Council endorses Preferred Concept for the Downtown section of the adopted but not approved Official Plan: policy work now begins.

News 100 blueBy Pepper Parr

January 17th, 2020

BURLINGTON, ON

It was a long but very fruitful session of the Community Planning, Regulation and Mobility Standing Committee. (CPRM)

In a phrase, Council recommended the endorsement of the Preferred Concept for the Downtown core section of the approved but not adopted Official Plan.

Alison Enns, who steered the creation of the Taking a Closer Look at Downtown reports, explained that “endorsing” does not mean a final decision has been made.  All the endorsement amounts to is being told that they are going in the right direction.

Enns group

From the right: Thomas Douglas, Alison Enns, Catherine Jay and Paul Lowes of SGIL Consulting.

Enns and Thomas Douglas did more than a yeoman’s job on this file.  They were everywhere, trying every community engagement tool they could find.  They held Action Labs, Food for Feedback Sessions, Walking Tours; they even managed to convince several Councillors to hang around the library to try and engage people to talk about what they wanted for their city.

For Burlingtonians it was all about the Lake; they wanted a clear view and easy access to the lake and they wanted Brant Street to serve as the frame for that view.

Suzanne Mammel - shooting from the hip

Suzanne Mammel, of the Halton, Hamilton Home Builders Association (HHHBA)

There were seven delegations; the development community, represented by Suzanne Mammel, of the Halton, Hamilton Home Builders Association (HHHBA) resented the short time frame her organization had to respond to the Preferred Concept. She took the view that the 20 metre set back that was being proposed for Brant Street would result in very little actually being built.

The planners settled on a total of seven precincts for the city and took the meeting through what each of the precincts would likely look like once development began to take place.

There was a lot of discussion over the “numbers” how many residences were going to be built, how many jobs would be created, how high might a building be and when would all this actually happen.

The Gazette will report in detail on what the plans are for the precincts.

When it came time to put forward a motion that would approve a recommendation that would go to Council.  Mayor Meed Ward, as is her practice, came forward with a number of amendments that were eventually approved.

Those too, will see the light of day once all the documents become publicly available later today.

The Mayor did put up a graphic that she has marked up to give people a sense of what she had in mind.

MMWammend

A portion of a graphic used during the meeting with scribbles and notations from the Mayor.

There was a lot of discussion on the shopping plaza on east side Brant, north of Caroline where the No Frills supermarket is located. The thought was that a park could be put in place, a trail could be added to the edge of Rambo Creek which runs along the eastern edge of the property and John Street would be extended north through the site.

Paul Lowes, the SGIL consultant, told the meeting that what was put in place did not have to be a road but did think there had to be something in the way of a transportation route to take some of the traffic pressure off Brant Street.

The information that came out of the meeting was lengthy, detailed and highly relevant; the Gazette will set out to report in as much detail as possible.

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