FredConnect - July 2008
On June 25th, Hamilton City Council approved the next step in developing the airport employment district. During the 2006 election, I advocated limiting urban sprawl to protect prime agricultural lands. At last week’s debate at Council, I maintained this position and will continue to advocate this vision as we move forward.
My approach promotes ‘smart growth’ and is based on flexibility in responding to changing economic conditions and encouraging growth that maximizes our existing infrastructure. This is important because urban sprawl increases the city’s cost of providing services and maintaining, repairing and building new infrastructure like roads, bridges, sidewalks, sewers and water mains.
The term ‘smart growth’ can mean different things to different people. In my view, smart growth provides residents with access to almost everything they need on a daily basis within walking or cycling distance. It includes a centre for local stores, services, restaurants, schools, healthcare as well as formal and informal recreation areas. Fast, efficient public transit is also a key component.
Thinking about growth in this way, underlines the importance for the Greater Hamilton Area to have a variety of employment lands – both brownfield and greenfield. For your reference, brownfields are abandoned, idle, or under-used industrial or commercial property whose redevelopment is made difficult by environmental contamination of some sort. Although these sites are contaminated, they can be cleaned up and reused for other purposes. Greenfields are new developments on agricultural land or undeveloped open space.
While I support the establishment of greenfield employment land around the airport, it is important to balance the way our city develops. Specifically, we need to make re-using brownfields a priority to reduce our dependence on greenfields. Doing this will maximize our existing roads, bridges, sewers and water mains while reducing the need to build costly new infrastructure.
Focusing on revitalization and redevelopment and not ruling out greenfield development will help the City improve our tax base at a lower cost – this will help take the burden off you – the residential tax payer. This balanced approach will help preserve greenfield space while at the same time keeping our options open for the future.
With ever changing economic conditions, it’s important to put in place checkpoints in our growth planning process to make sure the City is always in a proactive position. Doing this will make sure the city’s economic growth and prosperity will take into account the best interests of the people who live here.
A measured and balanced approach to future development is in harmony with the Province of Ontario’s ‘Places to Grow’ plan. The goal of this plan is to maximize existing infrastructure while planning and managing growth.
In summary, by focusing on our existing business parks, the downtown office cluster, McMaster Innovation Park, brownfield redevelopment and limited greenfield use, our City will have a variety of lands available to serve a wide range of needs. The decisions we make today will provide Hamilton the tools it needs to attract investment, create jobs and will help make our city the best place to raise a child.
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