‘Immense opportunity:’ Hamilton closer to redevelopment of unused Stelco land
Published April 5, 2022 at 11:49 am
Stelco Holdings Inc. has applied to the City of Hamilton to have a holding provision placed on nearly 800 acres of surplus land at 386 Wilcox St. to allow further study. It would open the door for the sale of land and redevelopment opportunities that would lead to many jobs and an overall economic boon for the city.
“It is a large piece of land with immense opportunity, which is why the provision in this process is so important,” Anita Fabac, the city’s development planning manager, said during Tuesday’s (Apr. 5) planning committee meeting. “It’s to make sure that from both Stelco’s perspective and from the City’s perspective we have an opportunity to look at this in detail, in terms of land uses, servicing requirements, transportation and rail needs and how the lands would be phased.”
“The key is to ensure that the concept plan and those required studies are submitted and approved to the city’s satisfaction prior to any sort of larger-scale redevelopment,” Fabac added.
The Stelco property at Hamilton Harbour being discussed is no longer in use by the steel company. Its rail and water accessibility and its proximately to major economic hubs make the land very desirable to prospective companies and industries looking to move or expand.
“This is a major – and I can’t overstate that enough – a major opportunity for the City of Hamilton and taxpayers to see this industrial land used in a different way than we’ve seen in the past,” said Ward 8 Councillor John-Paul Danko.
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Stelco has expressed an interest in sectoring the land into several different lots over the last few years. Early estimates revealed the move could generate more than $12 million in additional annual tax revenue.
Hamilton City Council will have to approve the rezoning of the property so it can be brought up to city standards before any potential sale.
“Over 100 years of industrial use… the land has been kind of developed on an ad hoc process with a rail network, road network, water, wastewater servicing… bringing that into city standards is no small task,” said Danko. “Trying to even figure out what is in the ground… there is quite a significant undertaking”
“So, I really appreciate this coming forward and I appreciate all of the staff’s very hard work on this file,” he added. “It is very good news for our city.”
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