Our City, Our Future :: Latest News

The Longest Yard - Seizing the Pan Am Opportunity

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 18:00:00 -0500

The majority of Councillors, with the assistance of the provincial government, and encouragement of the Tiger Cat organization, are about to make a decision on the location of a stadium that will impact every person in this City for the next 50 years.

It's a decision that will see over $150 million, an amount equivalent to 15% of the City's annual budget ($1.1 billion), spent to rebuild half a stadium.

We recommend that this investment not be made in the Ivor Wynne precinct.

The original intent of the stadium was to provide a legacy for amateur sport from the Pan Am games and, from a municipal perspective, was an opportunity to advance several local, regional, and provincial economic development and growth planning objectives all at once.

Hamilton has tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure investments and development plans linked to the West Harbour location - everything from parkland development to the east, to transit node development immediately adjacent to the proposed site, to the millions of dollars of downtown investment as part of the area known as the Urban Growth Centre for the region. All of these plans and investments are part of a greater strategy of revitalization and the Pan Am stadium was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to tie these initiatives together and create critical mass for renewal.

Unfortunately, this focus has been lost through a remarkably difficult debate about stadium location. For many, the prime focus on the Pan Am Games and on the goals of the City of Hamilton became secondary to satisfying the constantly changing needs of the Tiger Cat organization, which ranged from a driveway-to-driveway experience, to naming rights, to parking, and more.

As a result, Hamilton lost the opportunity to play host to track and field, one of the Pan Am Games premier events, as it was not compatible with football according to the Tiger-Cat organization.

We are about to lose an existing, and very well used, 5,000 seat community stadium, Brian Timmis field, to provide parking for the Tiger Cats at the Ivor Wynne site.

We are about to spend all of our money on rebuilding half a stadium, with only enough money left to repair the north stands, already 40 years old.

With the latest proposal on the table to renovate Ivor Wynne stadium, the Ticats have dropped all their previous "roadblocks" to making this Pan Am opportunity what it was always meant to be for Hamilton. However, we don't have a comprehensive infrastructure and renewal plan for the city tied to the Ivor Wynne site. That opportunity still resides at the West Harbour. Hamilton does not have two urban growth centres identified by the province. We have one that is linked to the West Harbour. We don't have an unlimited Future Fund. We have one that will be virtually drained through this decision.

The Ivor Wynne proposal was offered up and accepted because it was cheaper, not because it was better. Now it's not even cheaper.

If we are going to empty our Future Fund to pay for this stadium, we should use it where it will do the most good. Further, the city is being asked to lock in their contribution to 44% of the stadium costs, even as these cost rise over the coming months and years. We could end up investing significantly more than our Future Fund, all to provide a renovated Ivor Wynne with limited spin-off potential. We could be left further in debt, still pondering what might have been if we had committed ourselves to realizing the West Harbour vision that thousands of Hamiltonians have voiced support for.We would be left standing in the position we find ourselves today: a city of unrealized potential. This doesn't have to be the case.

The province is being asked to provide more money to fill a funding gap for a full size stadium. Given the importance of this 50-year decision, we should focus on what will bring the most benefit to Hamilton. Simply put, for our massive Future Fund investment, a full stadium at the West Harbour is better than half a stadium at Ivor Wynne and any provincial money should go towards fulfilling that goal.

If this gap cannot be closed with provincial help, then we still have an approved alternative in the a smaller scalable stadium at the West Harbour that would still allow us to achieve community redevelopment goals within the funding envelope of our Future Fund.

Even at this late hour, it's still our choice to make. Many City Councillors do not think this is a good deal. They are right. Please tell your Councillor and MPP you support a wiser, more informed, and lasting decision.

City Council votes on Monday. Your voice is needed now.

Click here to email Mayor Bratina, all city councillors, and the City Manager.

If you have a problem with that link, or you want to email the mayor or councillors individually, click here for their email addresses.

Because the Ivor Wynne plan depends on additional financing from the provincial level, you may want to email Ted McMeekin and Sophia Aggelonitis from the governing Liberal Party of Ontario, as well as Andrea Horwath and Paul Miller. If that link doesn't work for you, here are their email addresses: ahorwath-qp@ndp.on.ca,pmiller-qp@ndp.on.ca,saggelonitis.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org,tmcmeekin.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

Committe Of The Whole Meeting, September 14

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 16:00:00 -0400

An important Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting will be held September 14 to discuss the recommendation of placing the Pan Am Games Stadium at the McMaster Innovation Park.

