Hello City of Hamilton Planning Committee Members,

Thank you for your time today. My name is Steve Schiedel, I am the President of Greenhorizons Sod Farms and Willow Valley Golf Course in Hamilton. We are caretakers of over 3,000 acres in the community and employ over 170 staff at these two locations. The purpose of the information found within this website is to explain the full proposal and that the application creates no new development.

While I do fully respect the City Staff report, I do not think that report truly relays the spirit of the application before you. City Staff have explained that they do not have planning rules or precedent to perform what is being suggested in this application. This is why we have these political processes and committees in place to help decide on improvements that are best for our communities, and some that don’t necessarily fit into the regular process. I am sure that you can recognize that although they try, when planning rules are written, they often cannot foresee every single variation of what could be ideal for a community.

Enclosed within this website, you will find a video and text documentation to support these proposed changes.

The Proposal:

What currently exists and what the overall proposal encompasses, is one 77 acre farm and two separate 5 acre lots equalling 3 separate titles and identities (lots) located on Upper James Hwy #6 South. It also includes 1 larger lot on English Church Road. The intent of this proposal is to re-locate the two 5 acre lots on Hwy #6/Upper James and amalgamate all 3 parcels into one, large farm lot. This will enlarge an existing active farming operation from 77 acres to 87 acres. From a farming perspective, this eliminates two potential residential homes abutting an active farm, and at the same time enlarges an existing farm operation to make all production process more efficient.

The proposal is, although perhaps not clear in the original application before you, is to re-locate these residential lots currently on Upper James, and move them to English Church Road, where there are already over 30 residential lots and homes. City Staff have explained that they don’t have the planning tools to perform this exact task, (making the lot amalgamation a condition of the severances), therefore staff’s report is focusing only on the lot severances and not the total proposal. But our understanding is the planning committee can conditionally grant these severances to move to English Church Rd. once the 3 parcels have been successfully amalgamated into one larger 87 acre parcel on Upper James.

We have included a video animation below to show you exactly how this would work, and where the two lots would move to. 

These two residential lots on Upper James\Hwy #6 are directly across from the airport, you can easily see the planes taxing around. Although the Upper James lots are in a slightly lower NEF contour line, reality is from our professional noise impact study when you add the Upper James Hwy #6 traffic noise, it is louder on Upper James than it is on English Church road.

The Rationale:

The addition of two residential homes and driveway’s entering & exiting onto Upper James at this location is less than idea, as I am sure we can all agree. Although currently zoned agriculture and outside the urban boundary for development, with the current expansion of employment construction activity around the airport, the placement of 2 more residential on Upper James (at this location) is not an ideal planning strategy for our community.

Upon Staff’s request, we have performed the following studies and reports, all with positive findings to support the lot transfers:

1. Zoning and planning verification
2. Address and driveway verification
3. Legal opinion on amalgamation process and ability
4. Geological report to ensure the soil is adequate for building’s and septic’s
5. Hydrological report which show the English Church lots are suitable to build on and for a septic system and wells
6. Peer review of Burnside Engineering Hydrological report findings by Cambium Inc to confirm that drilled wells will be suitable with the onsite sewage system and not effect the neighbours
7. Archaeological assessment which has proven no aboriginal or heritage issues exist on these sites
8. Archaeological provincial registration of the site
9. Sound impact Study
10. Arborist Study and recommendations
11. Niagara conservation permit and consultation
12. Public neighbour meeting and open house

The recommended lot relocation sites on English Church rd. have no agriculture value or benefit to the community. Each English Church location fits an ideal infill overview and are naturally separated by a naturalized or out of bounds area from the golf course. I hope you will drive to the sites and review for yourself, and I think we can agree that the English Church Rd. locations are far more ideal for a residential home than Upper James\Hwy #6. I have lived in two homes on English Church road for over 25 years, I can say this is a great place to live and the air traffic sound levels are not a problem at all.

Please note this proposal permits NO NEW RESIDENTIAL LOTS than exists today. We are starting and ending with the same number of lots that exist today.

In summary, our ask is to simply re-locate two existing residential development lots from a busy roadway and transfers them to a side road where over 30 residential homes already exist today.

Thank you for taking the time to review this proposal today.

Regards,

Steve Schiedel
President, Greenhorizons Sod Farms
”The Original Green Company”
Cell #905-971-7490 Office 905-283-0727