By Pepper Parr
January 23rd, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
The Planning and Building committee that met this afternoon and this evening, and possibly into another day if everyone is not heard today does have an agenda which is to:
Receive Department of City Building report PB-11-18 regarding supplementary information with respect to the proposed Downtown Mobility Hub Precinct Plan and associated Official Plan policies; and
Direct the Director of City Building to proceed with the proposed Downtown Precinct Plan, as described in report PB-81-17, and incorporate into the proposed New Official Plan; and
Direct the Director of City Building to incorporate Additional Supporting Policies for the Downtown, as described in report PB-11-18, into the proposed New Official Plan.
The report staff took them through before delegations began was impressive – quite why this wasn’t delivered to the public several months ago is difficult to understand.
What became evident from the get go was that people wanted more time and they wanted more detail before decisions are made.
Brian Dean delegating on behalf of the Burlington Downtown Business Association (BDBA) asked that any decision on both the Downtown Mobility Hub and the Official Plan be put off until June.
Citizens are telling city council that they don’t want to be quite as bold as the Planners are suggesting.
June is the furthest forward date so far – what was going to get made final at the end of January got pushed to February, then April – and now the business people want June.
The larger public wants the whole caboodle put off until after the election in October when they say the city council will actually have a mandate to do that they are doing.
The back and forth during the 11 delegations in the afternoon got a bit testy at times. With some 80 people in the Council Chamber – that dropped off to under 40 after a short mid-way break.
The Gazette will report in more detail once the evening session adjourns – they have 20 delegations to listen to – and there is going to be a request that delegations be taken from the floor – that is people who did not register be allowed to speak.
One of the major problems associated with the planned Downtown Mobility Hub is that our downtown is physically proximate and adjacent to the Burlington Skyway. When there is an accident on the Skyway traffic offloads onto alternate routes such as Northshore Boulevard, Lakeshore Road, and Fairview as commuters try to avoid a traffic jam by detouring through the city. The upshot is that it bottlenecks traffic on residential streets and the downtown core. The problem will become more acute in future due to increased population densities from all those proposed 20 storey high rises and downtown streets that won’t be widened or enhanced. The situation is compounded by having a hospital which is also in the downtown core with emergency vehicles constantly coming and going.
Planning officials were told this repeatedly in consultation forums, but like pretty much everything else they just ignored it. When you plan in isolation with a preconceived agenda and ignore existing problems and realities you get a bad plan. Come to think of it, that pretty much describes Grow Bold.
One big solution to the downtown over intensification is to MOVE THE MOBILITY HUB LOCATION from downtown to mid town like Oakville did, and all their density and intensification will be zeroed around that location, which is much closer to the QEW and the Go Station for commuters. Grid-lock won’t be as bad because they can choose a location where they can widen roads and expand the infrastructure, downtown you cannot!