CATCH Articles:
Karst lands assessment process criticized
Jun 18, 2008
An Ontario Realty Corporation (ORC) assessment to determine the fate of Karst lands in upper Stoney Creek is facing charges of bias from an MPP, the ward councillor and a residents group. Major concerns include the prominent role in the assessment of the head of the homebuilders association, the objectives of the ORC, and their apparent misrepresentation of city council’s position on the lands.
The ORC launched a class environmental assessment in March on whether 92 acres of an environmentally significant area should be used for subdivisions or added to the Eramosa Karst Conservation Area. The province’s land banking agency has owned the lands since the 1970s, but the discovery of rare caves and underground streams resulted in their 2003 designation as an Area of Scientific and Natural Interest (ANSI) by the Ministry of Natural Resources.
The ORC unveiled its preferred option and consultation process at a public information meeting in Stoney Creek on June 11, and that led Hamilton East – Stoney Creek MPP Paul Miller to slam the assessment as a “mockery” at Monday’s session of the provincial legislature.
“The unbiased premise for such consultations was clearly breached and a major conflict of interest inflicted upon this process,” Miller charged, pointing specifically to the hiring of “Adi Irani of A.J. Clarke and Associates Ltd. – who just happens to be the president of the Hamilton-Halton Home Builders' Association, the voice of the residential and construction industry in our area – as a consultant to this project.”
NDPer Miller and Niagara West – Glanbrook Conservative MPP Tim Hudak issued a joint statement earlier this month urging the McGuinty government to protect the 92-acre property.
Using the lands to “enlarge the conservation area” is one of the options the ORC is considering, according to display boards at their June 11 public information meeting. But their identified “preferred option” is to sell the lands for development while simultaneously taking measures to try to protect the adjacent conservation area from negative impacts. ORC say this option “ensures the planning visions of the Province and City (as expressed in the approved secondary plan) are met.”
Friends of the Eramosa Karst (FOTEK), the citizen’s group fighting to have the lands protected, was also upset with the June 11 meeting where Irani responded to many of the questions raised by residents. In a media release two days after the meeting, the group noted “a potential conflict of interest” that could result in “personal financial gain” because some consultants involved in the assessment studies have links to local developers.
FOTEK accused the ORC of using the assessment as a means of justifying its long-standing plans to sell the lands for development.
“Its statements regarding the potential impact of development on the ANSI are based on preconceived plans and not on scientific analysis or on public input,” argued the group, noting that the ORC’s preferred option of selling the land while protecting the adjacent conservation area partly relies on city plans that was established before the karst features were discovered.
The neighbourhood plan developed in the 1990s zoned most of the disputed lands for residential development, but the city initiated a review of the plan in 2006 when 180 acres of the karst core area were transferred to the conservation authority. That review, along with a planned road through the area, was put on hold last September when city council asked the province to donate the lands to the conservation authority.
The reference to provincial planning appears to be to an another ORC board that says the lands “are included in the ‘built-up area’ defined in the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe”. The province issued “built-up area” maps for Hamilton and other communities earlier this year but these include all the developed areas of the city including parks and conservation areas.
Ward councillor Brad Clark raised questions about the ORC’s guiding philosophy at yesterday’s city planning committee meeting in the context of the debate about the future of the St Mark’s Church property at Bay and Hunter.
He noted council’s 2007 decision to seek “the highest and best use and potential for increased value” for the church property which is owned by the city, and the similar objective identified by ORC with respect to the karst area.
“The province wants to sell the land,” he said. “Their entire environmental assessment was predicated on the fact that it was all about the highest best use value, getting the most money, the most bang for your buck – and then as an afterthought, they also added in, oh, we also considered open space.”
Clark said he was “immensely” bothered by this approach and rhetorically asked “How do you balance holistically what’s in the best interests of the community when the one barometer that we constantly use is fiscal?”
The ORC environmental assessment continues to accept public comments and the agency’s website says no final decisions have been made at this time.