The Ontario Land Tribunal has quashed the City of Hamilton’s designation of 1400 South Service Road as employment lands, and instead will permit the development of a mixed-use 986 residential community with two tall buildings and two mid-sized buildings.
Two commercial buildings and a three-storey office building will also be permitted on the lands.
The OLT decision applies a Mixed Use Medium Density (C5) Zone to the lands, with special exceptions including a maximum of 3,995 square metres of office use in the commercial building.
In the decision, OLT Member Eric Crowe cites that recent changes to the Provincial Planning Statement permit residential development on some lands previously restricted for employment uses.
“The Tribunal agrees with Mr. Aston [the developer’s witness] when he concluded that since the City agrees that the lands are not an Area of Employment under the Act, they cannot also be an Employment Area under PPS 2024.”
Crowe approved 264 units in each of the two 16-storey tall buildings, and 229 units in each of the two 8-storey buildings.
Crowe did not agree with the City of Hamilton’s position that this amount of residential development is inappropriate for a site which is not serviced by frequent or regional transit.
“The Proposed Development would use existing infrastructure, does not require an expansion of major roads and is in proximity to employment and commercial use and is within walking distance to existing transit and the planned multi modal hub at Winona Crossing.”
The existing transit route offers peak service frequency of one bus every 30-minutes to Eastgate Square.
The Ontario Land Tribunal did not provide the case files in advance of the late April hearing.
In December 2024, Ontario’s Auditor General stated the OLT should provide easy access to evidence in advance of hearings and recordings afterwards. [Recommendation 10]
“We recommend the OLT review and adopt best practices from other tribunals to enhance the transparency of the OLT hearings process, such as making evidence the OLT examines easily accessible through its website, publishing notices of upcoming hearings and recording hearings.”
After the recommendation was made, the Tribunal stopped releasing public records, including written statements, agreed statements of facts, visual evidence packages, and the final proposal details, to the public in advance of or during hearings.
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Published: July 23, 2025
Last updated: July 23, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
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