By Pepper Parr
September 22, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The Mayor of Burlington has been, in his own unique way, telling the citizens of the city that intensification is upon us. But that most neighbourhoods need not worry – the intensification will not result in a high rise tower in their part of town.
The Mayor has the unenviable task of having to allow growth that many, perhaps most people, don’t want but that he has to allow because the province has mandated growth.
The Mayor doesn’t make the decision, he is just one of seven votes but as Mayor he is he spokesperson for the city. He gets to be in all the photo ops and take the grief from citizens when they are unhappy.
The creation of Hwy 407 created a new rural/urban boundary for the city. Everything north of the 407 is protected from development. A decision that brought tears to the eyes of a lot of developers.
The only part of the city that isn’t going to experience growth will be the Escarpment, that part of the city north of the Dundas – Hwy 407 boundary line that is protected by provincial legislation.
The population of Ontario is growing and Halton has to take its share of that growth. Burlington has to take its share of the Regional growth that the province has called for.
The Nautique, an Adi Development Group proposal for Lakeshore and Martha Street is now before the OMB – it raised hackles throughout the downtown core. City Council wasn’t that keen on this project but they have approved similar height and density increase request elsewhere in the downtown core.
The Region uses the figure of 500,000 + as the current population. The longer term population projection for Halton is:
2031 820,000
2036 910,000
2041 1,000,000
Close to double the size within 25 years.
The big debates are about the high rise stuff that is being proposed for the downtown core where the opposition is strongest, driven to a large degree by the ward Councillor Marianne Meed Ward who would like to see nothing taller than eight storey structures on Brant. She appears to be prepared to go as high as 12 but not too often if we are reading her correctly.
Where the growth shows up outside the downtown core is in small projects that in their own way change the look and feel of a community.
A proposal now before the Planning department and going to a council Standing Committee next week is for a three storey complex of 11 units on New Street between Cumberland and Pine Grove.
Maranatha Gardens under construction – will change the look of New street – this is probably just the beginning of that change. The picture shows he back of the building overlooking a park
This latest development is right next to the six storey Maranatha Gardens project that is under construction.
Site plan for a proposed 11 unit townhouse complex on New Street.
The people on the other side of the street have expressed concerns over what all this additional population and traffic are going to do to the neighbourhood.
Homes on the other side of New Street. The look of their world ha changed.
This is where the intensification rubber hits the road.
New Street just might have a lot more bicycle traffic if the Road Diet the city is thinking about putting in place ever makes it past a majority of the seven hands that will have to go up when a vote on that idea takes place.
Presently, I am unable to drive from Maple to Emma’s using Lakeshore as it so congested most of the day…instead, I go North on Maple, then take Ontario Street to Brant, over to Elizabeth Street down to Lakeshore. Just wait until the new condos are completed.
And don’t forget minutes away from the concrete cluster, a.k.a. intensification to provide needed housing for growing population. ..homes are being purchased with millions of tax dollars to create more park.
The part about intensification that Kathleen Wynne can’t seem to wrap her head around is that the increased population concentration in the GTA is occurring at the expense of communities outside the GTA.
I spent a lot of time this summer in southwestern Ontario between Sarnia, Chatham and Windsor. Most of these communities have older populations. Many are one industry towns and when the major employer closes the young people move away. These communities are dying, and they badly need an injection of capital and people. Wynne’s government is almost entirely focused on the GTA, and they have no understanding of issues in rural or small town Ontario. Her government should be promoting decentralization, and encouraging a decentralized approach to revitalized growth in smaller existing communities, not shoe-horning 10+ million people into the GTA.
Intensification not only threatens the character of many neighbourhoods but it compromises quality of life for many residents. This Council does not have a mandate to support Mobility Hubs nor, by extension, intensification, and ultimately, it should be the voters, not Rick Goldring, and not this Council, that gets to have the final say. As for Kathleen Wynne, the woman is beset by scandal, mired in corruption, and shackled by a failed Green Energy program that has wasted billions of dollars on nonsense. Ontario voters will hopefully seal her fate next June.
Glad I won’t be around when the concrete jungle is done!!! Have we only got puppets for leaders? Can’t anyone stand up to Wynne? Maybe she won’t be around much longer 🙂 but then we are left with the mess anyway.
Re: “….Councillor Marianne Meed Ward who would like to see nothing taller than eight storey structures on Brant.” – why are the other councillors not supporting her?
And what happens if the “intensification” fad falls out of favour after the next election?