Dreaming of greatness
Infrastructure 'solutions' would transform Hamilton's tax base, report suggests
February 11, 2010
Meredith Macleod
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/719986
Where there is now a hulking, rusting empty factory, Mayor Fred Eisenberger envisions roaring crowds, bustling streets and a new link to the waterfront.
The mayor led a small tour yesterday, which included city manager Chris Murray, Canadian Urban Institute researcher Iain Myrans and local media, through two of the five districts highlighted in the institute's blueprint for infrastructure investment.
The report, Building Momentum: Made in Hamilton Infrastructure Solutions, calls for a range of "foundational projects" concentrated along James Street, the waterfront, west harbour rail yards and McMaster Innovation Park.
The tour started outside the former Rheem plant on Stuart Street, which once pumped out water heaters. The spot, now owned by the city, along with another large parcel of land south of it, is the proposed site of a new Pan Am Games stadium.
"This is a brownfield. This is our only opportunity to remediate it in partnership with other levels of government," said Eisenberger of the stadium project, which is expected to replace the ailing Ivor Wynne Stadium as home to the Ticats.
"I think it would be a brilliant move to put it here on the waterfront," he said, noting the stadium could be a catalyst for the west harbourfront and go a long way to tying the waterfront to downtown.
A staff report on the stadium site is scheduled to be presented to city councillors next Thursday.
One of the key recommendations of the CUI report, which was commissioned and paid for by the province, is the creation of a non-profit land development corporation charged with driving development on important parcels of land.
They can be city-owned or in private hands, says Myrans. The crucial part is that development increases housing and employment density, capitalizes on the potential of underused land resources and attracts other investment.
The development corporation would not replace the current economic development department at city hall, which would continue to focus on business attraction and retention, city branding and marketing for the whole city.
Eisenberger likes the idea of a development corporation having a narrow focus on a key parcel of land, citing the revitalization of Halifax's waterfront as a clear example of success.
Councillor Terry Whitehead said a separate development corporation would be able to offer incentives and broker partnerships that are off-limits to the city under the Municipal Act.
"If it was broken out as a corporation, there is a lot more flexibility and tools to build investments."
But Gilles Duranton, an associate professor of economics at the University of Toronto, says there is little evidence that any economic development work at the city level pays off.
"Cities shouldn't do economic development, it's a waste of money. ... Cities should make sure public transit is running properly, pick up garbage, provide good amenities and good schools," said Duranton.
"Everything else is lunacy."
Murray said renewal efforts are key to meeting the demands of an aging population on city services.
"We have to get this right to meet that demand. We have to grow our tax assessment."
That point was loud and clear in the CUI report, which said a big stumbling block for Hamilton is a tax base that puts an undue burden on homeowners. In 1974, commercial and industrial assessment was 49 per cent of the total assessment. In 2009, the non-residential portion had shrunk to 26 per cent.
According to the CUI, if the assessment base had not changed from its composition in 1994, the city would have had $133 million more in tax revenue in 2009.
That's about 10 per cent of the city's annual operating budget.
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