By Pepper Parr
October 21, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
The ward covers the eastern half of rural Burlington and tracts that run from Hwy 407 down to Upper Middle Road and includes the well-established communities of Millcroft and Headon. The newly created Alton community brought much more diversity into the ward and small pockets of development along the 407.
There isn’t much in the way of industry in the ward; The Hanson Brick Works operates at Dundas Street, there are a lot of commercial operations but all are small in nature. Emery Developments decided to build two five storey towers attached to each other with a two storey atrium at Palladium Way. The intention of the developer is to build on speculation. They were confident enough that the market was there for their offering and expected some occupancy in late 2015.
Staff recommended a Mixed Use plan but indicated that if council selects the all Employment option, staff are able to support this, but cannot support an All Residential option
The Krpan Group project at Dundas and Tremaine is stuck at the OMB – residents have heard very little about this project which has a number of features and approaches to development that are worth paying attention to – but they don’t appear to have any traction in the mind of the Council member for the ward
There was to be a new court house for provincial offences in the war but that disappeared just as fast as it appeared when local opposition spring up without the ward Councillor knowing all that much about the plans.
There isn’t a ward council – that kind of citizen involvement doesn’t sit all that well with the Council member; it would mean sharing the power a member of Council has and attracting meaningful input from the community.
Millcroft and Headon are strong communities that with few problems. Snow removal, road repairs – the usual municipal services are what they ask for – just keep our taxes down.
Dundas Street is due for a very significant upgrade and a widening that will make it a much different road than it is today – it isn’t clear yet what kind of development it will attract. The Region expects to run busses along that road as part of an inter-city transit offering at some point. That is years away but the work needed to create an additional east west road has been made at the Regional level – so Dundas get upgraded
Part of the massive gym set up in the Haber Recreation Centre
The opening of the Hayden Recreational Centre, the Frank Hayden High School and a new branch of the library system created a community that pulled itself together very quickly and managed to produce three South Asian candidates for the ward seat.
Transit is not yet a significant issue – most of the seniors are at a point in their lives where they still drive their cars. The demographic of that cohort will shift significantly in the next ten years and the need for more in the way of community services geared to seniors and transit service that will let them get to different places in the city will become evident.
The Air Park is both a problem and a significant opportunity but at this point any ideas that are being discussed come from the mind of Vince Rossi who has yet to provide anything in the way of a business. Rossi has been able to get away with dumping land fill without the required permits because no one, including Blair Lancaster, paid much attention – they bought the argument that the air park was federally regulated and no one asked any questions.
There is an opportunity to do something with the 200 acre property that fits in with an Air Park and the rural setting – no one has come up with anything yet. Not the Economic Development Corporation, not the Region, not the city – not even the people who live in the eastern half of rural Burlington.
Background links:
The ward Councillor: an assessment.
