Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government is expanding Hamilton’s urban boundary by proxy: allowing developers to go to the Ontario Land Tribunal.
Developer groups are now battling each other to be the first to get their lands approved because they want to secure capacity in the City’s new $106-million trunk sewer that runs under Upper Centennial Road and Dickenson Road.
Under the new Ontario PC planning rules, the first developer to secure OLT approvals for development will be allocated their portion of capacity. The trunk sewer is intended to service planned commercial expansions near Hamilton’s airport.
Upper West Side vs. Elfrida at the OLT
On October 3, the first-in-line Upper West Side Land Owners Group Inc. had its first case management hearing at the OLT.
A competing development group, the Elfrida Community Builders Group Inc., sent its lawyer to seek Party status, arguing that it does not want the Upper West Side group to be ahead of it in securing planning permissions.
The Upper West Side group are developers who own whitebelt lands in the area of Twenty Road (near the airport and Upper James). The Elfrida Group owns lands south and east of Upper Centennial and Rymal in the East Mountain area.
OLT Member Dale Chipman found no public benefit to permitting Elfrida Group as a Party because it would increase the cost and time of the Upper West Side Group’s application hearing.
Elfrida Group’s lawyer stated they would file an appeal of the denial.
The OLT has an internal appeal/review process. If the OLT does not change its decision, an appeal can be filed to Ontario’s Divisional Court. A Divisional Court appeal would freeze the matter for a few months.
We’ll have to watch and see how much each developer group is willing to spend on blocking the other’s expansion application.
Elfrida Group Urban Boundary Application
Elfrida Group lawyer Nancy Smith told the OLT that her clients will file an urban boundary application under the new Provincial Planning Statement, 2024, which took effect on October 20.
RELATED: Elfrida Group Lobbying at Queen’s Park
In recent months, the Elfrida Group retained John Perenack and Sabrina Matheson of StrategyCorp to lobby the provincial government to ensure the new planning rules permitted their urban boundary expansion application.
Ontario’s lobbying transparency rules require group partnerships like Elfrida to disclose their member corporations. The list is below as an image.
MORE RELATED: Upper West Side Takes to Queens Park as well
On October 25, lobbyist Patrick Lavelle-Turns of Endgame Strategies registered as the lobbyist for the Upper West Side Land Owners Group Inc. Lavell-Turns registration does not declare the membership of the Upper West Side group.
The lobbyist declaration states that the lobbying is “to discuss the Province’s goal of creating additional housing as outlined in its More Homes More Choices Act.”
This was first published in TPR's Email Edition Email Edition Date: November 25, 2024 Link to this Newsletter Edition Subscribe to the Newsletter here.