Hamilton International Airport

[coalminecanary]

Are you not at all afraid that we will service the land and then before it can ever fill with commercial development, the landowners up there will build tract housing? Once the urban boundary has been expanded, this is a true risk

It is the same game played by Trinity at the MIP. They had lots of beautiful renderings of mixed use buildings, but what they were really fighting for was a reversion of the zoning to allow basically anything - and nothing could have stopped them from building big boxes if they succeeded int he zoning battle.

[markbarbera]

Unless I completely misunderstand zoning in Hamilton, AEGD is being zoned for commercial development, not residential. If landowners wanted to build tract housing on AEGD lands, they would first need to get council to change the zoning, at which point the zoning change can be fought and denied through council. Even if council approves, it can be appealed and quashed via OMB.

So in short, no I am not afraid that landowners will build tract housing on AEGD. Of course, I do place some trust in civic activism to ensure it does not take place. If ever a move was attempted, I am quite confident it would not go unnoticed by, and in fact would be fought vigourously by both CATCH and the new council member representing Ward 11.

[coalminecanary]

The problem is, once the urban boundary has been expanded, the zoning and land use is completely in the hands of the city (right now the land is provincially controlled).

The city has proven to easily bend to the interests of developers (this is not a shock to any of us here). The most recent example is the parcel near the QEW that was converted from employment lands to retail (CATCH et al fought it and in the end the developers prevailed).

Once the aerotropolis lands are serviced there will be quite a few very rich and very strong entities pushing for all sorts of development on this fresh earth, and they are not going to solely be the commercial developers we are being promised. Hamilton has historically been very weak at saying no to developers - especially the big boxes and little boxes (tract homes). The one glowing exception being the rejection of trinity at the MIP, but that is only one attempt which failed compared to many dozens that have succeeded in wrong-headedly developing potentially valuable employment land.

Beyond the huge risk of servicing this land for businesses that do not exist, is a darker risk of underhanded tactics being used to push the city to the whims of speculators etc. I don't want to devolve into conspiracy theories, but without an actual demonstrated commercial demand for this land, we have to calculate all of the risks, and "settling for homes and retail" is a huge risk unless the perverse and unattainable "100% commercial uptake" number can actually be achieved.

Once this land is serviced (up front, using taxpayer dollars), the forces of the developers are going to be very, very strong.

On top of that, the trunk sewer is conveniently going to be buried in nice green clean farm lands all along the southern urban boundary. That sewer line is going to make those lands very enticing, which could result in even more urban boundary expansion desires.

This is all just BAD planning no matter how you look at it.


edit to add:
I think it would be wholly appropriate for council to ask for an investigation into who owns the land before making these decisions. It certainly would not hurt to have this information.

also:
Before the election, I sent an email to all of the councillors and asked them if they were willing to investigate the possibility of legally creating a restriction on the aerotropolis to ensure that homes are never built on that land.

Not a single one answered me.

[LikeHamilton]

WestJet announces more non-stop service to Orlando from Hamilton International

CALGARY, Nov. 24 /CNW/ - WestJet today announced additional seasonal non-stop service between Hamilton and Orlando, beginning in February.

WestJet will add additional service with flights departing Tuesdays. This is in addition to existing weekly service on Saturdays. Following are the schedule details of WestJet's new service from February 15 to April 26, 2011:

Hamilton - Orlando (weekly February 15 to April 26, 2011)

Flight
From Hamilton (WS1962) 3:00 p.m. 5:42 p.m.
From Orlando (WS1261) 11:30 a.m. 2:03 p.m.

[urban_planner]

Great news another international from from the airport that some dont think should be called an international airport

[coalminecanary]

Yay. One more flight. And how many Canadian destination flights were removed (seasonally) to make room for it?

By the way, did anyone catch the article about who is taking the AEGD to OMB? Lots of homebuilders on the list... mostly mad that their corner of farmalnd is not part of the urban boundary expansion. I wonder why homebuilders would want land in the aerotropolis? Hmmm....

[urban_planner]

one is better then none. Oh I forgot though,, when it comes to the Hamilton related pages a website thats suppose to be an exciting positive place to discuss development becomes the opposite. My bad!

[markbarbera]

Originally Posted by LikeHamilton

WestJet announces more non-stop service to Orlando from Hamilton International

CALGARY, Nov. 24 /CNW/ - WestJet today announced additional seasonal non-stop service between Hamilton and Orlando, beginning in February.

