The Aerotropolis project, also known as the Airport Employment Growth District, has been approved by the Ontario Municipal Board.
CBC reports this hour, “The OMB has ruled in the city’s favour on the size of the airport employment lands. The board has dismissed appeals from both Environment Hamilton and Hamiltonians for Progressive Development and accepted the city’s argument that a net of 55 hectares of employment lands are needed. …The ruling was dated July 3. It was the latest step in a 10-year process to open up about 720 hectares around the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport to long-term development.”
Last January, the Hamilton Spectator reported, “The area designated for the largest urban boundary expansion in Hamilton’s history has 26 forests, 12 wetlands and the headwaters of four watercourses, said Dr. John Bacher of the Preservation of Agricultural Lands Society. He said important environmental features of the land ‘will be dangerously degraded’ if the acreage becomes industrial. Gord McNulty of the Hamilton Naturalists’ Club said contamination of water courses in the area would ‘dramatically impact downstream habitats’, including the Dundas Valley, where more than 30 species are at risk.”
The Council of Canadians Hamilton chapter organized a public event on this issue just days before the OMB hearings began last January.
Our annual general meeting in 2014 will be taking place in Hamilton.
For more, please read:
Hamilton-area wetlands and headwaters at risk with Aerotropolis project
