Councillor Asks About Stopping Waterdown Growth
October 11, 2005

Waterdown councillor Margaret McCarthy is asking for a legal opinion on whether it is possible to stop growth that will double her community's population. It's not clear if McCarthy hopes to prevent the addition of 6500 homes approved in 2002 by the Ontario Municipal Board, or whether she simply wants to prove to opponents of the expansion that nothing can be done to block it.

McCarthy is presenting a motion to tomorrow evening's city council meeting "that the City Solicitor be authorized and directed to obtain a legal opinion to determine whether a repeal of OPA 28 [Official Plan Amendment 28 that approved the expansion], as approved by Order in Council on the recommendation of the Lieutenant Governor in Council, is prudent and possible given the consequences that might flow from such action."

Preferred Options for the Waterdown/Aldershot Transportation Master Plan.

Many Waterdown residents are fighting the road construction plans that are being proposed to accommodate the new growth. A public meeting on the issue in late September drew 250 people most of whom oppose a $50 million plan that will widen Waterdown Road to four lanes and build a new east-west highway through the Greenbelt north of the town.

The plans got approval in principle at the June 29 city council meeting, but face a number of hurdles including a provincial law that prevents Hamilton from charging the costs of the Waterdown Road widening to the developers building the 6500 new houses. Instead, it appears that over $10 million will come out of city taxpayers unless Burlington can be convinced to cover the costs.

Only councillor Dave Braden opposed the June 29 roads decision. McCarthy said she wasn't happy with the subdivision expansion, but "the train has already left the tracks". She pointed out that the OMB decision had already been appealed to the provincial cabinet without success.

"Development's not going to stop. Cabinet decision's quite clear about that," she declared. "It's how to deal with it safely, at this point in time." McCarthy described it as a "moral imperative" to proceed with the roads plan.

Flamborough's MPP Ted McMeekin recently waded into the controversy with a suggestion that it was possible for Hamilton to derail the approved subdivisions. In a widely-circulated email, he advised opponents of the growth to "challenge the city of Hamilton to revisit this issue". However, McMeekin also said this could lead to "unimaginable litigation". That may be the answer McCarthy will also get from the city solicitor.

The 2002 cabinet decision modified the original proposals, particularly by adding several conditions including the requirement for a transportation plan. That plan is now working its way through a class environmental assessment process. It attempts to deal with a huge population growth in a town that does not plan to employ them. Consequently it is mainly aimed at getting the new residents to jobs in Burlington and other parts of the greater Toronto area.

The widening of Waterdown Road down the escarpment to the QEW is intended to accomplish that, but will require expropriation of some existing homes. In addition, the road can't be widened right into downtown Waterdown, so the proposal is to utilize a 'dog-leg' arrangement that includes the east-west Mountain Brow Road and a new north-south road through one of the growth areas.

Conflict has recently escalated over a new east-west bypass in the provincial Greenbelt area north of the existing Waterdown built-up area. Planners admit this will go through a designated Environmentally Significant Area, but residents say the location is also a provincially significant wetland which regulations say can only be damaged if no reasonable alternative exists.

The current recommendations for road expansion in Waterdown are posted on the city's website at
http://www.myhamilton.ca/myhamilton/CityandGovernment/
CityDepartments/PublicWorks/CapitalPlanning/WaterdownAldershot
TMP/Reports+and+Presentations.htm.