By Pepper Parr
February 6th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
The properties bounded by James, Martha Lake Shore Road, and Pearle provide a snapshot of what is taking place in the downtown core.
In the picture below there is the Mattamy development on the corner of James and Martha. In the background, on the left is the ADI Nautique,
and to the right the Beausejour.
South of the ADI and Beausoleil developments, in the football space between Lakeshore Road and Old Lakeshore, thereat are four skyscraper-level developments that are in various stages of development.
Every square foot of the property inside the football has a development plan that is somewhere between the Planning Department, the OLT, and maybe even a building permit.
The people who live north of Upper Middle Road have, for the most part, little in the way of understanding how the city is changing – downtown for them is Sound of Music, Ribfest and events that get them out to Spencer Smith Park which is now past capacity.
The small stretch of Martha, on the east side of the street just south of where James turns into New Street there is a patch of land that will see buildings that are in the six to eight-storey range.
Interesting how development has changed the downtown core and the Save the Waterfront group that Marianne Meed Ward used to get herself elected to Council in 2010 has managed to save the waterfront – if you can see it.
The sales sign on the Nautique doesn’t represent the reality that most people deal with when looking at condo space.
In the beginning – when Rick Goldring was Mayor the then Waterfront Advisory Committee invited former Mayor David Crombie out to talk to the group. At the time Crombie urged the community to invite architects to come up with some ideas on what could be done with the football properties. At that time no one had begun to consolidate the 18+ lots.
That idea didn’t find any traction – what you see rising out of the five-level underground garages is what Burlington is going to look like well into the next century.
Pity
Is our Mayor going for the ‘Chonqing China’ model of, where is the street level? More levels more taxes.
https://youtube.com/shorts/D2OCjiVXGQo?si=dlF_7kBV5dYvCtUW
This certainly is a far cry from what we were promised by then-councillor MMW in her 2018 election campaign. As others have said, I believe Burlington could have the honour of ruining their downtown and lakefront in a worse manner than any other Ontario city, except perhaps Toronto. I go to Oakville when I want to shop in a nice downtown, and I live in Burlington’s “downtown” – ours truly is incredibly ugly. There’s also a huge lit-up Reimer sign on the top of the latest eyesore tower beside the Adi building as well as Reimer-signs all over the fencing across at Old Lakeshore Road where the builder keeps their equipment – hmmm – hadn’t seen Reimer associated with this awful building before.
I agree that this traces back to this Liberal Governments massive immigration policy.
That policy is also responsible for the problems we have in Health care and Education shortages.
How any government could welcome millions of immigrants without thinking through the impact on housing /infrastructure/education and healthcare is beyond belief.A now they have the audacity to ask us to re-elect the same incompetent crew.
I made one of my infrequent trips to downtown Burlington this past week. I was astounded by how congested the city centre has become, and how overbearing these new high rise condos are.
Funny how developers love to trot out their little renderings with scenes of happy couples strolling hand-in-hand along wide boardwalks taking in the lovely vistas and bucolic surroundings. Unfortunately, the reality is a far distant cry from the design. All I saw downtown was sterile buildings lacking in character with limited aesthetic appeal. And where are all those lovely retail stores and beautiful shrubbery and green space? Amazing how all the low to mid-rise developments, such as the ones along Plains Road, have stores and businesses on the ground floor. Where are all the shops, convenience stores, etc., that the developers assured us would be attracted to their downtown high rise developments? Must be a figment of my imagination….much like the City’s commitment to sustainable development, affordable housing, and preserving the character and charm of downtown Burlington.
There is so much more to this than a short article can possibly address. For almost fifteen years, both the downtown and the waterfront have been the focus of acute public attention and concern. Indeed, both were commonly regarded as belonging to every citizen of Burlington, not just those lucky enough to live in Ward 2 near the lakeshore. They were believed to be common, community assets to be protected and preserved to the maximum degree possible. However, the corollary to belonging to everyone is that they also belonged to no one. There was no single, pervading view of what they should be and how they should be developed into the future.