The meeting takes place at 9:30 am at City Hall Council Chambers. Please consider attending if you are able.

Here are the crucial facts about the McMaster Innovation Park (MIP) and the West Hamilton Innovation District (WHID):

The West Hamilton Innovation District (WHID) is bounded by Highway 403 to the west, Aberdeen Avenue to the south, Main Street West to the North, and Dundurn Street to the east which then jogs west at Chatham Street.
There is a total of 133 acres contained within the WHID.
Experts say the minimum acreage required for a viable and sustainable Innovation Park in North America is 125 acres.
The City of Hamilton does not currently own all of the lands within the defined boundaries of the WHID, although some lands have already been acquired including CP Lands, Republic Steel remnant parcel.
The stated vision for the WHID is:

The West Hamilton Innovation District Secondary Plan Area will function as a centre of innovation for corporate, academic and government research in science and technology and will be recognized as a major entry point into the City. This prestige employment community will establish architectural presence along Highway 403 and a street- oriented design along the interior public roads. The development of knowledge-based activities will allow for the eventual production of goods and materials enabling companies to remain and grow within the Innovation District. The establishment of partnerships between education, the City, other levels of government and the business community will spark the development of a dynamic community and create synergies that will encourage innovation, economic growth and new business opportunities. The Innovation District will be enhanced by supportive commercial, educational and residential uses which will contribute to the transformation of the area into an integrated first rate research community. Pedestrian activity and interaction will be encouraged through the creation of attractive streetscapes, innovative building design and the provision of publicly accessible spaces. The improvement and development of existing and new linkages will enhance access to accommodate motorists, pedestrians, cyclists, public transit and goods movement within, through and around the Innovation District.
The McMaster Innovation Park comprises 37 acres within the boundaries of the WHID, including 5 acres of open space. This land is owned by McMaster.
Current employment at the MIP is 450 (Atrium and Canmet Lab)
The land use policies state that the following uses are permitted within the MIP lands:
1. Educational, residential and commercial uses permitted ancillary to McMaster Innovation Park will be developed in accordance with the long-term vision to create a dynamic, integrated state of-the-art research community that will foster innovation, entrepreneurialism and creativity.
2. Limited accommodations for visiting scholars, professors and/or professionals will be permitted.
When the WHID is completely built out it will comprise 14 buildings and provide 3500 jobs in research, innovation, advnaced manufacturing, clean technologies and biosciences. These jobs will be well-paying, high technology jobs, critical for the new creative economy. 
The City successfully fought to protect the WHID lands (including MIP) against a proposed “big-box” commercial development west of Dundurn. 
The City of Hamilton critically needs increased tax generating employment lands.
The research into economic development tells us that clustering is key. A land swap in which some MIP activities are moved elsewhere will result in less synergy and a lower chance of success at cultivating new, high-growth businesses.
If no agreement in principle on the MIP emerges from Council tomorrow, the City's original West Harbour bid will go to HostCo, which will result in a 5-7000 seat stadium that can be designed for later expansion if either the Ticats change their minds about playing there or a pro soccer team opens in Hamilton.

White Star Retractable Roof Proposal

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:00:00 -0400

With all the focus on City Council and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, it's sometimes easy to forget that another group of developers stepped forward a few weeks ago with an alternative vision for the West Harbour.

The White Star Group has developed plans for a retractable roof stadium, sending us the following statement:

In a recent study for White Star by Chamberlain Architects, the team explores the best solution to encapsulate the brown-fields in West Harbour complimenting the visionary appeal of an intelligently designed retractable roof stadium. This paper has been made available to the public. White Star's "Venetian Plate" concept has been recently used with great success at the Millennium Park in Chicago among other famous world-wide sites built upon swamps and brown-fields.

Considering the large investments required to build these facilities, careful consideration must be given to the design of a retractable roof stadium so that it may be utilized 12 months of the year. Here in Canada, we must face a cold hard fact; every year, we face a cold hard winter.

By building a facility that can be used throughout the year, the opportunities to hold a larger number of events increases significantly. A retractable roof is an important consideration when planning and designing a facility that can accommodate a wide variety of events, increasing its sustainability and usefulness.