WestJet will add additional service with flights departing Tuesdays. This is in addition to existing weekly service on Saturdays. Following are the schedule details of WestJet's new service from February 15 to April 26, 2011:

Hamilton - Orlando (weekly February 15 to April 26, 2011)

Flight
From Hamilton (WS1962) 3:00 p.m. 5:42 p.m.
From Orlando (WS1261) 11:30 a.m. 2:03 p.m.

This is a wecome flight addition. WestJet served all last year with just the one Orlando flight per week. I always thought YHM could handle more frequency to MCO than one weekly flight. It probably could manage a daily flight but airlines are pretty risk averse to increasing frequency during economic downswings. I expect to see flight frequency grow on this come next year.

Now kind WestJet route planners, how about a weekly LAS flight from YHM? YHM doesn't have a landing curfew so slotting a redeye would be cheap and easy.

[LikeHamilton]

In 2008, Westjet did 8 flights a week to Florida from Hamilton. They finished the season at 95% full for all of their flights.

Hamilton - Fort Lauderdale (Tuesday and Saturday)
Hamilton - Orlando (Wednesday, Friday & Saturday Sunday)
Hamilton - Tampa (Monday and Thursday)

Plus
Cancun & Mayan Riviera
Jamaica
Punta Cana
Nassau, Bahamas

Everyone expected them to come back with at least the same amount of flights or more. They did not. They only had one flight to Orlando in 2009/10.
The have been blinded by the bright lights of Toronto. They are not going out full all the time out of Toronto and keep moving aircraft to there to try and grab a bigger share by not disappointing people of Toronto with the lack of service. Hence we suffer in Hamilton.

[coalminecanary]

I am not trying to be pessimistic about passenger flights, and I welcome all additions. But one weekly flight is peanuts. Would this be newsworthy at any other airport?

It would be amazing if southwest would add YHM to their roster. No frills access to lots of US cities (especially vegas haha)

[c@taract_soulj@h]

Don't worry...in 2 months, the Spectator will again add this one to it's already lengthy chronological timeline of failed services...we've all seen it before. Not trying to be pessimistic at all as my buddy works at the Airport but WestJet may just very well be using us while another terminal somewhere else is under renovation. Conspiracy theory at best, but I could see it lol

[pilot757]

Time to change the guard dont you think. No wait let´s build a light rail system to an airport that goes to Calgary and..... Yes that is what is keeping people away...no train. It is quite humerous to see the empty buses coming and going from the airport. If my numbers at work plummeted as much I would be canned

p757

[SteelTown]

That Hamilton City Council authorize the Mayor to correspond with the Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities; and the Honourable Bob Chiarelli, Minister of Infrastructure, to request funding support for the City of Hamilton’s infrastructure investment proposal for John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport, in the amount of $38 million, which is proposed to be equally shared by the Provincial Government, the Federal Government and TradePort International Corporation (TradePort), and at no cost to the City of Hamilton, to be used for the following infrastructure projects:

(i) Cargo Apron and Taxiway ($ 6 million);
(ii) Multi-Tenant Cargo Facility ($12 million); and,
(iii) Runway 06-12 Extension ($20 million),

http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/..._PED10121b.pdf

[realcity]

Should just move the airport to Burlington.

[LikeHamilton]

Westjet fights return to Hamilton on May 8th.


WestJet Summer 2011 Schedule

Non-stop

Calgary YYC 3 X daily
Edmonton YEG 1 X daily
Winnipeg YWG 1 X daily
Halifax YHZ 1 X daily
Moncton YQM 1 X daily

One stop/same plane

Vancouver YVR via Calgary YYC 1 X daily

[BCTed]

Originally Posted by realcity

Should just move the airport to Burlington.

Good point.

[SteelTown]

REALLY missing those fights to Moncton and Halifax right now.

[markbarbera]

I hope the Moncton and Halifax flights are back again permanently. It would be nice to be able to fly out for a Ticat game now and again.

[urban_planner]

That funding request should read expansion on runway 06-24 not 06-12. It ouwld be nice if they would get that funding. I think a multi carrier cargo facility would be a huge asset.

If you move the airport to burlington could you imagine to noise complaits, it would be a lot worse then the Hamilton suburb of Ancaster is.

[LikeHamilton]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

REALLY missing those fights to Moncton and Halifax right now.

If you want to to keep or get more flights from Westjet you have to bug them. Call, write, email or go on their Facebook site and tell them what you want!