Councillors kill idea of adding a Bay Street LRT stop

City councillors decided Wednesday not to ask Metrolinx to add a $2.6 million stop at Bay Street downtown in the upcoming Hamilton light-rail transit (LRT) project.

The Bay Street stop, pitched by the Chamber of Commerce, would have split the difference between James and Queen streets and put a stop at a high profile intersection close to a number of major public and private facilities and venues.

Councillors voted 9 to 6 to nix the Bay Street stop, overriding a unanimous vote of the city's LRT subcommittee to support it. 

Coun. Jason Farr, who chairs that committee, saw the vote Wednesday as a show of strength by opponents of LRT.

"It's a crying shame," he said. "They didn't just go against the LRT subcommittee. They went against all of those people in the business community" who signed on to the chamber's letter. 

That included heads of the downtown McMaster University health centre, the art gallery, downtown banks and real estate offices, the operators of downtown entertainment venues and several hotels. 

'Why the hell didn't we put a stop right here?'

Chamber head Keanin Loomis said in November that the added stop would have been the obvious stop for city hall, the Art Gallery of Hamilton and McMaster's downtown health centre, and could also bring a big boost of "economic uplift" to the intersection largely populated now by parking lots.

Loomis expressed his disappointment on Twitter after the vote.

In an interview with CBC News, Loomis said not having the stop will be the city's "first and biggest regret" with its implementation of the LRT network.

He said with FirstOntario Centre, Jackson Square, ServiceOntario, Nations grocery store and more on Bay, people will ride LRT and be puzzled about there being no stop at Bay and King streets.

"Everybody will be thinking, 'Why the hell didn't we put a stop right here?'" he said. "It's such an important intersection and its one of the under-performing intersections in the lower city."

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Farr worked with city taxation director Larry Friday to estimate the tax revenue that could come with developing the parking lots at Bay and King into housing and retail with the selling bonus of being on an LRT stop. Farr said that would mean $6 or $7 million a year when now the city receives about $100,000 in taxes from that corner. 

He said one argument floated in the discussion Wednesday was "concern" for the taxpayer. But he said those arguing that never responded to the economic case he saw for the development potential. 

"Many people who voted today didn't even speak to (why they were opposed)," he said. "I don't think it should be underestimated how significant this vote was today."

The Bay Street stop would have been 425 metres from James and 425 metres from Queen.

The project has grown from 13 to 14 stops after a Gage Park stop was added recently.

Metrolinx is building the $1 billion LRT system, which would run alternately along Main and King streets from McMaster University to the Queenston traffic circle. A previously planned spur line down James Street North was recently swapped for a 16-kilometre bus rapid transit (BRT) line connecting the waterfront with the airport.