Population growth for Burlington set at 124,390 by 2051 - that's why all the high rise towers are being built.

By Pepper Parr

November 14^th, 2022

BURLINGTON, ON

At a city council meeting last week a resolution was put forward asking the provincial government to give municipalities more time to consider and review items that came out of the two announcements made last Friday.

The first announcement came out at 2 pm; the second just after 4 pm.

Bill C23 (More Homes Built Faster) was introduced and ROPA49 (Regional Official Plan Amendment) was approved (with significant changes) by the Minister

Combined the two will change the way the municipal sector does business.

Someone at city hall knew that the two were huge in terms of how the city would handle the changes and how they would prepare the responses.

No one said who rang the bell to get all hands on deck but starting Friday evening through to late Monday Staff turned out high level reports for council and gave their best solutions to what was in front of the city.

The province had given the municipal sector 30 days to respond – the city passed a resolution asking that the 30 day commenting deadline be bumped up to 60 days – even then Staff knew they had a mammoth task in front of them.

The Minister of Housing had signed off on ROPA49 – which was not appeal able.  That document opened up all kinds of land that is currently Employment Lands.

Here is what we know so far.

Ward 1 Councillor Kelvin Galbraith finds that two areas in his ward will now get a much different look. – Eagle Heights and the Bridgeview development now that those properties are going to be brought into the urban boundary.

Up until the changes the Region was working on population numbers out to 2041 – the province changed that and sent out numbers for what the population growth was going to be through to 2051.

The 2041 number for the Region was ; 240,050

The number for 2051 is now 265,160.

Burlington’s share was, for 2041 114,330 – that has been bumped up to 124,390 by 2051.

Managing these changes and understanding the unintended consequences as well as the intended consequences is hard work

The Planning department is swamped.   The graphic below sets out what planning staff have to cope with.

In an attempt to deal with the workload and the amount of time available the city passed the following Resolution:

WHEREAS; the both the Provincial and Federal governments have initiated conversations on how all three levels of government can collaborate to solve the housing crisis;

Changes brought in by the province are going to bring about mammoth changes – City Manager Tim Commisso said: “We will make it work.

WHEREAS; the current timing for input on these substantial changes in legislation and regulations is not adequate for the municipal sector to provide fulsome, effective, and constructive feedback or to identify the unintended consequences and serious implications that may arise from these changes that may ultimately frustrate the Provincial Government goal

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Burlington City Council requests that the Province of Ontario extend the comment period for all 30- and 31-day postings for feedback on potential legislative, regulatory, policy and other changes, to 66-day postings, to allow for fulsome municipal consultation.

The Resolution will be sent to everyone who can read in the municipal sector, to the government, the political parties and every stake holder they can think of.

The West End Home Builders Association had already put out a media release saying they were onside and will work with everyone to make it possible.

How this will happen is something no one really knows.  City Manager Tim Commisso told Council that Toronto is looking for 30 planners adding that “we will make this work”

Work is the operative word in all this.