Ward 13 Newsletter - Friday, May 1 2026
2026 Municipal Election and update Re: 471 Moxley Rd at Planning Committee
Dear Neighbour,
Four years ago, I put my name forward to run for City Council because I felt our city lacked leadership on some of the largest issues impacting our community. The COVID pandemic demonstrated just how important a local response could be during a crisis, but my neighbours and I were not seeing our City take action on the accelerating housing and climate crises and their impacts, which were already claiming the lives of those most vulnerable in our communities. From these major threats to more traditional municipal issues like road safety, infrastructure renewal, and our city’s multi-billion-dollar infrastructure backlog, I wanted to see my City respond to these realities.
I am so grateful to my community for putting their trust in me not just to represent you at City Hall but to start taking action in the face of decades of delay. Looking back, I am incredibly proud of the work my team and I have accomplished. It’s also upon reflecting on this work that I have made the difficult decision not to seek re-election in the Municipal Election this Fall.
Looking Back:
Ward 13 is the largest ward in the City of Hamilton. Despite the geography, we have worked hard to connect with neighbours. We brought my office across Dundas and Flamborough via our Coffee with Your Councillor events and community meetings and regularly publish a community newsletter that reaches over 1 in 10 households in Ward 13. I’m proud that we’ve not just kept readers informed on what’s happening at City Hall, but also provided a community notice board for residents and community groups to connect with each other during the same time that our community lost our local print news. Through our Community Grants program, we have been able to support dozens of local groups to do what they do best: serve our community. The grants funded new programming for youth in arts and theatre, improved accessibility in local youth sport, and provided direct support to organizations to create and expand programming for seniors in our community.
Road safety concerns remain the most common issue my office hears from residents about. Working with residents has resulted in the introduction of substantial road safety programming, including a new pedestrian crossing in downtown Dundas, a long awaited 4-way stop at Park street west and Cross street, and partnership with neighbourhoods to bring traffic calming initiatives to school commute routes like the community-initiated speed cushions on Cameron Avenue. I worked with Councillor Craig Cassar to conduct the largest in-service road safety review in the city along the Old Ancaster/Old Dundas Road system which has already produced quick wins we’ve implemented with more substantive improvements coming in 2026 and into future years.
I was elected on a promise to take meaningful action on the climate and housing crises impacting our communities. From continuing to stand up for a firm urban boundary despite repeated provincial interference, to accelerating the City’s Climate Action Strategy, to approving the city’s first Biodiversity Action Plan, I have worked with other councillors to further municipal action on the climate crisis. I’m proud of my work in restart the Natural Areas Inventory program at the city and work as a Hamilton Conservation Authourity Board Member to prioritize land acquisition as a pillar in their new strategic plan.
As one of two renters on City Council, I helped bring forward substantive overhauls to City bylaws to protect tenants from renoviction, supported direct funding for new affordable housing projects, and a housing secretariat to manage ongoing strategic investment in affordable housing for years to come. As a City Housing Hamilton Board Member, I have supported the repair of hundreds of units of affordable housing in our city, as well as the creation of a development strategy: a roadmap for constructing thousands of new units of affordable housing in the coming years. While I think our city still has a long way to go in our local response to the climate and housing crises our communities are facing, I am also confident we are on a different path than we were before the last municipal election.
Looking Ahead:
As the Dundas community nears our 180th anniversary, the next decade will see some substantial and much-needed infrastructure renewal in Dundas. With the complete reconstruction of Hatt Street in 2028 and 2029, the long-awaited replacement of the Dundas Wastewater Treatment Plant beginning in 2028 and continuing into the early 2030s, when investments in new HSR next strategy will have brought a new bus rapid transit route connecting Dundas to the McMaster LRT stop.
Managing these important investments and their related growing pains should be a priority for the next Ward 13 Councillor, as should, in my opinion, the work to close the infrastructure funding gaps that exist across our city. Just looking at our recreation assets, the city is facing a $310 million backlog of deferred maintenance. The funding shortage for Parks and Recreation has been accumulating since the early 2000s, driven by historically low property tax increases that did not keep pace with maintenance needs. Similar situations exist for other City infrastructure and contribute to the multibillion-dollar infrastructure deficit city wide. As more and more municipalities experience infrastructure renewal costs beyond what property taxpayers can afford, we need direct federal and provincial investment into the infrastructure Canadians rely on every day.
Instead of that support or investment, the provincial government has acted as a barrier to getting good work done. The introduction of Strong Mayor powers, the forced amalgamation of conservation authorities, the changes being made to school board governance, and a near constant tweaking of provincial planning law have all moved local decision making away from communities and towards less transparent and less accountable processes. I do this work because I want to solve problems, not because I want to point fingers. As the province moves to disempower municipal governments from taking action for their residents, I’m increasingly concerned by the erosion of democracy in Ontario and the attacks on local governance.
In reflecting on this past term and thinking about the challenges our City is facing in the years ahead my decision not to seek re-election is a difficult one. Many of the challenges we are facing took decades to create and will in turn take decades to heal from. As a young person, I am committed to showing up in the years ahead regardless of my job. I am so incredibly grateful for the trust my neighbours put in me to do this work over the past four years and look forward to finding new ways of serving my community in the months ahead.
Sincerely,
Alex Wilson
Councillor Ward 13, Dundas and Flamborough
With that said, there is still a lot of work to do before the end of term and my team and I look forward to continuing to serve you in the coming months. That includes sharing updates regarding what’s happening at City Hall including next week’s Planning Committee.
Update on 471 Moxley Road Proposed Planning Amendment
The Planning Committee meeting to discuss the application concerning the lands at 471 Moxley Road, Greensville will be taking place this Tuesday, May 5th.
Staff are recommending that the application be approved. You can review the material that will be presented at the Planning Committee here: Application for an Official Plan Amendment and Zoning By-law Amendment for Lands Located at 471 Moxley Road, Flamborough PED26091 (Ward 13)
I have heard clearly from residents that they are worried about the impacts to ground water in the Greensville Area worsening as a result of this application on lands previously zoned for development as part of the Greensville Secondary Planning Process. City of Hamilton Planning staff have helped strengthen this application by providing holding provisions to be cleared prior to proceeding with development and by limited the permitted uses to exclude industrial uses previously anticipated for the site. These are important mitigations and but I understand neighbours and community members remain concerned about potential impacts to groundwater as well as the conversion of farmland to a commercial plaza. I will not be able to support the application at planning committee next week.
Residents who wish to speak on the proposal can submit a request to delegate in-person, via videoconference, or via written submission to the Planning Committee. Delegation requests and written delegations should be submitted to Legislative Clerk Lisa Kelsey at Lisa.Kelsey@hamilton.ca before Monday at noon.
Background
City Planning has received an application from the Angrish Group concerning the lands at 471 Moxley Road, Greensville. Rural Hamilton Official Plan Amendment (File No. RHOPA-26-001).
The purpose of the Rural Hamilton Official Plan Amendment is to amend the existing Settlement Commercial Land Use Designation within the Greensville Rural Settlement Area Plan by adding a new Site Specific Policy that permits additional commercial uses utilizing private services on the subject lands.
Zoning By-law Amendment (File No. ZAC-26-004)
The purpose of the Zoning By-law Amendment is to change the zoning designation of the subject lands from Agriculture (A1) Zone, to Settlement Commercial (S2, XXX) Zone, in order to permit the development of commercial uses on the subject lands.
Digital copies of the submitted materials are available at the following link:
RHOPA-26-001 – ZAC-26-004 – 471 Moxley Road