After World War II, the airport made the transition to commercial uses. By 1986, the airport had expanded to accommodate increased cargo and passenger transportation. As the large airports around Southern Ontario, such as Pearson and Niagara International, became overly busy and crowded, Hamilton International became the go to spot for commercial flights. Cheaper costs, and better access were what attracted the business to the airport. Today, the airport is Canada’s largest courier/cargo airport and its passenger flights are growing.
The airport is well positioned, with access to major highway transportation systems and has a low volume of traffic. No wonder the idea came about to expand the airport to attract more more businesses in the area. This brings me to the main issue. The Airport Employment Growth District, better known by the catchy name, The Aerotropolis.
Those of you familiar with Hamilton International know that it is situated among prime agricultural lands. Standing in the airport and looking out, you see rolling fields with a few scattered farm houses and woods. Currently, not much is being done with the land up there, just a few farms, a lot of sod production, and a driving range or two. It seems to be perfect land to plough over and build on top of. And that is the plan.
The Aerotropolis began coming together in 2006, when the Ontario Municipal Board allowed the city to study the land around the airport for future commercial expansion. They found that its proximity to the airport and major highways was ideal for commercial zoning.
Since 2006, plans have been made, attacked, and ratified again and again. Currently, the city intends to rezone 1, 635 acres surrounding the airport from agricultural land to commercial land. It was forecast, by Dillon Consulting group in June of 2010, that by 2031 this new growth district will generate upwards of 24, 000 jobs for Hamiltonian’s, and positively affect the cities revenue.
But there are some other factors at play behind the scenes here. First off, let’s talk money. In the forecasts, it is said, that this project will cost the city $352,000,000. That’s a lot of money, even for a city with over half a million people. For the sake of comparison, the much-debated new stadium will cost the city $45,000,000. The problem is this figure only accounts for the costs incurred within the boundaries of the Aerotropolis site. There are many costs that are unaccounted for, such as an approximate $130,000,000 toward the new sewage system necessary for the plan to go through. Of course, more roads and highway access are necessary as well. When you add it all up, the costs could be more than double the proposed $352,000,000. We better be getting those jobs, and they better be good jobs.
On that note, these supposed jobs are only forecasts. Yes, estimation and forecasting are needed in order to get plans on the move, but these forecasts seem to missing something: there are no commercial buyers as of yet! These forecasts depend on companies being attracted to the area in order to supply these jobs. The existing business park within Hamilton International Airport is 93% vacant as it is, and there are many vacancies in the Ancaster business park which is right next door to the Aerotropolis site.
So why rezone all this new land to accommodate for supposed businesses coming when there are vacant commercial spots all around our city and in close proximity to the airport?
There are a lot of land speculators buying up property within the proposed site. The number one way to make money with land is to sell it off to residential developers. Currently, it is being rezoned as commercial, but there are no commercial buyers yet, and the people buying the land only have interest in selling it to make a profit, and the best way to do that is to sell it off for residential development. Confusing isn’t it! Could it be that the city is telling us that all these great jobs will come flooding in to justify this project, when what will really happen is a new suburb will pop up on what was once prime agricultural land? Only time will tell, unless...
Unless we say, “Hey, how about we use this prime agricultural land to its primest?” Instead of rezoning it and paving it overto create jobs, why don’t we use it for what it’s good for, and create farming jobs to supply our city with food grown in our city?
Another questio is, if this agricultural land is so prime, why isn’t it being used for much right now? The answer lies in the fact that realistically there is no money in small scale agriculture. No one dares buy up this land to use it to grow food, because it is damn near impossible to make a living that way. My friend Chris Krucker runs Manorun Organic Farm. He supplies delicious and fresh food all year round to people in and around his community. He sees a moderate amount of success from it, but he will be the first to tell you that it is not easy.
Krucker says, “Currently food prices are so low around the world that making a living farming is in most cases -- no exaggeration -- impossible. So that means that farm land is ridiculously undervalued while land for development is exceedingly more expensive -- so that means more money for land owners, more money for land developers, more money for the City through taxes.” It seems win-win for everyone, except for underpaid farmers now and people who will need to eat later.
“There is another big disconnect that keeps local land from being used to grow food for local eaters” says Kruker. “The food delivery system is designed to move food through a national and international market. So food from other parts of the world come to Hamilton and food grown in Hamilton goes to other parts of the world. Of course this works well when transportation is cheap. We are just about to see the end of cheap transportation”.
The end of cheap transportation. The way we move our goods and ourselves is going to change. All this great access to the Airport might not even mean anything because it will cost so much to use it.
On the surface of the Aerotropolis debate, we hear about more jobs and more revenue. But delve a little deeper and it really just does not make any sense. This expansion is supposed to bring Hamilton a “Brighter Future”, to use words of the plan, but all of this planning seems not to take into account the future at all. Before you support a plan that promises more jobs and more revenues, find out what’s actually at stake. And to quote Chris Kruker one last time, “It’s not just that it’s prime agricultural land; it’s prime agricultural land exactly where we need it - close to the eaters”.
Wanna Get Informed – CATCH News http://hamiltoncatch.org
