Airport Sale Could Garner $400 Million
October 8, 2005

Hamilton's airport is worth "somewhere in the $400 million range" and downtown councillor Bob Bratina is continuing to push the city to consider the option of selling it. Bratina revealed the value during this past week's planning committee meeting.

The committee was asked to approve a $129,000 expenditure to expand federal zoning regulations that prevent tall buildings, communication towers, trees and other obstacles in the potential flight path of aircraft. The request was presented by Guy Paparella, the city's director of strategic initiatives, and the key staff person working on the proposed aerotropolis.

Bratina took the opportunity to ask: "What revenues did we bring in last year from the airport operations?" Paparella responded that revenue sharing with the private operators of the airport doesn't start until next year. In 1996 the former regional government signed a 40-year lease of the airport which gave Tradeport International ten years to begin making payments.

Pressed by Bratina, Paparella said the city doesn't know how much to expect when Tradeport starts making payments next year, but that the finance department is estimating "in the neighbourhood of $150,000 to $250,000 initially".

Bratina suggested that wasn't much for a $400 million investment. "I'd just as soon we sold the whole thing and let somebody else worry about these investments", he declared. Paparella pointed out that the city's stake in the airport will grow over time. "The more the value of the land increases, at the end of the lease obviously the citizens of Hamilton will garner that increase along with all the buildings and structures that will be part of that."

Bratina originally suggested selling the airport in August. Mayor Di Ianni suggested this "would be like selling the family jewels". Bratina thinks the Greater Toronto Airports Authority could be interested in taking over the operations at Mount Hope and integrating them with Pearson.

The planning committee approved the spending on the zoning update study. The regulations coming out of such a study are intended to restrict the heights of buildings, and other objects including trees as well as feeding and resting areas for birds that might interfere with aircraft takeoff and landing.

Most of the existing zoning regulations for Hamilton's airport extend only 3 km from the end of the runways but the proposed new ones are 15 km in length. The staff report says the cone-shaped zones would "encompass approximately 21,000 hectares and affect an estimated 30,000 properties." One set would extend from approximately the QEW across the city past Caledonia into the territories of the Six Nations of the Grand.

Preliminary sketch of proposed Hamilton International Airport zoning regulation.

The report notes that property owners can "refuse consent to the removal or alteration" of buildings or objects but that "this could adversely affect the operation" of the airport. It suggests that the zoning study will allow an "informed decision" on whether "to proceed with or without remediating the objects".

The zoning study will take two years and include public consultation. It is being undertaken at the request of Tradeport and is justified in the city report as consistent with the council's strategic plan "to focus all available resources on economic development as its number one priority with particular attention to the airport as a key economic node to future prosperity."

The full staff report can be viewed at http://www.myhamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/D7E30A2D-D353
-4CCB-8548-2D1EB4F8A586/0/Oct04PED05137.pdf.

The CATCH report on the planning committee meeting is posted on the CATCH website at http://www.hamiltoncatch.org/planning/plan_051004.htm.