By Eric Stern
January 11th, 2026
BURLINGTON, ON
This latest tower on the lake will contain 154 hotel rooms and 50 rental units. The area is zoned for hotel rooms, and there is a shortage of rental units. With lake views, monthly rents will be sky high, but new high-end homes increase the housing supply. As people move into these new homes, their current homes become available. After many iterations, some affordable housing may emerge.
Parking in the downtown core is already a challenge. By approving this building with just 82 parking spots, council is adding to that challenge. The building will have two full-time valet parking attendants whisking cars to and from private parking spots in other areas of the downtown core.
A car-centric suburban city.
Burlington is a car-centric suburban city. As city staffers and our councillors work to change our habits, it remains true that people who live in single-family homes in spread-out communities depend on their cars. The city’s Integrated Mobility Plan states: “There are to be no new road widenings for the sole purpose of adding car capacity.” The mobility plan envisions the increased use of transit, bicycles, and other modes. Mother Nature is not cooperating; perhaps our council can write her a letter. This winter is cold and snowy enough to deter the most ardent cyclist. Adding a cluster of tall buildings, with insufficient parking, in the downtown core will only exacerbate existing traffic and parking problems.
Planning the perfect 15-minute city requires a blank slate. Transitioning a suburban city to a 15-minute city has been done, but not the way Burlington is approaching the problem. Pontevedra, Spain, started its journey in 1999. The downtown core was pedestrianized, and surface parking was replaced with underground parking or peripheral lots. This approach allows people outside the downtown core to easily drive into the downtown, park, and enjoy the restaurants and shopping.
Burlington’s approach appears to involve making the downtown core so congested that no one who lives outside the core will go anywhere near it.
What are some possible outcomes for Burlington as more and more high-rise buildings are constructed?
1 – The city will win, and drive times will increase to the point where it will be faster to ride a bike. Without subways or dedicated transit lanes, transit times will also increase. The end result may well be an unlivable city; some people will be lucky enough to have employment within walking distance, but it’s hard to imagine the majority of us will. Extrapolating from this scenario, housing prices decline as Burlington becomes less desirable.
2 – Technology will save the day. Brampton’s ARGO transit experiment (link to Joe’s article), car-sharing, robotaxis, or flying cars will save Burlington. Burlington’s consideration of starting or encouraging a car-sharing program was discussed at the January 6th council meeting.
Flying cars will still need parking spots.
Flying cars will still need parking spots.
3 – Environmental concerns are a major driver of the war on cars. Electric cars remove this concern. Roads are widened, and people stop buying condos without parking spots.
4 – Your guess is as good as mine.
If Burlington had rejected this proposal, the developer may have appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT). In the case of 409 Brant St., the OLT approved the project with .74 spaces per unit. The developer included “mitigations” such as car-share stalls and additional bicycle parking.
At 2076 Old Lakeshore Rd., only 0.41 spaces per unit are being planned. Downtown is no longer designated as an MTSA. Should Burlington have risked spending $400,000 or more taking this project to the OLT? The unelected civil servants in the planning department unanimously approved the project, greatly reducing the city’s chances at the OLT. Before voting councillor Kearns remarked that the risk of approval at the OLT was too high to vote against the project. The planning department’s action raises the question: Does the city belong to the people who live here or to the people who work at City Hall?
Planning to meet some old friends for conversation? If you choose a downtown location, group members may have difficulty finding parking. Fortunately, we have many options, many with free parking, outside the downtown core.
Burlington has approximately $12 million set aside in a reserve fund to build a multi-level parking garage in the downtown core. The cost of a new parking garage is estimated at $50 million. As more and more buildings are constructed in the downtown core without adequate parking, downtown residents and businesses will suffer. Look out, taxpayers, the writing is on the wall; we’ll be ponying up millions to solve this problem.
Related news story:
A transit experiment Burlington should look at
Eric Stern is a Burlington resident and a co-founder of Focus Burlington. He knows the contents of the City Budget book better than many of the people at Finance
An excellent analysis and write up by Mr. Stern and Caren is bang on.
We apparently at least lack some qualified City staff and have saddled ourselves with politicians whose only interest is in grabbing a little cash from the Feds under the pretense of creating more “affordable” housing and claiming a win!
This along with pushing their obsession with pushing bicycles and weaponized e-scooters in an arctic country.
What percentage of retirees can afford these units with valet parking?
How many die-hard cyclists do you see on the roads this winter?
Hopefully residents will seize the opportunity this year to completely turnover this Council.
This administration has ruined the Downtown.
More damage is inevitable due to increasing traffic from a congested QEW.One fender bender can cause chaos as frustrated drivers bail out to use our east/west roads to keep moving.
This issue was recognized by the provincial government in the 1980’s and plans were developed for the Mid-Peninsuler Highway .
The Burlington Council joined Halton Region to help kill this project.A huge price will now be paid .
I totally agree with this article.
And yes, the City of Burlington seems to be ruled by unelected City Staff on numerous projects and not by our Burlington City Council who are voted in to represent their residents best interests in everything they do.
It would be interesting to know how many of the city staff who work in planning and development at COB live in Burlington?
And why did city staff approve this development? Many questions remain unanswered on this one?
It appears that our Burlington council sold us out for a very small strip of land to be added to the waterfront trail that stops and ends on the east side of 2076 Old Lakeshore Road at Emmas Back Porch?
Our Burlington waterfront is ruined and continues to get worse! Once this prime waterfront land is deveoped its gone forever.
Very few cities have the luxury of living next to water; and the waterfront should have been saved and maintained at all costs for the exclusive use of all Burlington residents and not for developers to build and move on!!
It is now time, although very late in the game, for our mayor and council to fight back on any and all new or future applications on our Burlington Waterfront and Downtown Burlington..
Inadequate Parking in this building and others downtown plus traffic and congestion should be a huge Red Flag for Burlington City Council.