Developers are clearly worried that Hamilton’s firm urban boundary is going to affect their projected profit windfalls. See the story Developers want Hamilton mayor to help fast-track urban-expansion project in The Hamilton Spectator, 20 December 2024.
As “Nancy”, one of the commenters in the article, puts it:
“Land speculators who are attempting to force the expansion of Hamilton’s Urban boundary onto Prime farmland would profit enormously from expansion if their land holdings get converted from rural to urban zoning thru an MZO. Hamilton taxpayers and would be home buyers would be the losers.
“Hamilton currently has a 3.8 billion dollar gap in infrastructure spending. Our roads, bridges, water mains, sewers, rec centers are all crumbling because we do not have the money or tax base to pay for our already sprawling infrastructure.
“The way out of this mess is to build middle density housing in existing neighbourhoods all across the city, which is what will be achieved through recent city-wide zoning changes. Adding more tax paying residents to existing neighbourhoods not only boosts the tax base but promotes renewal of existing, aging infrastructure without the need to build more roads, sewers Etc and add to that 3.8 billion dollar deficit.”
Remember also that this kind of development is precisely what the Ford Conservatives had in mind when they rammed Bill 165 (the absurdly named “Keeping Energy Costs Down” Act) through against the recommendation of the OEB. Rather than seizing the opportunity to look to the future and supply new subdivisions with cleaner, cheaper energy through heat pumps, Enbridge would be subsidized to install soon-to-be obsolete fossil gas pipelines at the expense of all Enbridge customers, with developers providing gas furnaces in new builds.