Will an LRT election derail development?

There are at least 30 large ongoing or proposed developments in the planning pipeline along the LRT corridor. Some developers say they’re waiting to see if the rapid transit line goes ahead.

“It’s preposterous. It is incredible to me that the question is even being asked ... Why don’t you just hold a vote on returning to horse and buggies?” BRAD LAMB Developer

CONDO

KING Brad Lamb is committed to his glitzy two-tower downtown project even if a new council kills a planned $1-billion LRT.

But the charismatic developer said he’ll hit pause on other Hamilton developments if what he had assumed was a “done deal” light rail transit line goes down in electoral flames.

“It’s preposterous. It is incredible to me that the question is even being asked ... Why don’t you just hold a vote on returning to horse and buggies?” said the always colourful Lamb, whose “Television City” project could include a new tallest building

in the lower city.

(Worth noting: That 40-storey height is opposed by council and under appeal. A compromise might be coming.)

Lamb said he has purchased other properties in Hamilton with an eye toward developments on and off the transit corridor, but “I will not be proceeding on any of them without some certainty” on LRT.

“Seriously, I will sit on them ... until (politicians) in Hamilton wake up and realize a real city needs real transit.”

Unsurprisingly, the experts say it is not that simple.

Studies over time by the McMaster Institute of Transportation and Logistics suggest a light rail transit line can “activate” development, particularly in Hamilton’s asphalt-heavy downtown.

But factors like congestion (or the lack of it), poverty and safety, city planning rules and incentives all play a role in development success or failure along any rapid transit line.

Condo king Brad Lamb, for example, listed LRT as one of several reasons for his decision to invest in the core. The others are GO improvements, existing downtown revitalization and a waterfront makeover.

The city’s highlight list of prospective projects already planned in the Main-King-Queenston corridor to date follows the downtown-first logic, with a majority in or near the core. (Visit TheSpec.com to see the projects mapped.)

In the wealthier west end, massive condo and even hotel development is being eyed around Queen Street, while

student housing towers are in planning closer to McMaster University.

Proposals to date also provide a tease of what might be possible in the more challenged east end, including a (council-opposed) 14-storey residential tower on Queenston Road, a 650-unit housing redevelopment near Roxborough Park and much-needed affordable housing in smaller, six-storey buildings on Ottawa Street and Kenilworth Avenue.

Down the road, Kitchener-Waterloo claims $2.4 billion in private investment along its soon-to-open light rail line — but again, booming downtowns account for much of that development. Economic development officials in Minneapolis and St. Paul told The Spectator on a recent visit that the Twin Cities have seen $4.2 billion in investment in residential-commercial development along its latest LRT Green Line. But critics there question how much of that activity is actually due to LRT, rather than a post-recession bounce in the regional economy.