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8 · NEW HOMES, February 3, 2006 Mayors Dilanni and Maclsaac join builders for annual HHHBA 'State of the City 1Luncheon By Marijana Prica Portfolio o f N ew Homes Editor Hamilton Mayor Larry Dilanni and Burlington Mayor Rob Maclsaac addressed the membership of the Hamilton-Halton Home Builders' Association (HHHBA) at their 5th Annual 'State of the City' Luncheon on Thursday, January 19 in downtown Hamilton. tic product for the Hamilton Metropolitan area including Burlington." The City of Hamilton has taken a new approach in its planning and economic development departments, which Mayor Dilanni referred to as the "CANDO Approach" - Customers, Attitude, New Policies and Partnerships, and Development Opportunities. To help provide better service to their customers City hall has changed its attitude in-respect to the way they do business and how they help businesses conduct business in Hamilton. This includes revamping the economic development cluster strategy under the leadership of the Economic Development department; engaging in a long term planning session called GRIDS to identify the most ideal places for growth and the type of growth based on environmental priorities, social issues, economic oppor tunities and population studies; streamlining the approval process from 8 to 10 weeks to 3 to 4 weeks; and also creating a `one stop one-window approach to approvals. Future renovations to the second floor of City Hall and the relocation of the Zoning and the Over 200 local business leaders, elected officials representing all three levels o f governm ent and various senior staff official from the Cities o f Hamilton and Burlington and the Town o f Oakville attended the HHHBA State o f the City Luncheon. Allan Roshko, Marijana Prica, and Heather O'Neill from Portfolio o f New Homes, Burlington Post The mayors were joined by HHHBA president Peter Serrani who delivered his 2006 Industry Address to over 200 local business leaders, elected officials representing all three levels of government and various senior staff official from the Cities of Hamilton and Burlington and the Town of Oakville. Mr. Serrani is the founder and president of Maple Crest Homes, an Ancaster-based home building company formed in 1992 and a member of the HHHBA since 1995. A builder of quality single detached homes, Mr. Serrani has completed projects in Hamilton and Stoney Creek and has spent the last 12 years building in the Meadowlands of Ancaster. He currently resides in Cayuga with his wife Patti. 1 | ^ mm m S IP J I ' i r 'i i ^BS if {j J11 \ \ p | I j | ] | -------------------------------------------------- ^ Hamilton M ayor Larry Dilanni provides and up-to-date look into Hamilton yesterday, today and tom orrow . ' shopping' approach for business development leaders to do business in the city. As for new policies and partnerships, the City of Hamilton has introduced a program that includes a new subdivision agreement that will provide flexibility in construction phasing and posting of securities and creating a new staging of development program to provide clearer timelines and certainty in subdivision approvals and engineering design approvals. The future is definitely looking bright for the. businesses and residents of Hamilton. The future McMaster Innovation Park will create 1 million sq. ft. of research facilities and the potential for 1,500 jobs, according to Dilanni. The airport is also growing, and has attracted a new anchor tenant - AirCanada Jazz. It is estimated that Hamilton will grow to approximately 700,000 people by 2032. So what does this mean for Mayor Dilanni? "The Province has already made it known that Hamilton will be a priority urban centre in its "Places to Grow" document, and will experience unprecedented growth. Our job is to be'ready, to make the right decisions based on the right information. And that is why we undertook the GRIDS process. With GRIDS as our guiding tool, we will make the right choices for the future of Hamilton.. .Things are definitely ^ ^ ^ ~ f : . M-:_______________ ^ lis fw _______________________ Hamilton M ayor Larry Dilanni, Burlington M ayor Rob Maclsaac, and CHBA president David Wassmansdorf. Both mayors took the time to discuss and explain the current Maclsaac were able to join us for this very important function," said ^ | ^ i 4^ Mayor Larry Dilanni stressed just how important the housing industry is to Canada and Hamilton as a whole. "Nationally, total expenditures on new home building, renovations and related residential spending reached over*$100 Billion in the last few years In Hamilton, housing and residential expenditures are estimated to be over a billion dollars," said Dilanni. "...in