Agricultural plan calls for firm urban boundary
July 18, 2006

City council has endorsed a vision for agriculture in Hamilton that calls for firm urban boundaries and appears to contradict expansion plans approved in June to absorb prime agricultural lands for the aerotropolis and more residential growth.

At last week's committee of the whole meeting, Margaret Walton, a rural planning consultant with Planscape who is coordinating the development of an agricultural action plan, outlined a vision developed by the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Advisory Committee.

"The goals that the committee has put forward in implementing the vision would be first and foremost to retain the agricultural land base and to promote financial sustainability for future generations," Walton told councillors. "Obviously if there's no land base, there's no farming, so that's fundamental."

That led downtown councillor Bob Bratina to ask if Walton was concerned about council's recent decision to endorse a Growth Related Integrated Development Strategy (GRIDS) that will convert nearly 6000 acres of farmland to urban uses, including 3100 acres for the proposed aerotropolis business park and 2800 acres to accommodate new subdivisions near the intersection of Upper Centennial Parkway and Rymal Road.

Walton responded that councillors need to "exercise caution" in how much land is slated for development, noting that "there does need to be a critical mass of both agricultural land and agricultural support infrastructure in order to ensure that the [agricultural] industry continues to be healthy".

"The more urban encroachment there is into the agricultural area, the more difficult it is for the farmer to farm," she continued. "I think we need to look at agricultural land as a non-renewable resource, and not as something that is urban land in waiting."

Walton pointed to specific objections of urban residents whose subdivisions encroach on rural land and who object to farm activities starting at 6 am. "They don't want dust; they don't want pesticides; they don't want farm equipment moving on the roads; they don't want manure smell." Consequently, she argued that it is not sufficient to just set aside the best agricultural land and then allow urbanization around it.

In the wake of the establishment of the Greenbelt, Hamilton and other municipalities have received provincial funding to develop agricultural action plans. Walton suggested that if these are not successful, "the Greenbelt could simply become a high-value rural residential area."

The vision for Hamilton's plan was developed by an all-day workshop of about 60 farmers held earlier this year. Other goals are to increase public awareness of the importance of agriculture and to work more closely with industries that utilize farm products.

The plan also includes a commitment "to protect long term food security with an emphasis on locally-produced food, so not only do we always have the ability to feed ourselves, but we feed ourselves with food that we know who grew it and how it was grown," said Walton.

She emphasized that Hamilton has "really good agricultural land" backed up with abundant water and a good climate. "So Hamilton actually has probably one of the best areas for agriculture in the province," Walton declared.

The verbal presentation of the plan's goals was scheduled to be just received for information by the councillors, but Walton succeeded in getting them to endorse it as well, although she noted that the measure of success for the plan ultimately will be "if agriculture survives in the long term in Hamilton".