Twenty Road West urban boundary expansion

Twenty Road West landowners consortium and their agent Corbett Land Strategies have appealed the City’s denial of their application to expand Hamilton’s urban boundary to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT).

Appeals are now possible under Doug Ford’s new Bill 185 “Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, 2024”

In 2023 in response to massive public support, Council voted unanimously for a firm urban boundary. Hamilton has chosen to build a mix of housing types and price points close to jobs, transit and amenities, inside our current urban boundary.

Current Status: There are now five UBE appeals at the OLT. Three of them, Elfrida, Twenty Road West and White Church have common issues and the City’s request to combine those issues into one hearing for all three landowner groups has been granted by the OLT. That consolidated hearing will take place over two weeks in April 2026.

Everyone is encouraged to log in and watch the online hearing. Your camera and mic will be off, but your presence shows the OLT that Hamilton is watching. The link to the GoTo meeting (similar to a zoom meeting) is below. You can download the GoTo app or watch in your web browser.

Monday, April 13, 2026 - May 1, 2026.

Join the video event:
https://meet.goto.com/558205565
Access code: 558-205-565

History

  • 2021: 16,000 Hamiltonians write to City Council who in turn vote for NO urban boundary expansion.

  • 2022: The Provincial Conservatives under Mr. Ford, reverse Hamilton Council’s decision, expand our urban boundary in four different locations in rural Hamilton by over 4500 acres and remove 200 acres of Hamilton Greenbelt on the same day.

  • 2023: After intense public pressure Mr. Ford reverses the urban expansion and Greenbelt grab, restoring Hamilton’s urban boundary.

  • 2024: In June, the Province pushes through new Bill 185 “Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, 2024” which grants land speculators the new ability to appeal to the OLT to try to overturn Hamilton’s decision for a firm urban boundary. Twenty Road West is one such appeal.

Read more in the Hamilton Spectator: Hamilton urban boundary battle heads to provincial tribunal

  • 2021 the City of Hamilton conducted a survey on whether or not to expand our urban boundary. This led to the largest public response in Hamilton’s history with residents voting overwhelmingly for the “No Urban Boundary Expansion” option which was selected by 16,636 out of a total 18,387 (90.4%) of all respondents.

  • As a result, Council voted to freeze our urban boundary and shortly after approved zoning changes which permit more density within all neighbourhoods in Hamilton, including fourplexes as-of-right, through the Re-imaging Neighbourhoods Residential Zones Project.

  • Thanks to the desire to build a mix of housing types, sizes and price points within the urban boundary, housing approvals in Hamilton have skyrocketed. In March 2024, the Province of Ontario recognized the City of Hamilton for exceeding the 2023 provincial housing target, with 120 per cent of the target achieved in 2023 all within a firm urban boundary. As a result, the City received $17,587,390 in funding through the Province's Building Faster Fund.

  • Hamilton currently has a $5.2 Billion infrastructure funding gap. Clearly we need to build sustainably where services and infrastructure already exist within our current urban boundary. We do not need more sprawl infrastructure which future Hamiltonians will be stuck funding for its lifetime.

  • Hamilton is a sprawling city with too much infrastructure and not enough tax base to pay for its upkeep. Empty buildings, hollowed-out neighbourhoods, abandoned strip malls all need to be revitalized by adding affordable, attainable, family-friendly housing close to jobs, transit and amenities.

  • The Twenty Road West landowner consortium characterizes their parcel as urban “infill” but it is not. The parcel borders an urban neighbourhood to the north while to the west, south and east it borders active prime farmland which is undeveloped but zoned “employment industrial” due to its close proximity to Hamilton Airport. If this urban expansion is approved this new residential area would be surrounded by an industrial warehouse zone and less than 1.5km from Canada’s busiest 24/7 all night cargo airport which on September 23, 2024 announced plans to expand its taxiways.

  • Hamilton declared a Climate Emergency in 2019. Suburban sprawl such as this flies in the face of sustainable development, instead creating car-centric communities far from transit, jobs and amenities. Hamilton has chosen to prioritize a more compact urban form and walkable communities, which brings huge benefits where climate and GHG emission reductions are concerned - by providing climate resilient living.

  • Hamilton City Council and residents have chosen, and many developers are electing to build much more housing where jobs and transit exist, within the current urban boundary. We know that suburban sprawl does not pay for itself in the long run as is evidenced by our astronomical $5.2B infrastructure spending gap. There are multiple developers who are eager to build within our existing boundary as is evidenced by record approvals in 2023.

February , 2025 update

Denied! Landowners’ request for Hamilton City Council approve a Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) to force the expansion of Hamilton’s firm urban boundary onto hundreds of acres of Hamilton's prime farmland, wetlands, water courses, woodlots and meadows, was denied.

The six Upper West Side landowners listed on page 3 of the MZO wish to expand Hamilton’s urban boundary.

There are dozens of watercourses, wetlands, woodlots and meadows in this parcel and they should be protected in a time of climate crisis and biodiversity loss.