It's not only the direct investment in the facility that warrants strong consideration for a retractable roof, but the substantial investment that we as a society put into our young athletes. Many of our high performance athletes must look to warmer climates in winter months to achieve their goals. A world class, year round facility would allow for a more stable, cost effective and productive training regimen.

They also included some great renderings of their proposal:

Read more about their proposal on their website.

It's Time To Contact Province And HostCo

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:00:00 -0400

We all breathed a well-deserved sigh of relief when City Council voted decisively to reaffirm their commitment to the West Harbour Pan Am stadium location as the best place to invest our Future Fund in the interests of our future.

This was such an important victory of the public interest over narrow private interests that it drew praise from both Toronto Mayor David Miller and the Globe and Mail's editorial board, among other national and international supporters.

But the campaign is far from over. The Tiger-Cats still refuse to return to the bargaining table to work out a deal with the City, and a handful of their well-connected supporters, along with many in the sports media, are busy spreading misinformation about the West Harbour and heaping ridicule on the Councillors who voted for it.

They're predicting - one might even say hoping - that Hamilton will lose the Pan Am stadium altogether.

We have to make sure that doesn't happen.

The Province has confirmed and reconfirmed that it will support City Council's decision on where to put the stadium. The Federal Government, after a bizarre claim surfaced that it would only fund an East Mountain stadium, quickly clarified that it, too, will support Council's decision.

Pan Am HostCo, the committee that oversees the games, still has to approve the West Harbour location, but it is the Provincial and Federal Governments, as well as Hamilton itself, that will foot the bill.

We need to send a clear message to HostCo, Queen's Park and Ottawa that we expect them to keep their promise. We don't appreciate the Ticats putting words in our elected officials' mouths, and we hope that our elected officials don't like it either.

We also need to counter the false claims flying around by reaffirming the facts:

There are over 4,700 confirmed parking spots within walking distance of the West Harbour.
The West Harbour and its nearby parking lots are accessible via several major, multi-lane streets from several directions.
The West Harbour is also easily accessible by municipal transit (including planned east-west and north-south LRT lines), regional transit (with a planned GO Train stop st LIUNA Station), walking, cycling, and even by boat from the Harbour. For more on West Harbour accessibility, read The Myth Of The Inaccessible Stadium.
Consulting firms hired by the city have carefully prepared a business case for the West Harbour stadium, and a plan for transportation and traffic management for the site. The claim that the city has failed to demonstrate the suitability of the West Harbour is false.
Meanwhile, the Ticats have yet to produce a business case demonstrating why the West Harbour will not work for them.

You can be sure that powerful interests are busy, right now, lobbying the higher levels of government through back-channel connections. There is $100 to $150 million in public money up for grabs. They will not tire or relent so long as they can influence where it goes.

We need to counter that with the only tools we have: an open, public citizens' campaign calling on HostCo, Queen's Park and Ottawa to follow through with their promise to honour local democracy and accept the final vote of our City Council.

What You Can Do

1. Contact your local representatives at the provincial level. Click here to email Ted McMeekin and Sophia Aggelonitis from the governing Liberal Party, as well as Andrea Horwath and Paul Miller.

2. Contact your local representatives at the federal level. Click here to email David Sweet, Dean Allison, and Gary Lunn, Minister of State (Sport) from the governing Conservative party, as well as David Christopherson, Wayne Marston and Chris Charlton.

3. Contact the Pan Am Games Host Committee (HostCo). Click here to email all of them. (Please note: we are aware that some of these email addresses may not work - this appears to be either be an issue with HostCo's email systems, or a deliberate disabling of accounts on their part.)

4. Contact all of them at once! Click here to do that.

If you have any problem with the links provided above, here are the email addresses so you can cut and paste them.

Provincial reps:

ahorwath-qp@ndp.on.ca, pmiller-qp@ndp.on.ca, saggelonitis.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org, tmcmeekin.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

Federal reps:

info@davidsweet.ca, Christopherson.D@parl.gc.ca, Marston.W@parl.gc.ca, Charlc@parl.gc.ca, info@deanallison.ca, Lunn.G@parl.gc.ca

Pan Am HostCo:

Roger.garland@toronto2015.org, Marcel.aubut@toronto2015.org, Sylvie.bernier@toronto2015.org, Martha.billes@toronto2015.org, Michael.chambers@toronto2015.org, Tony.gagliano@toronto2015.org, Doug.hamilton@toronto2015.org, Sandra.levy@toronto2015.org, Carla.qualtrough@toronto2015.org, Walter.seiber@toronto2015.org, Victoria.winter@toronto2015.org, Andrew.wright@toronto2015.org, Ian.troop@toronto2015.org,info@toronto2015.org

Go Ticats West Harbour

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:00:00 -0400

A new campaign has launched that calls on West Harbour supporters to commit to season's tickets if the Ticats play there.

