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April
29, 2002
Over $2 million a hectare
GET RICH QUICK — SELL LAND TO BROKE CITY!
Taxes
are going up and budgets are very tight, but the City of
Hamilton is about to pay half a million dollars for less
than a quarter hectare of land. The 0.23 hectare property
is located at 168 Mud Street. A recommendation being presented
to Council on April 30 advises the City to pay $500,000
to expropriate the land. The former Regional government
offered the owner $100,000 when it initiated expropriation
proceedings on the vacant property in 1989 as part of the
north-south Red Hill Creek Expressway project.
Paying
massively inflated sums to property owners lucky enough
to be in the path of the proposed expressway is becoming
a regular activity of Hamilton councillors.
Since
1999 more than $4.7 million has been spent acquiring slightly
more than 2 hectares of private land for the expressway.
The average cost is nearly $2.2 million per hectare. This
is more than 60 times the price paid for the parkland in
the valley itself which was sold by the former City of Hamilton
to the Regional government in 1997 for less than $35,000
hectare.
The
following table summarizes the four most recent expressway
purchases:
| Land
Description |
Year |
Hectares
|
Cost
|
Price
per Hectare
|
| Red
Hill Valley parkland |
1997 |
65.388
ha
|
$2,233,300
|
$34,155
|
| Paletta
International lands, 272 First Road W. |
1999 |
0.85
ha
|
$1,264,444
|
$1,487,581
|
| 473/477
Nash Road |
1999 |
1.036
ha
|
$2,950,000
|
$2,847,490
|
| 168
Mud Street |
2002 |
0.23
ha
|
$500,000
|
$2,173,913
|
The
$500,000 would certainly come in handy this week as councillors
grapple with a very difficult budget. It could be used to
pay the $265,000 for critical promotion of the City’s
ambitious waste diversion program, plus the $105,000 for
special collections of household hazardous waste —
both projects classed as "unaffordable".
Or
it could be used to avoid the proposed $20 per item charge
for curbside pickup of ‘white goods’, and the
proposed doubling of the minimum charge per vehicle for
waste dropoffs at the City’s transfer stations. Together
these two new fees are expected to generate $401,000 in
new revenue.
Or
it could allow the councillors to forget about almost all
of the $311,000 in HSR service cuts as well as the $212,000
in planned reductions of grass cutting on parks and boulevards.
Or
the Council could actually meet the full budget requests
of both the Hamilton Conservation Authority and the Royal
Botanical Gardens, instead of cutting $312,000 from the
former and $100,000 for the latter. Indeed, there would
be even enough left over to provide the $50,000 promised
to the Hamilton Naturalists’ Club for a biological
inventory of the City’s significant natural areas.
Or,
to really get a big bang for the buck, they could simply
cancel all of the following cuts, and have enough left over
for a fancy dinner for every member of City Council:
| Budget
Items Currently Listed as Unaffordable |
Amount
|
| Mechanical
sweeping of goose poop from Bayfront trail (listed
as "unaffordable") |
$2,580
|
| Two
student staff to enter Tree Inventory data ("unaffordable") |
$15,490
|
| Presentations
by Public Health nurses to grade 1 and 2 students
(cut) |
$17,500
|
| Tree
planting by Green Venture (cut) |
$20,000
|
| Hiring
five new school crossing guards ("unaffordable") |
$25,340
|
| Hire
one staff to administer downtown renewal loans and
grants program ("unaffordable") |
$43,580
|
| Not
closing 16 swimming pools for an extra week per year
(cut) |
$45,000
|
| Not
imposing an 11% cut in "cemetery operating activites,
internments", etc. (cut) |
$45,280
|
| Continue
funding of the "Clean Air Hamilton" air
quality improvement group (cut) |
$60,000
|
| Carry
out testing of emergency power generators for Copps
Coliseum, City Hall, Hamilton Place, Central Library,
Farmers’ Market, and Central Utilities Plant
("unaffordable") |
$100,000
|
| Not
delay recycling programs for 1/3 of City’s apartment
buildings (six month delay) |
$125,000
|
|
TOTAL
|
$499,770
|
Should
the councillors get in the spirit of ending the real "unaffordable"
spending, they could also cancel the long outdated plans
to build an expressway in the Red Hill Valley, thus avoiding
putting the City another $79.1 million in debt. Debt payments
in this year’s budget already amount to $46.5 million,
or over 20% of the portion of the budget that Councillors
directly control. Borrowing for the expressway and other
projects is projected to more than double the City’s
debt in the next four years, from a current level of $246
million to $529 million in 2006.
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