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Residential plans for aerotropolis
(CATCH Hamilton, Dec 16 2013)

The landowners who worked most closely with the city in the Ontario Municipal Board hearings and appeal that determined the size of the aerotropolis are already proposing a large residential and commercial development on their portion of the lands. A concept plan circulated to councillors last week by the Twenty Road Landowners Group West is framed as a “mutually beneficial solution” that helps the city deal with the reduced size of the aerotropolis and avoids “protracted litigation at the OMB” hearings expected next fall, but it could also significantly increase the servicing costs for any eventual industrial development around the airport.

The proposal would see 171 acres (70 hectares) of residential subdivisions on the developers’ lands between Upper James and Glancaster with required parkland and stream buffers plus about 20 hectares of commercial development along the future extension of Garth Street. It essentially occupies all of the group’s property that is outside the airport’s noise exclusion area and therefore potentially useable for residential purposes.

The six-owner group holds 425 acres (172 hectares) in the aerotropolis lands between Twenty Road and Dickenson Road, but their concept plan depicts more than twice that area (892 acres – 361 hectares) , showing large blocks for industrial uses mainly on lands they don’t own. This includes designating as “prestige industrial” the area along Glancaster Road that is currently occupied by existing homes.

The landowners’ group submitted evidence in last year’s OMB hearings. Initially that included their consultant’s report showing the rate of city use of industrial lands is so slow that there is no justification for any aerotropolis boundary expansion, but it subsequently withdrew that report and struck an agreement with the city for a reduction of the aerotropolis need by about 170 hectares.

In the covering letter for the proposal, the group reminds councillors of that cooperative history and “that our group was the sole private interest to participate in the court appeal and filed materials with the court supporting the city in defending the OMB’s decision on the Phase 2 hearing.”

If the group succeeds in convincing council, or if it achieves something similar in phase three of the OMB hearings scheduled for late next year, its development proposal may have a profound impact on the cost of servicing the aerotropolis. A residential-commercial development of this size could use up most or all of the excess water and sewer capacity that is supposed to allow the first part of the aerotropolis to be developed without having to build new 25-kilometre trunk sewer and water mains to the Woodward Avenue treatment facility....

City planners have promised to release their own proposals for the aerotropolis boundary in mid-January and allow a one-month public comment period before finalizing it on February 18.

Read it in full here.