By Pepper Parr
May 30th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Nancy Shea Nicol: Burlington Corporate Counsel, has rarely been in favour of making legal matters public.
They are getting better at doing their jobs.
For the longest time Council has gone into a CLOSED session and saying precious little about what they are going to talk about.
Pressure from ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns and others appears to have brought about the needed change.
Later this week Council will go into a CLOSED session to talk about:
Confidential legal services department report regarding a litigation matter for 720, 735, 740 Oval Court (L-33-23)
Pursuant to Section 239(2)(e) of the Municipal Act, litigation or potential litigation, including matters before administrative tribunals, affecting the municipality or local board.
Progress!
This is the development that has their attention. It is a whopper of a development.
Is Burlington ready for this kind of concentration and height. Beginning to look like Mississauga ,
One could bet the mortgage payment that most people know that developments like this are going to be built in Burlington.
Canada needs more housing not less, affordable and other. It has to go some place. If you don’t want to live there, its a choice. Traffic congesttion aside of ocurse, as this area is a choke point at times and that is before this mega development.
I am not yet convinced of two things that we are being constantly fed by the Feds. One, that we as a country need as many millions of immigrants in the next thirty years in order to succeed as a prosperous and stable country. Two, that about half of these millions have to be wedged into the already dense cities from Hamilton-Niagara through the GTA.
Stephen White has often commented in the Gazette that there are many smaller municipalities in Ontario that would love to increase their populations to add to their tax bases and chances of encouraging businesses to locate there to employ new people. More creative thinking is required to stop just naturally assuming that everyone has to overcrowd cities that are already getting overcrowded. That kind of thinking is not happening with our current provincial government.
The shine that once polished Burlington as a very desirable city to live in is quickly wearing off as we turn into a Mississauga West capital of high rises, density and traffic jams. This development will be one of its showpieces.
I appreciate your kind remarks Gary.
One additional Idea that is also deserving of attention is repurposing existing office developments. This is now being seriously considered in places such as Calgary and Toronto. One of the results of the pandemic is that many companies are reducing their real estate footprint, and allowing more employees to work from home on either a limited or extensive basis. Significant office developments are sitting idle. These buildings can be repurposed and retrofitted in less time than it takes to build new. I have to believe the rezoning to permit this is simpler as well.
The proposed development at Oval Court is ridiculous on so many levels. It is much too large for the area. There is only one road in and out of the development area which will greatly augment transportation gridlock. Many of the proposed housing units cater to single persons and not families. The much discussed community amenities (e.g. outdoor promenades; podium areas; etc.) are mere tokens. Construction will take years to finalize, and the impact on residential areas will be significant. The downstream effect of increased waterman and sewage levels has the potential to overburden existing systems.
This is a horribly planned development with major negative externalities, and the developer has already heard an earful from irate Ward 5 residents. However, in Doug Ford’s Ontario where developers are allowed to run amok, anything goes.
Ready or not, the towers are coming.
And they always were despite promises to the contrary …
Thank you Ms. Kearns. For far, far too long Shea Nichol has had an inordinate influence on the lack of transparency of Council. Virtually, every subject that she brings forward is a confidential legal matter forcing Council to go behind closed doors like a group of guilty children. All matter legal are not axiomatically confidential – although it does take some effort to decide which actually are.
Shea Nichol has been heading the Burlington Legal Dept. for too long. It is time for fresh eyes and attitudes. I would put a similar motion forward for the retirement (forced or otherwise) of Laura Boyd. In my opinion she too has influenced the human resource policies of the City for far too long.