A fire-razed Flamborough farm under a court-ordered dumping ban is now for sale
A controversial farm property razed by sanitizer-fuelled fire and later hit with a court injunction to stop soil dumping is now on the real estate market for $3.4 million.
But whether the farm at 1802 Regional Road 97 changes hands or not, neighbours say they still want pollution sampling done on the thousands of loads of development fill offloaded on the land last year.
I'm still hoping for testing on the soil and the water as well," said neighbour Marie McGeachy, who has also complained to the local conservation authority about fill she says ended up in an area creek and pond.
All water in the surrounding area is at risk (if the soil is polluted.) This should be everyone's concern."
Hamilton previously ordered the landowner to come up with a soil testing plan, but that did not happen, said city spokesperson Michelle Shantz.
As a result, the city has hired a subject matter expert" to do the testing instead, with the cost added to the property taxes of the owner - whomever that might be in future.
The current owner, Justin Holmes, maintains all of the imported fill is clean - and he would prefer to bring in more, if a court injunction against bringing soil to the farm is ever lifted.
In the meantime, Holmes said via text he is in a tough financial spot given fines levied over dumping, costs associated with an infamous fire last summer and potential soil testing fees.
Selling is not my ideal route but maybe (I will have) no other choice," he said.
The 165-acre Flamborough farm has been a source of controversy since last summer, when a raging fire fuelled by pallets of alcohol-based hand sanitizer destroyed barns, trucks and piles of hay before it was finally doused two days later.
Neighbours also complained about lineups of trucks offloading thousands of loads of soil that visibly raised the level of the ground in front of the farm by more than a metre.
Last summer, Holmes said he was bringing in clean fill from a development in Cambridge - a claim verified by the provincial environmental inspectors during a check shortly after the sanitizer fire.
The city, however, bans the local dumping of soil excavated from out-of-town developments.
That bylaw was developed in response to widespread problems in rural Hamilton with dumped fill from the GTA - including the infamous, Mob-linked dirt mountain at Waterdown Garden Supplies.
After fining Holmes and hundreds of incoming truckers under the bylaw, the city eventually went to court and won an injunction against soil dumping at the farm that can be enforced by police.
Holmes said the injunction interferes with his long-term plan to use incoming soil to build up the low-lying, stony" frontage of the property to create new cropland. It also leaves him fewer options to cover a hefty private mortgage."
Property records show Holmes originally bought the land for around $2.7 million with the help of a $2.3 million mortgage. He has since added two additional mortgage charges totalling more than $400,000.
The property, which despite losing barns in the fire still has a 3,400-square-foot stone house with a large garage, is also being marketed as a hobby farm with horse pastures. The owner of long-horned cattle is also using part of the property.
Holmes has not said how much he was paid to receive loads of soil before the court ban.
But he said he covered the fines of trucking companies offloading soil at his property, which set me back quite a ways." The city issued more than 300 tickets over out-of-town soil dumping at the site.
He also said his insurance did not cover damage caused by last summer's fire, apparently because of the presence of the hand sanitizer that fuelled the blaze.
Matthew Van Dongen is a transportation and environment reporter at The Spectator. mvandongen@thespec.com