The Ontario Land Tribunal recently rejected a development plan from Losani Homes for the former Glen Echo school in East Hamilton.
The land, located near the Nash Road South and King Street East intersection, was purchased in March 2023 for $6.75 million from the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.
The school was destroyed and Losani Homes originally put forward a proposal for an eight-storey and four-storey residential building with 310 units.
That plan was then amended to 264 units, with an eight-storey tower and stacked townhouses.
In April 2024, the City of Hamilton’s planning staff recommended to City Council that the plan be rejected and the Planning Committee voted unanimously to deny the application.
Losani Homes then appealed the decision to the Ontario Land Tribunal, but their application was also denied there.
It should be noted that the area directly surrounding the proposed development is made up solely of single-family homes, although there are already multiple five-storey buildings nearby on King Street.
The lands are also about a 10-minute walk away from the planned LRT stop at Nash Road and Queenston Road and an even shorter walk to the nearby No Frills Plaza.
The decision was delivered by Tribunal appointee Gwen Croser.
Crosner wrote, “In terms of the evolution of the neighbourhood, the Tribunal finds that in this case, an eight-storey apartment building would represent a sudden, large leap in terms of intensification as opposed to the gradual and incremental change to a neighbourhood.”
She added, “The Proposed Development would not enhance the existing neighbourhood and is not the appropriate scale or location for a development of this size.”
She explained that policy E.3.5.1 of the Urban Hamilton Official Plan characterises “medium density residential areas” as “multiple dwelling forms on the periphery of neighbourhoods in proximity to major or minor arterial roads or within the interior of neighbourhoods fronting on collector roads.”
Crosner concluded that the subject lands are located “on the interior of the Corman Neighbourhood and front onto a local road – not a collector road” and would not meet that policy.
In other closing statements, she added, “While residential intensification is both necessary and required, the Tribunal must acknowledge the City’s directives for the optimal placement of sustainable growth to ensure that healthy, safe and complete communities flourish.”
“The location on a local road, and the proposed massing, height of the apartment building and scale of this medium-density project do not integrate into the interior of a low-scale, mature neighbourhood.”
The area’s Councillor Matt Francis (Ward 5 – Hamilton East-Stoney Creek) was against the proposal and said he was “pleased” with the Ontario Land Tribunal’s decision.
Francis said, “Eight-storey buildings do not belong in the middle of a single-family neighbourhood.”
“Working together, we stopped this proposal, protected the character of our neighbourhood, and set the standard for future growth that is respectful and appropriate.”
The full Tribunal decision 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.
