By Pepper Parr
July 6th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
It was a hot Saturday morning which didn’t seem to deter the band of about 25 people who chose to do a walking of parts of ward 2 with Councillor Lisa Kearns.
Tour started off at the No Frills plaza – towers in the background, all south of Caroline, have in the minds of many, destroyed the feel of the downtown core.
Lisa spent half an hour talking about the her view of the ward as she saw it, explaining what a city Councillor could say and do and what they couldn’t say and do, giving her view of the ward as she saw it and then walked the group up Brant Street and point out where the development was going to take place and what she liked and didn’t like about some of the developments.
Maps with development details were handed out.
He is certainly paying attention.
The concerns were always about height and density and the size of the units that would be organized as rental units. Not much mention of park space.
The development at 795 Brant has been an issue for council. The developer wanted to demolish the building arguing that it had little in the way of heritage value. The matter went to the Ontario Land Tribunal where a settlement has been worked out. That story will be a seperate article later in the week.
The house, one of the last farming houses left standing in the core of the city, has been a Land Tribunal issue that is at the settlement stage. Exactly where the house will be located is not yet clear.
Tour ended at Brant and Prospect where there is a very controversial development taking place on an oddly shaped piece of property.
I think that many younger people don’t have the time to be involved in politics. They are busy dealing with employment, young families and the struggles involved in everyday life.
Older people have the time and the life history to realize how governments at all levels can influence how they live and its effect on future generations.
How many of us (older) people were involved when we were raising families and making certain and planning for the future?
It’s our turn to help to protect our cities for future generations.
Good points, Penny. I really didn’t engage civically until I was in my 50s.
Some people believe that I have never engaged civilly – Oh, you said “civically”
Note the age group on the tour. Young(er) people do not tend to engage in the future planning of Burlington. They may as a generalization agree with living in a dense Burlington of high rise small unit condos with a scrap of park thrown in or simply have resigned themselves to the writing on the wall. Older people, not so much.