Hamilton City Council’s Planning Committee voted on Jan. 13 to permit the rezoning of a city-owned parking lot at 70 Hope Avenue to a “Mixed Use Medium Density Zone.”
As such, the city will permit “a multiple dwelling and multiple dwelling townhouses with a maximum height of four storeys and a maximum of 50 units, and a maximum of 225 square metres of non-residential uses on the ground floor.”
The land is located near the Kenilworth Avenue North and Britannia Avenue intersection.
Council approved a report back in December 2023 that recommended that they permit the use of specific surplus city-owned land for affordable housing.
The parking lot at 70 Hope Avenue was included in that report.
Next, the city will select an affordable housing provider/developer to move forward with the project.
The city is providing flexibility on what final form the development will take, allowing an apartment building or stacked townhouses.
Both scenarios would include 13 parking spaces.
The city says, “The proposed built form provides an appropriate transition between the commercial and mixed-use development along Kenilworth Avenue North to the west, and the adjacent low-rise residential dwellings designated ‘Neighbourhoods’ to the east.”
The site is about 150 metres from multiple bus stops on Kenilworth Avenue North and Cannon Street East, which serve Routes 3 and 41, respectively.
Jess Brand, spokesperson for Hamilton is Home, a coalition of seven affordable housing developers (Indwell Community Homes, YWCA Hamilton, Sacajawaea Non-Profit Housing, Good Shepherd Non-Profit Homes, Victoria Park Community Homes, East Hamilton Non-Profit Homes, and CityHousing Hamilton), told City Council that “Hamilton is Home members are willing to step up to develop the right housing mix for Hope Avenue.”
Requirements for the development are that a minimum of 30 per cent of units meet the city’s definition of “affordable.”
The city’s Corporate Real Estate Office will reportedly facilitate the transfer of lands either through a sale or lease to a non-profit housing provider, with the fee expected to be nominal.
Two other parcels of city-owned land included in that December 2023 report were 5 Lake Avenue South and 13 Lake Avenue South in Downtown Stoney Creek.
Both lots currently provide free municipal parking, with staff recommending that they be turned into 67 apartment units.
However, local Councillor Matt Francis (Ward 5 – Hamilton East-Stoney Creek) and multiple Stoney Creek businesses expressed their strong disapproval of the proposal, arguing that the parking spots are important for Stoney Creek businesses, for the nearby medical clinic, and for the numerous community events held in the area.
The proposal for the lands failed on an 8-8 vote at City Council, but Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath then used her strong mayor powers to push it through.
Staff are expected to provide an update on the Downtown Stoney Creek lands at an upcoming Planning Committee meeting.
A previous article about the Lake Avenue lands was published in The Hamilton Independent in May 2024 and can be read here.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
