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Aerotropolis hearings add developers, Tradeport and Chamber of Commerce
June 16, 2006
Tradeport International and the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce are intervening in the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) process examining the proposed aerotropolis. And a group of developers and landowners have also joined the hearing in an attempt to add more lands to the airport area boundary expansion adopted by city council last summer.
Last June's decision by the city to establish a 3100 acre special policy area around the airport is being challenged at the OMB by the provincial ministry of municipal affairs and housing, and by Hamiltonians for Progressive Development (HPD).
Several additional parties and two participants were added this morning at a pre-hearing in downtown Hamilton. Tradeport, the company managing the airport, was represented at the hearing by Bodhan Onyschuk of the Gowlings law firm.
Onyschuk is also the agent for Swisscan Properties Inc, a Georgetown-based developer of commercial properties that owns 180 acres near the airport. Swisscan previously designed and constructed the ABB automation facility in Burlington, and has also proposed to convert the historic Book House in Ancaster into a hotel.
Starward Development Services and the Spallacci Group are among the landowners seeking expansion of the aerotropolis lands. They are seeking the inclusion of an area known as Deferral 11 in the urban boundary expansion. These lands are roughly bounded by Upper James, Twenty Road, Glancaster Road and Dickenson Road and comprises over 900 acres.
Their representative, JB Farber, indicated the group doesn't necessarily want their lands limited to commercial and industrial uses - the purpose given by Hamilton council in setting aside the airport area last June and the direction indicated for most of the Deferral 11 lands in the recent GRIDS report.
Ed Fothergill, representing the Chamber of Commerce, and Rob Schreiber, an air controller, were added as participants. Both indicated they are there to support the city's position. They join five other citizens who had previously registered as participants.
City lawyer Nancy Smith said preliminary discussions with the province and HPD have identified "a fundamental dispute" that the city wants resolved before the hearings proceed. They are contending that the official plan amendment last June that identified a 3100 acre special policy area around the airport is not an urban boundary expansion. Both the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Hamiltonians for Progressive Development say that whatever the city calls it doesn't change the fact that it is an expansion of the urban boundary.
Smith said she will bring a motion to dismiss the appeals on the basis that they have mis-characterized the special policy area. The issue will be the subject of a three day hearing on September 27-29 that will take place in the former courthouse at 25 Main Street East that is now occupied by McMaster University. The outcome will help determine the future course of the aerotropolis OMB appeal.
The city staff report describing the aerotropolis can be viewed at
http://www.myhamilton.ca/Hamilton.Portal/Inc/PortalPDFs/ClerkPDFs/Planning-Economic-Development/2005/Jun07/PED05015.pdf
The aerotropolis appeal has been detailed in previous CATCH articles especially
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