By Staff
May 15th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
Lisa Kearns announced today that she will run for Ward 2 Council seat in the upcoming Municipal Election. Concerned for any conflict of interest she has chosen to step away from ECoB – Engaged Citizens of Burlington.
Lisa Kearns, a ward 2 resident who was a strong voice within ECoB.
Will this affect ECoB? –The answer is Yes and No. While Lisa played a valuable and pivotal role in its formation and work to date, ECoB consists of a team of residents from all of Burlington, who have come together to share their knowledge and expertise. This includes municipal planners, lawyers, and business owners, some retired, some not. The information and planning for the delegations and the workshops, organized by ECoB were a team effort with Lisa and Jim Young being the public faces.
Lisa’s hard work and dedication will be missed but as voice for change she deserves all our best wishes as she takes her advocacy to the next level as a Ward 2 Candidate for City Council.
ECoB is still working actively. We have met and will continue to meet with different City Departments to get the answers to the many questions being asked by residents and their advocacy groups.
Lisa Kearns, one of four people seeking the ward 2 city council seat.
ECoB will continue with its mandate to make staff and council accountable for good planning and improved public engagement.
ECoB is always looking for new people to help strategize, if you would like to be part of the change that is happening in Burlington, please contact us through our website – engagedburlington.ca.
Kearns is one of four people seeking the ward 2 seat vacated by Marianne Meed Ward who is running for the Office of Mayor. Nominated to date are Roland Tanner, Kimberly Calderback and David Cherry.
ECoB’s loss might be Burlington’s gain.During her time with ECoB Lisa demonstrated the type of qualities we want in a councilor. Happy to see she has chosen to run in Ward 2.
Well said Joe. It is getting crowded in this Ward 2 race with hints that a fifth candidate may still enter. I hope this is not the case as there already seem to be three candidates who object to the over-intensification of the downtown versus one who will support it. Sets up a dangerous prospect of vote splitting that could leave the downtown with a councillor who will support 20 plus storey high rises in most blocks running up Brant and adjacent streets, an outcome that should scare downtown citizens.
Gary: You appear to have analyzed the growth implications in the Downtown very carefully. How many 20+ storey buildings that satisfy all of the new OP policies and all of the City’s guidelines do you see realistically fitting into the Downtown?
Andrew, I’m trying to figure out if this is some kind of a trick question, but I’ll give it a stab. I have never gone on record as being in support of any building with a height over 12 storeys downtown (ie. south of Ghent). That is essentially what our current Official Plan says. But City Council (with threats by developers to go to the OMB or actual OMB rulings) has massaged the heights of buildings downtown upward even before the last OP in 2006.
Before 2006, there was no excuse for this. Since 2006, when we accepted the Province’s Urban Growth Centre downtown, that became our convenient excuse to allow heights over our own plans, because Council essentially promised the Province we would increase the density our downtown by putting up tall buildings.
Fast forward to today with general new OP height limits of 17 storeys downtown, but of course Council and/or the OMB allow 26 storeys on Lakeshore and 23 storeys across from City Hall. You can see there is still no control on height. It will take a new Council to rectify these problems.
So realistically, I just can’t give you a number because there are no actual rules and the players are going to change this fall (I hope).
Gary: No trickery here just an honest question. I was not asking you what you support yet I would seriously like to know how many new high rises could realistically be constructed provided they satisfy the policies of the new Official Plan and the Tall Building Guidelines.
Another honest question – which developers are threatening the City? This is something the public really needs to know! I sure do!
It is my understanding that landowners cannot be prevented from submitting applications. However, I would think that the planners at the City work hard to review and evaluate applications based on a whole bunch of different policies and guidelines from a whole bunch of different levels of government in addition to comments received from the public and council.
At the same time, I am having a really hard time understanding what is so magic about buildings with a maximum height of 12 storeys. People talk about this all the time but how this maximum height is rationalized is quite a mystery to the casual observer, especially me. However, I can’t help but think that a taller more slender building that allows more sunlight to the street would be beneficial.
Again I must apologize for my ignorance but how did the City of Burlington “promise” to the province that it was going to build tall buildings downtown. I think this is stretching the truth a little bit and you should step up and acknowledge this.
Lastly, if you are unable to rationalize the potential impacts of the new official plan, you really should qualify your statements and not criticize it the way you do. The narrative that is being promoted is that there will be tall buildings on every property and in the surrounding neighbourhoods. You owe it to all of the readers to just be honest – you can say you don’t know. That is OK.
Is Lisa running in Ward 2 the best use of limited resources needed to return the control of the City to responsible governance? Perhaps the ECoB should convene a war council and ‘influence’ the best deployment of the best candidates to the best purposes.
I support this idea. With Craven out, we really need a credible and knowledgeable candidate in Ward 1.
All I see are folks I never heard of, with no platform, looking to be opportunists.
To paraphrase what Perry says, get smart folks.
You are absolutely correct Perry! What is critical in this election is a strategic approach that maximizes the best use of money, people and resources in pursuit of a common goal. Having multiple candidates running splits the vote and we all saw what happened in Ward 6 last municipal election when that happens (i.e. 9 candidates, and the winner gets 29% of the vote).
Lisa is a great candidate. She is qualified,knowledgeable, personable and knows the issues in Burlington. My friends in Ward 2 will vote for her. Unfortunately,I am in Ward 1 and hope a similar candidate will emerge.