the Hamilton area, more than 18,000 jobs are generated in construction alone not to mention all the related spin-off employment. This represents almost a million dollars in wages and $1.7 billion in gross domes1'f §01 \ 1 ||| j 5~ \ ; T " g Mk j .. > », s I Ilf ft iM i yPSil 3 t l 1 ,, ;--- -- ------ ----- * *· Committee of Adjustment will also make conducting business much smoother and more efficient. * think our efforts are paying off - j u s t this week Burlington received a very positive ranking in Canadian Business magazine' s review of Canada' s best places to do business - we were rated 11th out of the 50 Cities listed, we're the top GTA Municipality. The Intelligent Community Forum also rated us as one of the top 21 top intelligent communities in North America," said Maclsaac. Leading the way in 2005 for Burlington was the approximately one million sq. ft. UPS project; the completion of the Appleby Line underpass and the preparation for a new underpass on King Road and Upper Middle Road; the initiation of Waterdown Road Interchange, which the city is working with the Province to commence construction in the very short term; and also the completion of the Guelph Line Interchange. "Our existing urban area will see greater pressures than ever before in its history for infill development and intensification... People generally don't like change. And in many respects, it' s hard to blame them. People are generally dealing with so much change in the rest of their lives that their home and their neighbourhood are places they look to for sanctuary from change... But change is inevitable, particularly in a progressive city, If Burlington is anything it is progressive. I believe that to resist change as a city is to invite decay into our neighbourhoods. You cannot stand still as a community. If you are not moving forward, you are likely losing ground." But with this change, Maclsaac plans to communicate ideas to the citizens and to manage change so as to improve the City, "First - we need to do a better job of providing the necessary services to support growth. People need to actually see some more tangible benefits to growth in their neighbourhoods and their city, I think we are doing our part in terms of investing in new facilities for our people...But the player that has been missing is the Province. They need to invest in the culture and the health servic es and the infrastructure to support the growth that is occurring." This means new investment in the hospital to allow it to better serve the community. This means widening the QEW through Burlington so that the city is no longer what Maclsaac refers to as a bottleneck for Provincial traffic. And this also means more effective transportation alternatives to the QEW, and more investment from the Province in terms of public transit. It was also require the efforts and ingenuity of the builders to design great new infill developments. `rSo the past year was one of really good progress. And I am very proud about wliat is happening in Burlington. And as always, I look to our future with profound confidence that as good as our city is, we can make it better and there is every opportunity to do so," ended Maclsaac. HHHBA president Peter Serrani delivers his industry address. looking up for Hamilton. We have turned a comer and the future for this city looks bright." Mayor Rob Maclsaac followed Mayor Dilanni with a close look at Burlington in 2005 and how he plans to move forward. Building permits have traditionally been an indicator of the health of Burlington' s economy and over the past year, record lev els of building permits were issued in Burlington, according to Mayor Maclsaac. "Total construction value for 2005 was a record $538,154,803 with the residential and industrial sectors leading the way in con struction activity. The industrial sector enjoyed a healthy surge in number of building permits issued (16%) as well as in construction value. In 2005 in the Industrial area, 99 permits were issued in 2005 compared to 85 in 2004. Construction values in 2005 were $168,700,000 (up from 27,300,000 in 2004)." Just like in Hamilton, Burlington City Hall is also modifying the way they conduct business. Bill 124 will modify the process of applications for building and planning approvals, and the recent re organization of the Planning Department has helped to create a Burlington City/Regional Councillor - Ward 4 lack Dennison, PC Electorial Representative fo r Ancaster--Dundas~ Flamborough--Westdale, David Sweet, and Burlington City/Regional Councillor - Ward 6 Carol D'Am elio Burlington M ayor Rob Maclssac takes an in-depth look into the happenings o f Burlington in 2005 and the prospects over the next fe w years.