Hamilton North End housing project stalled due to CN Rail appeal

A mixed-income housing project that’s been in the works for about a decade is stalled again. The demolition of the empty townhouses in Hamilton’s North End is delayed because of an appeal from CN Rail.

The townhouse complex at 405 James Street North sits vacant and only partly demolished. The 91-unit subsidized housing townhouse complex has been vacant since 2019, and it has seen plenty of delays in becoming anything else.

Most recently, it was supposed to be turned into 447 units of mixed-income housing in August, including 160 units reserved for affordable housing run by Indwell and the city.

Now, Ward 2 city councillor Cameron Kroetsch says CN Rail appealed the project in September which halted the demolition.

“I’m really concerned about this appeal, this project has been empty for a number of years now… and this appeal by CN because of the proximity of the development site to its shunting operations is likely to appeal, so it could delay this for a while,” Kroetsch said.

CN Rail says the reason for its appeal is centred on safety concerns, odour, vibration, and noise.

Those who live in the area say this vacant block they pass every day, could provide shelter for the homeless, “the city puts the reason that they want to make more affordable housing, but to me, they already had it there, and there was a ton of poor families living there before, but they seem to be okay, but all they gotta do is, renovate it, update it, and there’s your affordable housing.”

Kroetsch says locals may not be seeing the block change anytime soon.

“Right now, the Ontario Land Tribunal is not hearing appeals immediately, it’s hearing appeals in the future and best case scenario, we’re looking at maybe an appeal date at the end of the year… I really hope what can happen now is all the parties can come together quickly, come up with a settlement arrangement, figure out what the major issues are and solve this so we can get affordable housing built,” Kroetsch said.

Kroetsch says locals may not be seeing the block changer anytime soon. He says the Ontario Land Tribunal is likely to set an appeal date sometime near the end of the year.