Hamilton’s land use developers are hoping a newly re-elected Ontario Conservative government will do the same thing they did after the last election: force an expansion of Hamilton’s urban boundary – and this time not take it back
The day after the provincial election, February 28, the development industry’s ‘think-tank’ at Toronto Metropolitan University, the Centre for Urban Research and Land Research, released a paper calling for urban boundary expansion in Hamilton.
The industry argues there is significant demand for new ground-oriented low-density housing, and that Hamilton City Council’s decision to focus on intensification is contrary to public preferences.
Mayor Andrea Horwath says Hamilton City Council has been clear about its position on a firm urban boundary, adding Council has passed zoning reforms to make it easier to build infill housing.
Horwath says the City is committed to doing its part to enable new housing within the existing urban boundary.
Conservatives Overturned Boundary Freeze, Then Backtracked, and now have the OLT Doing the Work of Overturning Council
Developers seem hopeful that re-elected Premier Doug Ford will overturn Hamilton’s urban boundary again — as he did shortly after the 2022 provincial election.
In November 2022, Premier Doug Ford and then Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark overruled Hamilton City Council’s urban boundary freeze, imposing an expansion of development onto agricultural lands outside the existing urban area.
The Conservative government became engulfed in the Greenbelt scandal during the year that followed.
In October 2023, the Conservatives reversed the imposed boundary expansion amidst devastating reports from Ontario’s Auditor General and Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner (Report 1, Report 2), revealing improper and concerning actions leading to removing lands from the Greenbelt. (The RCMP conducts to conduct a criminal investigation.)
In 2024, the Conservatives changed planning rules to permit private interests to make urban boundary applications outside of an comprehensive municipal review.
All of Hamilton’s whitebelt land owners are at the Ontario Land Tribunal seeking forced boundary expansions.
The Upper West Side Landowners Group is the first in line for a hearing, that will occur in late 2026 at the earliest. In December 2024, they asked the Ontario Conservatives to grant them a Minister’s Zoning Order to bypass the OLT process.
The Ontario Conservative government has not yet posted the MZO request for public comment.
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Published: March 7, 2025
Last updated: March 7, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
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