Hamilton council backs urban expansion in Waterdown for long-term-care home

The city will take a five-hectare chunk out of the Greenbelt through an urban expansion in Waterdown.

The change is to accommodate a Parkside Drive long-term-care home's plans to expand onto adjacent land in the burgeoning Flamborough town.

Alexander Place gets the nod from council, but five other applicants hoping to build on rural lands are left out of the urban fold.

Long-term care and options for older adults to stay in their communities are needed throughout Hamilton, including Waterdown, Mayor Fred Eisenberger said.

Eisenberger noted he was among the majority that voted late last year to freeze Hamilton's urban boundary writ large" to prevent sprawl into farmland.

I still maintain that, but it doesn't mean that we can't look at certain individual circumstances on a limited basis," he told councillors Wednesday.

Under provincial changes legislated in 2019, the city can make 10-hectare expansions in Waterdown and Binbrook, which are hemmed in by the Greenbelt, a protected swath of southern Ontario created in 2005.

Council told staff to evaluate requests solely for Waterdown and only for a potential five-hectare expansion, no more than half of which can involve residential use.

On Wednesday, Environment Hamilton urged council not to allow the Greenbelt grab, reminding them of their vote to keep the urban boundary firm.

And so to me, no expansion means no expansion," executive director Lynda Lukasik said.

In November, council rejected a 1,340-hectare urban expansion and voted to handle projected growth to 2051 within the existing boundary. Staff expect to present a revised official plan that reflects the frozen boundary on May 17 before submitting it to the province for review by July.

There are viable opportunities" in Waterdown's existing urban area to build retirement homes and seniors' housing, which runs counter to staff's justification for an expansion, Lukasik said.

And ideally" these residences should be in parts of town where seniors can easily access amenities on foot or mobility devices.

These lands in question are either prime agricultural lands or lands designated as part of the natural heritage system."

Guido Consoli, meanwhile, is one of the five other applicants who'd hoped to see their land comprise the expansion as the city updates its official plan.

There's no farmland here. There's nothing," he told The Spectator about the 25 hectares off Parkside Drive he and partners own.

At the present time, there's a lot of people that need housing, and we've waited almost 30 years."

Consoli and his partners sold a fringe of land to the city about three years ago for a bypass eventually connecting drivers to Highway 6.

The future road will dissect their property, which will also be boxed in by urban development, he said. So we're stuck in the middle of nowhere."

Consoli has offered to give the city 20 hectares of the land - which he estimates is worth about $4 million - if he's allowed to build homes on five acres bordering a residential area. The people of Waterdown have been good and I have no problem giving it to them."

Coun. Judi Partridge, who represents the area, said she was backing the more than 65 local residents who signed a petition in favour of the Alexander Place expansion, but not the other pitches, which staff evaluated according a set of criteria.

Teviah Moro is a reporter at The Spectator. tmoro@thespec.com