“Despite formal objections raised by some of
the townships affected, the application of the McKittrick syndicate for
annexation to the city of the property in the west end was approved this
morning by the Ontario Railway board, sitting at the court house here, and work
will be commenced on the proposed new $100,000 bridge and other improvements
without loss of time.”
Hamilton Spectator. January 26, 19141
The developers were ready to go, and the
City of Hamilton officials had already approved the widening of municipal
boundaries to bring the area into the city boundaries, its legislated which
took effect on December 31, 1913.
But…
There were formal objections to the
annexation filed by the Townships of Barton, Ancaster and West Flamboro.
To adjudicate the matter, a session of
the Ontario Railway board took place in the Wentworth County Court House in
downtown Hamilton.
Complicated legal matters mainly involving
insufficient notification of the annexation to the affected townships and
potential invalid names on petitions calling for the annexation to be reversed
took a great deal of time to settle.
Also, there were questions as to what
would happen to schools and roads already existing in the area. The chairman of
the Ontario railway refused to make specific rulings on those matters,
directing officials with the city and the townships to settle the matter through
negotiation. If a satisfactory agreement could not be reached, there would have
to be an imposed settlement by a board of arbitration at a later time, a
settlement that might well not be satisfactory to all parties.
J. G. Farmer, the solicitor representing
Ancaster Township, brought up the matter of the taxes in arrears owing to the
township. The Hamilton City Solicitor agreed that the city would pay the
township all the owing tax amounts, owed until December 31, 1913 and would
pursue the delinquent property owners itself.
Also
appearing for Ancaster Township, J. Counsell drew attention to the road which
bordered the annexation lands, along the border with his township. Counsell
felt that because there would be vastly increased traffic on the road because
of the development to take place within the annexed lands, the developers
should bear a portion of the cost of maintaining that road.
Chairman
McIntyre, of the Ontario Railway board, dismissed the township’s submission.
Hamilton City Solicitor Waddell added that the developers were prepared to pay
for a $100,000 bridge across Beasley’s Hollow and for a new road connecting the
development with Dundas. Both things would take much traffic away from the
county road.
Objections
were raised the sewage resulting from the construction of homes in the annexed
area would be flowed into the Desjardins canal, thereby placing the health of
residents of Dundas and West Flamoro near Coote’s Paradise in jeopardy. It was
also suggested that the water supply of those areas would be negatively
impacted.
The
Hamilton city solicitor testified that the objections were without any
credibility as the City of Hamilton was already building a west end sewage
disposal works which would not mean that raw sewage would be going into the
canal or the marsh.
After
a few more minor objections to the annexation plan concerning the size and
style of the sewage works were dismissed by the board, the matter was settled.
Not one of the concerns raised by the townships raised by the townships were
accepted.
Both
the annexation of township lands by the City of Hamilton and the development proposals
of the McKittrick syndicate were approved.
No comments:
Post a Comment