By Pepper Parr
March 30, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
It was a meeting that had the city planners meeting with some of the people in Aldershot to talk about possible changes that might take place along Plains Road between Cooke and Filmandale.
The city is in the process of doing the required five year review of its Official Plan. In Burlington the process is to go out into the community put some ideas up on a screen explain how the Official Plan is reviewed and then listen to questions and ideas from the community.
City planner Bruce Krushelnicki started the meeting by explaining there would be no decisions; no announcements and no surprises. We are here to listen to you.
This is the part of Plains Road the community gathered to talk about – but it is just a small piece of a much larger puzzle. Citizens will have to figure out where their personal interests fit into the puzzle.
The purpose was to talk about land use changes – to talk about how land use changes should be made or whether there should be any changes in the Official Plan and the zoning.
“People want to get the best possible value for their property when they sell and at the same time protect the character of their community” said Councillor Craven who took an active part in the meeting.
Guidelines for development along Plains Road were set out in 2006 which led to policy changes in the Official Plan. The official plan gets reviewed every five years and looks forward for 20 years.
The province set out an intensification strategy in 2008 and Burlington learned it was going to have to accommodate HOW MANY NEW PEOPLE
Burlington set out what they called intensification corridors to accommodate this growth – both residential and commercial– places where new growth or re-development would take place. Plains Road is on that map.
There will be intensification and here is where is is going to be
However, Plains Road isn’t a single stretch of land – it has been broken into segment for planning purposes. There are surprising differences between the segments.
The south side of the Cooke/Filmandale segment prohibits townhouses. Several in the audience wanted to know why.
The biggest issue for most was that there are no places to shop – there is just one bank.
The reason for the lack of retail choices is that the population isn’t large enough for retailers to come in.
Greg Woodruff, a candidate in the last municipal election said the small retail spaces that do exist are too small – “they don’t have delivery docks; they don’t have any venting if someone wanted to open up a small restaurant and there is no parking”.
The spaces are more suited to professional services and as one person said: People walking to see their tax accountant doesn’t create much in the way of foot traffic – which is what the people in Aldershot appear to want.
There are seniors who want the community to stay just as it has been for the many years they have lived in the community. The problem is that the younger families that will move into the community eventually, would not accept the small bungalows with small bathrooms. Families want more space.
Redevelopment is a good sign explained planner Krushelniki – the motels are for the most well past their best before date – Plains Road is no longer the road you take to get somewhere; it is the road that leads to a rich diversity of homes.
The homes south of Plains are protected – however when the New Horizon’s had a development proposal for the Plains Road and Falcon area one would have believed the end of the world was upon us – property owners were bellowing that once those four stories went up it wouldn’t be long before that kind of development crept south. That is not going to happen.
The Solid Gold entertainment operation made its way into the conversation – and the planner agreed that there will come a time in the not too distant future when that land will be put to a different use.
The development that is being thought through around the Aldershot GO station – they are calling these mobility hubs even through there is no such thing in the Planning Act or the city’s Official Plan. But they are very real in the minds of the planners and in the minds of those who are responsible for the economic development of the city.
While no one in Aldershot wants to see 30 story high rise buildings along Plains Road there was more than a muttering of approval for that kind of structure in the land adjacent to the 403 and on the west side of Waterdown Road.
The black dotted box is what the residents of Aldershot were to be talking about at a recent community meeting. The elephant in the room was that large pink area – that is where very significant development will take place; perhaps as many as 2000 new residents and loads of traffic coming south on Waterdown.
And a look at the map shown below one can easily see what the potential is for the part of Plains Road that is under study – it butts up against Waterdown Road and is a very short distance from the 403 and the Aldershot GO station.
Mention was made of a 775 townhouse development on lands between the GO station and Waterdown south of the 403; that may be the rumoured ADI Development Group’s plan for the property is is reported to have purchased from Paletta International.
There won’t be anything much above four floors along the part of Plains Road that is being studied. The planning department is aware of some land assembly that is taking place
Aldershot is a world of its own. It is a quiet community that doesn’t feel it has the amenities it needs – there is no beer store, no liquor store and they would like much more in the way of supermarkets
The planners and the ward Councillor explained that the world has changed and small supermarkets aren’t the way the food delivery system works anymore.
When there was an A&P supermarket in Aldershot it was closed because the market wasn’t big enough for them. “They weren’t pushed out” explained city planner Bruce Krushelnicki – “they came to the planning department and said they were going to close down and wanted to know what could be done with the property the store was on?”