The website for the campaign, Go Ticats West Harbour, calls on supporters of the West Harbour location to support the Ticats at that location by pledging to buy season's tickets.

From the site:

As supporters of city building, we believe the choice of the west harbour best leverages the opportunities to redevelop our downtown and west harbour into a vibrant live/work/play precinct, remediate brownfields, accelerate and further justify an LRT system and downtown GO service, and create a new image of Hamilton as being a progressive and sustainable city.

We also believe that our historic CFL team, the Tiger-Cats, must be a part of the bright future of Hamilton and in this new west harbour stadium.

Bob Young put his ‘money where his heart is’ when he bought the team and invested in making it sustainable for future generations. Now it’s our job as a community to help him fulfill that dream to build a financially sustainable team. The best way for each of us to make that dream come true is to purchase Ticat season tickets beginning next year.

Drop by the site to make your pledge.

The Myth Of The Inaccessible Stadium

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:00:00 -0400

A few weeks ago, the supposed lack of parking at the West Harbour stadium location was the key criticism of the site leveled at it by the supporters of the East Mountain location.

On July 21, Raise the Hammer published Plenty of Parking for West Harbour, which listed all of the parking lots we could find within a ten-minute walk of the West Harbour location, coming up with a total of 4,766.

These numbers were later confirmed by city reports, and the fact that the West Harbour location had easy access to 4,700 parking spots took hold. The myth that the West Harbour had no parking mostly evaporated.

However, a new myth has taken its place: the idea that the West Harbour location is inaccessible.

This mantra is repeated over and over again by the Bob Young and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats ("a 30,000 person stadium in an inaccessible urban and residential area is a huge mistake") and Tiger-Cat backers like Ron Foxcroft, who claimed in a radio interview that the West Harbour location has "one lane in, one lane out". (He also claimed there was only parking for about 600 people, showing that some people will perpetuate myths no matter what the evidence indicates).

Another oft-repeated claim is that the city prepared reports showing the West Harbour didn't work as a stadium location, with its supposed inaccessibility ranking as one of the top factors for its unsuitability. These reports were ostensibly ignored by City Council which approved the site anyway.

Of course, none of this is true. The West Harbour location is highly accessible by multiple transportation nodes. The city's reports show this and in fact, a traffic study was carried out by IBI Group, which examined the site from a perspective of up to 27,000 event attendees on a regular basis, spiking up to 32,000 attendees for peak events.

In the West Harbour report, the Transportation Impact Assessment commences on page 113. A presentation by IBI Group is also summarized here.

However, most people won't want to spend their time paging through city reports, for good reason: they're long and boring and that's why we have councillors. Unfortunately, this has made it harder to counter the myth that the West Harbour location is inaccessible.

That's why we've created a map showing the accessibility of the West Harbour stadium (A miniature version is shown below, but the full version is required to get the complete picture, including the legend.)

View West Harbour Stadium Accessibility in a larger map

This map demonstrates the many ways in which people could access the West Harbour location: by highway (the 403 is just 2.6 km / 5 minutes away), by GO transit (Ticat research says 39% of season ticket holders and 53% of single game ticket purchasers would use GO), by proposed LRT lines, by a dense network of city streets including many with capacities of 4, 5, and even 6 lanes, and even by boat!

Compare this to a proposal like the East Mountain, where the only way to reach the stadium is by car.

As we've previously noted, an event at the East Mountain with 25,000 attendees will generate around 9,700 car trips. It will take more than 1.5 hours for those cars to seethe down the RHVP and Linc, and longer still to funnel through the interchange and into the parking lot. It will take the same time to get out (also note that the parking lot will hold a maximum of 7,000 cars and there is nowhere else for the rest of the cars to go).

The city's report backs up this conclusion, noting in the traffic impact study that traffic would have to be staggered to get everyone to the East Mountain, and events would have to start later than 7:00 pm.

That's not an issue with the West Harbour location, where a dense network of city streets, combined with easy access to major arteries and the 403, would disperse traffic rapidly.