This week marks the beginning of the March vacation cycle at Hamilton City Hall. Public meetings decrease during the first week of March, with very few meetings during the second and third weeks of the month.
Today:
- COUNCIL (3pm): Continuation of public delegations on the 2023 City budget
- OLT (10am): 130 Wellington Street South settlement hearing
- OLT (All-day, starting at 10am): outgoing seven week hearing on the Rural Hamilton Official Plan
Council Budget Delegations
Hamilton City Council meets at 3:00 p.m. in Council Chambers to hear the remaining 16 public delegations that did not occur at the February 6 hearings due to the disruption of that meeting by protesters.
Six delegates will speak specifically to the police budget, two delegates on affordable housing, two delegates on free transit fares, one delegate “on reducing fossil fuel dependence in the city,” and the remainder state they plan to speak on the budget in general.
Ontario Land Tribunal – 130 Wellington Street North
The Ontario Land Tribunal is expected to rubber-stamp the building of five residential units at 130 Wellington Street South with a minimum of four parking spaces.
In February 2021, Council voted against allowing six units in the building. Neighbours oppose rental housing and then Ward 2 Councillor Jason Farr moved to block the project. At the time, Farr conceded the property owner would likely win on appeal.
The hearing is scheduled for 10:00 a.m.
More on TPR here: City and Neighbours Allow Five Units at 130 Wellington South in OLT Deal.
Ontario Land Tribunal – 2009’s Rural Hamilton Official Plan
The OLT enters week four of a complex seven-week-long hearing of appeals of the Rural Hamilton Official Plan.
Council passed the plan in 2009. It has taken nearly 14 years to reach the hearing stage.
There are 11 parties in the hearing. The volume of records is well into the tens of thousands of pages, if not hundreds of thousands. Simply put, well beyond my capacity to cover being a one-person news operation.
The hearing will run all day, beginning at 10:00 a.m.