Business makes decisions based on their own self-interests – people in Aldershot like the small town feel of their community – but without growth and a decent sized market – they don’t stay.
You will get a supermarket explained Councillor Craven when there is enough population to support a store with xxx square feet.
He might have added that there will be a beer store and a liquor store when there are enough people in the community to justify such operations.
Council Craven wasn’t quite ready for the energy that emanated from Sandra Pupatllo when she was in town looking for possible candidates to run with her as Liberals when she was going after the leadership of the province. That drive fizzled but we don’t think Councillor Craven has ever been the same.
Councillor Craven pointed out that Aldershot has had the slowest growth in the city – a mere 3-4 % each year.
Plains Road was once the road to Niagara Falls before it was a rural road with large productive farms on both sides.
Today it’s almost a road with a split personality. It is a backbone through the community that is trying to be a road that has a number of destinations.
The residents want the commercial concentration to be made up of places they can walk to with sidewalks that can accommodate patios.
The reality is that both Waterdown and King Road have been widened or are in the process of being widened – wider roads = more traffic that will end up on Plains Road – so much for becoming a quiet, pleasant neighbourhood, community road.
The white oval is the part of Plains Road that the community was talking to the planners about – what did they want and what didn’t they want in that stretch of Plains Road. What wasn’t talked about was the development that is going to take place at the Waterdown – 403 intersection and the GO station. Big stuff. And of course – no mention of the Eagle |Heights development.
There are developers with big plans for Aldershot and while it would be untrue to say the ward Councillor is in bed with them – he is certainly on the best of speaking terms
Rick Craven wants development in Aldershot – he realizes that in the not too distant future those quiet, peaceable people who have been his political base will be moving on – perhaps into one of the several retirement homes that have popped up in Aldershot.
Rick Craven is a big booster for Aldershot – he fights for his constituents every chance he gets – there are some he doesn’t get along with and he’s not known for his warm fuzzy personality but he is effective. He is fully aware of the very significant development potential and he works hard to make it happen – he just doesn’t tell his constituents about the very real changes that are going to take place.
What Craven does not appear to be doing is letting his constituents know that change – big changes are coming to town. And their lives will be different. Those people vote and right now he needs those votes.
I’m concerned about the Plains Rd stretch between Cooke and Filmandale. I don’t want to see all the housing along that stretch, that was deemed to be worthy of protection in 2006, clear cut and turned into concrete, brick and asphalt right to street side. Wholesale redevelopment and blockbusting I do not support at all. There are attractive, and historical properties at high risk of such changes.
Although the city planners say no decisions have been made, the Gazette story editor writes like a decision has already been made to change the rules to allow just this kind of change. That’s what I read, although I believe there is much more planning to do, and neighborhood discussion needed, on how we move ahead.
I am not against development, as the Mobility Hub at the Go station is not of any similar concern to me. And I have learned to live with the redevelopments along the other parts of Plains Rd.
The problem I have is there is a loss of commercial and employment and in the new, the small retail spaces with little potential are a too little share of the square footage in the redevelopment which is mostly residential. And then there is endless construction and gridlock that keeps growing. I can’t imagine what it will be like with all this redevelopment that is imagined as possible.
isn’t it say their piece not peace???
Editor’s note: You are absolutely right. Thank you
All in all was a great meeting. Appreciated Greg Woodruff’s comments and also Ms Henshell outlining so well some very practical community needs. Only one old timer spoke out against any development to which Craven pointed out the effect on schools, businesses and churches as populations die out and they no longer thrive. The resonating message is that everyone one expects and wants change but want to help shape it with good community additions. We are facing it head on with anticipation of what could be. Community seems excited and invigorated by the proposed changes but asks to be respected and considered as they happen. Well done neighbours!
“You will get a supermarket explained Councillor Craven when there is enough population to support a store with xxx square feet.” This is far too simplistic. The local population is only one element. How is Aldershot’s population large enough to support an Ikea and the Maple view mall – yet at the same time too small for anything else? It’s because the population in the “trading area” is what counts. You need a commercial ecosystem, a commercial narrative and attractive rental rates to attract retailers. Removing commercial space hurts that eco-system and hurts your chance of getting anything else. Whatever the population no one is going to place a super market by itself with nothing around it – you have to have a variety of stores around and people coming into the community. This line of reasoning is just an excuse to rationalize a total failure in planning and vision.