Densifying Hamilton

Vincent J. Curtis

15 Oct 21

Let’s image Hamilton with 236,000 more people to accommodate, 114,000 more jobs and no urban expansion, taking the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing’s demographic numbers along with the Stop the Sprawl/Mayor Fred urban densification scenario.

With no boundary expansion, most of the accommodation will have to take place in the lower city.  Housing on the Mountain is too new, and there’s practically no green or brown space available on the Mountain.  How, for example, can Buchanan Park neighbourhood accommodate 50 percent more people?  Eliminate the park by building housing on it?  I don’t think that’ll work.

The water and sewer systems will have to accommodate 50 percent greater flow though the existing set of pipes.  Water supply in the lower city is by gravity feed, so water flow rate to a house is going to drop by a third.  Sewage also flows by gravity, and sewage backups are going to become much more frequent as 50 to 100 percent more sewage is pushed into the old pipes.

Road traffic is going to increase by 50 to 100 percent on the existing road net in the lower city. Much greater congestion can be expected, especially during rush hour, and there needs to be parking for all those extra vehicles.  A comprehensive system of rapid transit isn’t being planned for thirty years from now, and it would have to be built on the existing road net anyhow.

Densification is easy to prescribe; but won’t be easy to live with.

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