City councillors have received an update on Stelco’s vision for hundreds of acres of underutilized and surplus land in Hamilton’s north end.
Peter McAllister, the steelmaker’s chief development and operations manager, has appeared before the public works committee to discuss their plan to create an industrial park.
Stelco sits on an 800-acre site, but with the shutdown of primary steelmaking, he’s told committee members that there are about 550 acres surplus to the company’s needs.
“With Amazon and other initiatives here in Hamilton,” McAllister says, “we are receiving a tremendous amount of interest in our property.”
He says Stelco believes it will be a “unique redevelopment project within the ity of Hamilton and provide employment for the city and growth for the city.”
In order to develop the property as an industrial park, the public works committee has been told the company needs to reach a servicing agreement with the city through an amendment to the sewer use bylaw.
Councillors have directed staff to report back with options for moving forward.
“We need to somehow make this happen,” Ancaster Coun. Lloyd Ferguson says.
Other councillors have indicated that they’ll be looking for assurances that Stelco would be trying to attract the types of industry that contribute to quality of life.
“We have an opportunity here to reverse decades and decades of pollutants in our neighbourhoods,” Ward 4 Coun. Sam Merulla says.
He’s also told McAllister, “If you’re willing to sign on a dotted line that you have pristine industrial, I’d be supporting what you’re presenting today.”
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