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March 2004
Newsletter
Biggest Developer Pleased about Start of Expressway
Hamilton's biggest developer is pleased about the paving of Red Hill Valley.
"Now that the Red Hill Expressway will be built, development of the east mountain will take on a life of its own", says Aldo DeSantis in an article published recently in the Stoney Creek News.
DeSantis is planning to start construction this spring of a huge development near Rymal Road and Upper Mount Albion Road called Summit Park.
"Once completed, there will be 3,500 homes in that area, and 10,000 people" said Mr. DeSantis.
In the same article, the executive director of the Hamilton Halton Home Builders Association (HHHBA) complains bitterly about development charges.
He calls them "a hidden tax" and says they are used by some municipalities "to gouge the building community".
This followed a claim a week earlier in the Hamilton Spectator by the new president of the HHHBA that "development charges in our area are among the highest in Ontario".
Aldo DeSantis was president of the HHHBA in 2002.
Hamilton actually has the LOWEST development charges in the greater Toronto area - less than half the average.
While HHHBA members pay $7000 for the public services provided to a single family house in Hamilton, in Milton the charges are almost $22,000. The average across the GTA is over $16,000.
Development charges are supposed to pay for the infrastructure built by municipalities to service new subdivisions. The most frequent justification given for the Red Hill Creek Expressway is to support new development.
But less than 5% of the cost of the combined Linc and valley expressways is being covered by development charges. The other 95% is coming from existing taxpayers.
In the 2000 municipal elections, companies headed by DeSantis provided campaign donations to ten pro-expressway councillors. No anti-expressway councillors received donations from his companies.
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