By Pepper Parr
July 1st, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
The election that takes place October 22nd for a new city council and school board representatives is not going to be the snoozer that the 2014 election was.
That year every member of city council was returned. In the four years that seven member Council sat they made two major decisions.
They approved a new Strategic Plan and they passed a new Official Plan.
Traditionally Strategic Plans were for the term of a city council – four years.
The current Strategic Plan is for a 25 year period. An incoming council is not bound to a plan created by a previous council.
Up until the 2012 a Strategic Plan was put in place Burlington created a Strategic Plan for the term of office. The understanding was that a current city council could not bind future councils to an objective they might not agree with.
There was never a public debate on lengthening the time frame of the Strategic Plan. The current council decided that it was better municipal governance to create a 25 year plan and tweak it as the years rolled by,
Four “pillars” were defined WHA ARE THESE and they became the base on which the plan was to rest. The city brought in KPMG as consultants who guided council and city staff through the process.
There were numerous delegations done but there was never a OPEN THIS UP
The four pillars on which the 25 year Strategic Plant was built. How are we doing so far?
During the years leading up to the creation of a new Official Plan there were several speeches given by the Mayor on intensification and what it was going to mean to the city.
Rick Goldring chose what he believed was the safe political route to take – assure people that there will be changes but they aren’t really going to change very much. About 5% of the city would experience change.
The document that set out what intensification was really all about was a provincial policy statement – Places to Grow. It set out where the growth was going to take place and just how much growth there was going to be.
That process for Burlington had the decision made at the provincial level and the deciding of specifically where the growth was to take place made at the Regional level.
The Downtown part of Burlington is broken into precincts. There are development rues for each precinct. A precinct is not always one contiguous area. Confusing at times
Burlington had all kinds of input in that process but very little of it was as public as it could have been and there was certainly no public debate or information sessions on where the residential growth was going to take place and where the jobs would be located. That was done by the Planning department.
There are four mobility hubs -n Burlington these are centered around the four GO stations. Significant development, of both commercial and residential is planned for these locations. The development around Burlington and Aldershot GO stations is well underway.
Included in all this change was the mobility hubs; a concept that was never explained to the public in the early stages. The two words made sense – what wasn’t clear to the public, and to some of the members of council as well, as to what it did mean.
During some of the Strategic Plan meetings it looked as if the mobility hub at the Aldershot GO station was where the first stage of growth would take place. At the time the Paradigm project had broken ground and it soon became clear that the Burlington GO station was where all the early action was going to take place. Land on the north side of Fairview between Brant and Guelph Line became the real estate hot spot. Deals were being done weekly with several property owners holding out to get a better sense as to which direction the wind was blowing.
This is the downtoen precinct – it is within the downtown core. Many felt that the high rise development should have been clustered further north. It may be too late for that – most of the property has already been assembled.
The public attention however was focused on the downtown core. The first of the high rise condo’s was before the planners. The developer came in with a 27 storey proposal on the NE corner of Brant and James that got whittled down to 23 which city council approved on a 5-2 vote.
Prior to this the ADI Group development at Lakeshore and Martha that had gone to the OMB where everyone was certain it would be scaled back. Didn’t happen – the city didn’t make its case and the OMB said the xx storeys were just fine.
Many felt the die was cast and that Burlington’s downtown core was to become a forest of 23+ storey condominiums.
The beginning of the change for the downtown – this one will go up opposite city hall.
Many of the citizens were aghast – how could this happen?
Members of city council knew how it happened – they let it happen.
All this led to people wanting to stop this level of change from taking place.
The election scheduled for October was going to be their chance to elect a new city council that would create a new direction.
Ward 2 city Councillor Marianne Meed Ward became the spokesperson for those who said they were not opposed to development – they just wanted responsible and properly phased in development. The developers saw a blazing hot market and they were not of a mind to wait. The current city council seemed quite prepared to go along with them.
The Mayor is on the ropes, Meed Ward has her loyal following – and then Mike Wallace makes it known that he will run for the office of Mayor.
Mike Wallace congratulating Karina Gould on her win of the federal seat in Burlington.
Mike Wallace lost the federal seat as the Burlington Member of Parliament to Karina Gould. Mike loves being in power.
He was never seen as a big thinker but he brought millions of federal dollars to the city and he decided he could knock off Goldring and beat Meed Ward.
The Tory machine that didn’t deliver for him in the xx federal election still existed and Mike was going to take a shot at making it work for him at the municipal level. To be fair to Mike – he was facing a very popular Liberal leader whose coat tails Gould rode into office.
Each of the three major contenders, Goldring, Meed Ward and Wallace made early announcements, then each held their campaign kick-off events.
Mayor Rick Goldring at his campaign Kick Off
Goldring’s was tepid at best – he just didn’t say very much.
Meed Ward made her event a kick-off and a fund raiser – it cost $25 to get in the door.
Wallace held his event in the same room at Emmas Back Porch where he had conceded the federal election to Karina Gould.
This time Wallace had something to say – he spoke of two planks of his election platform.
He would ask council to approve an increase in the size of council – he thought going from a seven member council was now necessary and felt that nine was a good number.
Bronte Meadows – owned by the Paletta interests, zoned as Employment land and included in the package of GTA properties that were in the offering to Amazon who were looking for an eastern headquarters – dubbed HQ2
He also said he wanted to create a community that would attract the young people back to Burlington where they could live and work and proposed the development of a large community. He didn’t say where he thought this development should take place and he didn’t say how large it should be.
There is only so much land that residential housing can be built on. The size of the land needed to do what Wallace has in mind is owned by Paletta’s.
The large property at Upper Middle Road and Bronte – known as Bronte Meadows – is zoned as Employment land. The Paletta’s have been trying for years to get that changed to residential or at least mixed use.
Wallace said that he was the kind of politician who could get things done; that he knew how to pick up the phone and talk to people.
The province now has a government that looks at development a lot differently hat the previous Liberal government.
Can one assume that Mike Wallace has talked to Angelo Paletta. I’d bet on that.
If, and this is just an if, those conversations have taken place does that mean the developers are still in control. Many people feel they have controlled the current council for some time.
Salt with Pepper are the opinions, musings and observations of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette
Very good take on how “Burlingtonians” got sucked into the slight-of-hand that is called Growi Bold. Now it is up to the electorate to judge who allowed this to happen and to rectify the situation Ward by Ward. It is also up to us to ask the hard questions of any and all candidates.
Adding two Councillors without a corresponding adjustment in ward boundaries doesn’t accomplish much. Six restructured wards in the north and six in the south bifurcated by the QEW making 12 Councillors and a Mayor would make more sense. Using Ward 5 as an example, the needs of residents in the north are focused on more amenities, services and parkland, but in the south the focus is upon redevelopment and improving declining infrastructure. 12 Councillors would create more chance for engagement and renewal, and bring more new faces onto Council.
In a community already reeling from multiple development proposals talking about more development is hardly what citizens need or want to hear right now. Given the paucity of employment opportunities in Burlington I for one would prefer some concrete proposals on how we are going to attract more jobs for our young people.
As for the incumbent, it’s clear the momentum is not with his campaign. The Mayor should recognize that a graceful exit is far more palatable than an ignominious defeat. Heed the results from the recent provincial election, look at the crushing defeat experienced by Kathleen Wynne, salvage what is left of your waning credibility and get out now. Burlington needs change, and this Mr. Rogers” routine of going around and telling voters “It’s a wonderful day in the neighbourhood” clearly isn’t cutting it.
So refreshing to read a frank assessment of our times especially compared to the tasteless gruel being served up by the Burlington Post. Good work