Ontario government says it won't revisit decision to expand Hamilton urban boundary

The Ontario government says it will not revisit its controversial decision to expand Hamilton's urban boundary to include land owned by well-connected developers. 

The province ordered the expansion in November 2022, opening up 2,200 hectares of countryside for development, at the same time it announced it would be removing land from the Greenbelt, including five sites in the Hamilton area.

Premier Doug Ford reversed course Thursday, vowing to add back all the land to the Greenbelt. He apologized for the land selection process that "left too much room for some people to benefit over others." 

Following Ford's announcement, Mayor Andrea Horwath, Hamilton city councillors and advocates were hopeful the province would also shrink Hamilton's urban boundary back to the one council agreed to in 2021, which focused the city on increasing density rather than sprawl. 

"Our position is not changing … how as a city we should be able to chart our own path in terms of how to accommodate growth," Horwath said. 

"We have a lot of great plans and absolutely we want to see our wishes respected." 

Chris Poulos, director of issues management for the housing minister, told CBC Hamilton on Friday the province won't change its mind.

"Based upon assessments from the City of Hamilton's own planners the province took the necessary action to accommodate anticipated levels of growth and allow for more desperately needed housing to be built," he said. "This decision will not be revisited."

The city's planners did originally recommend expanding Hamilton's urban boundary by 1,300 hectares in 2021. But, facing public opposition, council voted for the planners' alternative option to not expand outwards, but rather focus on infilling the existing urban area to meet its housing targets. 

The provincially mandated expansion in 2022 includes land near the airport along White Church Road that was not part of staff's original recommendation. That land contains properties owned in part by developers Sergio Manchia of UrbanCore Developments and Paul Paletta of Alinea Group Holdings, formerly Penta Properties. 

Paletta's family also owns property across the street that was removed from the Greenbelt, as was Manchia's land at Barton and Fifty Road in Hamilton's east end. 

They requested the province remove their land from the Greenbelt through the same representative, Matt Johnston, who works for Manchia's Urban Solutions land consulting company, according to an integrity commissioner's report. He also attended Ford's daughter's stag and doe in August 2022, where he met with the premier. 

That fall, Johnston made several submissions to change Hamilton's official plan, the integrity commissioner said. (The official plan is the same document the province later amended to expand the urban boundary.)

At a meeting with provincial staff in October, 2022, Johnston was asked to weigh in on the changes the minister of housing was considering making to Hamilton's official plan and asked what his "comfort level" was with them, he told the integrity commissioner. Johnston said he was satisfied with the changes.