In the early days of my local advocacy and civic activism, there were many who thought that Burlington’s downtown and waterfront should be intensely developed. The Toronto waterfront was actually held up as a positive model and the term “Nimby” came into popular use to disparage opposing views. There was open and frequently acerbic debate and commentary in local media; the opposing voices were many and fierce. There were those like Meed Ward who championed a populist agenda of gradual, appropriate change and there was the Goldring-led council that, to all intents and purposes, let both the province and private developer interests have their almost inevitable way. The official forums of control and decision-making, the Ontario Municipal Board aka the Ontario Land Tribunal, were (and are) unwieldy, process-driven arbiters of private versus public interest. The municipal government and city staff were (and are) both unprepared and woefully ill-equipped to identify and protect the public trust. And the politics changed – Jean D’Arc once enthroned became Marie Antoinette.
Today, we are faced with what, for me, is the unhappy result; an ugly collection of tall buildings – proposed/approved or in process of construction – that block sightlines and access to the lake, that signal a degree of intensification that the infrastructure cannot support and that offer a downtown that is, to my eyes at least, lifeless and uninteresting. It could have been different. It is different in neighbouring municipalities. And we only have ourselves to blame. Of course, this is just my personal view and highly subjective.
Burlington has been sold out. For over 20 years, residents have watched as city leaders and provincial bodies ignored public outcry and handed our waterfront, roads, and quality of life over to developers.
What was once a beautiful, open, and accessible lakeshore has been buried under high-rises, gridlock, and poor planning. The city is now an unrecognizable mess of congestion, lost green space, and vanishing local businesses.
I’m sure there were objections, but the relentless march of developers, rubber stamped by the provincial Government has created a situation where traffic is a disaster and going to get worse, infrastructure is strained beyond capacity, and residents are left with no voice. ,
Despite those objections, the relentless march of high-density development continues, rubber-stamped by provincial bodies that cave to developers at every turn.
Our city’s leadership has failed us, prioritizing profit over the people who actually live here. During summer, festival time, residents are forced to take a bus to get to the lakeshore …. and Council thinks that’s OK. Really ??
All done under the guise of “progress”,
As this continues, Burlington will be nothing more than a concrete wasteland, and those responsible will be remembered for their failure to protect it. But citizens need to remember that increased infrastructure costs, traffic and congestion costs, the strain on public services, loss of small business and retail taxes, and property value hikes, leads to higher taxes, more congestion, and a lower quality of life for everyone.
They’ve got their hands in your pockets Burlington !!!!!
Downtown Burlington is indeed soulless high rises with NO creativity especially in their exterior design. Look at Vancouver and Chicago for wonderful architecture and thoughtful designs. PITY!
None of this happening in Old Oakville downtown.They pushed the high rise mess up to DundaS St.Smart planners there!
Downtown Toronto was once a single dirt road with nothing higher than 2 storeys too. Times change. Burlington isn’t immune to growth. You don’t have to like it, but for your own sanity you have to accept the fact that it’s happening regardless of how you feel about it. People tend to tie themselves up in knots over each and every proposed new building, trying to somehow protect a past memory of what Burlington used to be. That’s not healthy. That’s not realistic. Burlington must continue to grow. If you hadn’t noticed, we live in one of if not the most heavily populated and growing metropolitan areas in Canada. It’s all a matter of perspective. A pity to you. An exciting new opportunity for others. There’s a harsh reality of city building, it’s not about you or me, it’s about future generations who will also call Burlington home. We’re merely a blip on the city building timeline. Future generations will read archival newspaper clippings from their 85th floor condo on Brant Street and wonder what all the fuss was about. In the meantime, we have the beauty and freedom of choice to continue to live here and watch our city grow, or move as far away from it as we can.
Round and round we go with the high rise invasion of the downtown at and near the lakeshore as well as at mid-town. The blame must be shared between our Council, the Federal Government with its recent massive immigration numbers, the Province with its take on our share and the massive intensification of cities going forward, supported by its agency the Ontario Land Tribunal that is in lock step with developer visions of over-intensification of buildings and people with no attempt to provide lands for parks and open spaces needed by humans for their social and mental health in so-called complete communities.
This era of stuffing people into too small suites for the comfort and well-being of people and their families will be written about in future decades as a terrible mistake and ruination of cities. But of course it will be a reflection too late. We will have to live it before anyone with power realizes the harm done and the next regimes try to repair the damage too late. Not an optimistic story.