway completion, before eventually converting the land to commercial. Can anyone verify this? I can’t find a source...

I think the number is actually 90% by provincial law, but then there are other discounts that are harder to quantify. Funnily enough I believe the residential discounts are much tighter than the industrial and McHattie recently told me they were maxing out industrial DCs. That's because commercial taxes are higher so they expect to recover those in the long run.

One interesting twist in this story is that one of the opponents of the AEGD is a group of Elfrida landowners who want their land to have preference for urban expansion - for exactly the same greedy little reasons.

Can there be a better argument that this is about sprawl than that heavy money is being spent by developers who know very well that will be the result. They wouldn't be doing it if it were staying commercial.

Shea here,
This is a partial response to the X Guy, above, who wonders what the original plan for the Ancaster Meadowlands may have been. It's a bit geographically off-topic from AEGD and the aerofraudolis, but this July 7, 1992 Spectator article may be of interest for its own sake, since you asked:
'Last jewel' of wetlands under siege by progress
Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday, July 7, 1992 Author: ROSS LONGBOTTOM, THE SPECTATOR. See excerpts below.
Ryan may prefer that I not copy the whole article here--copyright concerns. But the Hamilton Spectator archive is available to any Hamilton Public Library card holder. Ask by phone or at a branch, or follow this from HPL's home page Discovery Tools tab; then click on Magazines & Newspapers; then click on The Hamilton Spectator title; insert your library card number. Then click on the name of the newspaper (Spectator). This is simpler than it sounds. What's NOT simpler is that the various search boxes are not immediately intuitive to use--click in the boxes to the right of the one you just tried that didn't do anything. The archive goes back to 1991 which is as far back as the Spec database archive goes.
--------------------------------
---"Conservationists hope Meadowlands ' owners might even give up the land in return for some favorable zoning elsewhere, or have the town include it as part of the land developers are required to give the town for park purposes.

The big Meadowlands subdivision will double Ancaster's population to 40,000 in the next 10 years. With its development, and the encroaching Falkirk West neighborhood in Hamilton, elimination of the natural area would leave no wilderness on Hamilton Mountain, west of King's Forest Park, or in the neighboring area of Ancaster, except a band along the brow." ...

---"There is a far better chance the area will be saved than in the 1970s, when Ancaster fought the whole Meadowlands concept.

The Ontario Municipal Board, and later the Ontario cabinet, ruled the then-owners could build, and approved the road alignments.

But today, environmental matters take precedence. A environmental assessment by the region is underway, and Ancaster has already had a study done. Ecoplans Ltd. of Waterloo has determined it to be an environmentally sensitive area worth saving.

Mr. Kelly said Meadowlands supports such concerns, but worries sometimes if the environmental pendulum has swung a little too far.

"With the advent of the environnmental issues, your land is not really your own." "

----..."(Managing partner Alec) Mr. Kelly said such requirements, while cumbersome and expensive, are part of life today. "These things are here and let's do the best with them."

Brian McHattie, conservation director for the naturalists' club, said it realizes it's hard to "play catchup" with a plan already much in place, but hopes for compromise. He argues that natural areas enhance the marketability of the area.

"The option is to design with nature."
Caption: Mike Baldwin, Spectator graphic Proposed new roads intersect the heart of a 58-hectare environmentally sensitive area //

If the municipality and those behind this effort argue a need for industrial development space and are prepared to sink hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into it, then they should then be able to tell us what forms those industries will take, what they will be producing and for what markets. Surely they can demonstrate a demand, can't they?

Now that we're hearing again about B-Line LRT being a Metrolinx priority, why don't we take that $500m and figure out how best to finance the LRT with the province. LRT will be far more transformative than more costly sprawl.

The mayor's full quote is dead on here:

If this council is serious on addressing the problems that you have brought forward I would make a motion right now that we freeze the urban boundary and not expand and create urban sprawl. [applause] That’s the … And we haven’t’. We’ve built expressways and right now we’re fighting the province over turning farmland into development land and we all know in our heart of hearts that’s going to be sprawl residential development. It’s not going to be 52,000 jobs, it’s going to be a bunch of houses around the airport.

Once the land is brought into the urban boundary, it becomes Hamilton's responsibility to zone it. We have seen time and again that the city is ready, willing and able to rezone industrial land for other purposes.

In other words there is no law to protect us from ourselves. This is why the land must not be brought into the urban boundary.

A very good question.

I'd like to hear each and every councillor's response to it in fact.

To viennacafe;

According to the exhaustive and very expensive marketing study conducted by Dillon, approximately 70% of all jobs that the Aerotropolis is expected to create will be warehousing, distribution and logistics. This category will also utilize the largest land areas and will negatively, generate the lowest density of jobs per acre. In the words of Counilor Ferguson - there are no companies lining up to get in! The on-site "Aeropark" is approximately 85% vacant and has been availabel for development for over a decade and yet has not been filled.

I am fairly confident that an equally exhaustive study of HIA would demonstrate that the countless unrealistic growth projections have indeed not been realized and yet HIA is touted as the anchor pin to the success of the Aerotropolis.

We can ill afford to risk the $500 Million but if we really did have that much capital - is this the best long term use of the available funds. I have no confidence that this basic question has even been considered.

Michael Desnoyers
Co-Chair
Hamiltonians for Progressive Development

I thought I would respond to dsa, considering the fire that killed 112 people in Bangeldesh (sp)?

Given the mantra of globalization where labour standards have not been standardized, pushing all to good working conditions, including health and safety issues,
one does have to look at history, check out the Triangle Waistshirt Factory Fire in 1911. In comparing the two events, we are moving backwards.

do some research adn the same conditions exist now in North America, for workers. Such as bosses locking doors that are fire exits, you know workers cannot take unauthorised breaks, so that is the excuse.

You give up to easily

I completely disagree with people who are against residential sprawl. These people forget about children, especially boys who need SPACE to play in around their home with their friends in the neighbourhood, just like children did decades ago. I'm so thankful for the sprawl of the forties and fifties. I had gardens to make, creeks to play in, streets to bicycle in, and lots and lots of grass around my home to play in. Sprawl is worth every penny to children. Don't even think of families living in condos.