More news and changes in Burlington
City plans for thousands more residents and jobs near three GO stations
Things aren’t static in Burlington. It was recently announced that Mary Lou Tanner, Director of Planning and Building, has been named Deputy to City Manager James Ridge, effective Dec 21. Ridge convinced council to allocate him $550,000 this year for “strategic plan initiatives” but a deputy position wasn’t mentioned. She will continue work on the controversial new city Official Plan until her successor is appointed.
In early December the preferred concepts for Go Mobility Hubs were unveiled. These are the areas surrounding our three Go stations. At build-out, the Fairview hub will could house 22,000 new people and provide 9,500 new jobs, for a gross density of 315 people and jobs per hectare. One delegation appeared for a property owner in the Brant/ Plains area requesting more height and density.
The Appleby hub could have 11,500 new residential units (20,000 new residents). It could also generate 6,200 street-oriented retail jobs, 1,400 big-box retail jobs, 26,600 office jobs and 8,800 light industrial jobs. George Wilson, of Fearman’s, offered to meet with staff and provide suggestions.
The Aldershot hub could see 15,000 new residential units (27,000 new residents) and 2,300 retail jobs. Aldershot was the only hub of the three to generate public angst, mainly because of projected changes to stable welltreed neighbourhoods, especially around Clearview and St. Matthews Avenues.
New road access would be provided to Masonry Court. And four to eleven-storey apartments could appear near the top of Clearview, with two new east-west roads through the community. Queen Mary Avenue dead-ends, but would be opened. There is concern when stable neighbourhoods are affected.
At the meeting, Aldershot resident Tom Muir, who delegates on city-wide issues, argued with Councillor John Taylor about the validity of Official Plans (OPs), and in my opinion Muir was right. He is a retired economist, worked both federally and provincially, and serves on the city and regional committees that establish development charges (fees developers pay toward longtime servicing costs attributable to development.
The current OP, he said is the operative one, and a draft OP has no status. Taylor agreed, but Muir pointed out that on the 23storey Brant Street approval, council used draft OP provisions for 17 storeys to justify a 23-storey building where only 12 are allowed, and only on part of the property.
Taylor claimed they had not used the draft OP for that purpose. If not, how else did they get from the 12 storeys on part of the property to 23 on the whole parcel? Negotiation? If so, what was the starting point? It seems to this outsider that citizens lost out. Developers know Burlington is an easy mark for intensification, and outmanoeuvre the city every time.
My last column mentioned that developers were bidding up property costs when doing land assemblies, because they anticipate approval for higher, denser projects, making the resultant housing very expensive.
I received an interesting email from UCLA Urban Planning Professor Donald Shoup, on “graduated density zoning” — a tool used in some parts of California that encourages assembly by granting higher density for larger parcels in areas where redevelopment requires assembly.
In a nutshell, the idea is if a developer knows a larger parcel will be allowed higher density, there is more incentive to assemble, and less incentive for a property owner to hold out. He/she knows a viable land assembly would command a higher price than an orphan lot that can’t be assembled, or perhaps not developed properly. That’s not unlike our T (transitional) zone, which required rezoning and land assembly. I’ll gladly share Dr. Shoup’s papers.
The city wanted the OP passed quickly because work began on it in 2012. Maybe it did, but the first draft was just released in April. The controversial downtown mobility hub plan arrived in late September, and the GO hubs two weeks ago. Citizens demanded more time to digest all that detail, and deserve it. It appears they’ll have until January.
The big OP changes will surely be ballot issues in October.
Freelance columnist Joan Little is a former Burlington alderperson and Halton councillor. Reach her at specjoan@cogeco.ca
Citizens demanded more time to digest all that detail, and deserve it.