City of Burlington Official Plan
11/26/2020
Mayor, Members of Council, Planning Staff and Residents of Burlington
We Love Millcroft, a community group of Millcroft and Burlington residents, are participating in this meeting to support the passing of the Burlington Official Plan of April 2018 as proposed.
We understand that the City of Burlington and the Region of Halton have carried out a robust process over the past few years including several opportunities for the public to provide their feedback in the development of this Official Plan. This Plan implements the vision of the strategic plan to provide a well-balanced City while addressing the needs of the future. It is critically important in guiding development and amenities in the future to maintain this City’s number 1 ranking in our country. This Plan fits together the important pieces of a puzzle that, when assembled in a deliberate fashion, result in an efficient, liveable City.
This official Plan addresses the directive from the Province to accommodate our City’s share of the provincial growth targets and the requirement for additional housing. It has incorporated growth through zoning residential areas to guide future housing development in a way which should continue to exceed the Province’s targets while ensuring that communities have access to all the amenities.
Efficient transportation of a growing population through targeted growth along established transportation corridors is consistent with the goal of reducing emissions. Proposed zoning in this plan which intensifies housing along transportation corridors and adjacent to business districts, including groceries and pharmacies for example, allows residents the opportunity to walk or use public transit to reach these facilities.
The proposed official plan also addresses the importance of maintaining recreation, parks and open space. Parks and Open Space not only allows residents the opportunity for exercise but also provide balance of the natural environment with development. Our tree canopy, green land open space, creeks, storm water ponds and respect for floodplains are critical as the weather intensifies and flooding in our community becomes a greater issue.
The implementation of the tree by-law acknowledges the importance of maintaining the Burlington tree canopy. This tree canopy assists with the reduction of CO2 from transportation vehicles and also mitigates the City noise that is generated from sources including roads and rail lines. Millcroft has experienced significant losses because of diseased trees in the last few years making protection of our existing parks and open space, which house a substantial part of the remaining very mature and healthy tree canopy, critical.
The importance of both efficient transportation and maintaining a balance between development and Major Parks and Open Space show the City’s commitment to climate change initiatives and a sustainable environment.
The members of our Millcroft golf community group appreciate our unique neighbourhood both as a place to live and/or because we play golf. In speaking with fellow golfers, it is apparent that this is a golf club that not only serves City of Burlington residents but also residents of the Golden horseshoe. It is communities such as ours, which blend housing with park and recreation space, that contribute to this
City’s number 1 ranking. The combination of the existing housing development together with a substantial tree canopy and natural environment provide balance.
Interestingly, as we consider the future with this proposed official plan, we also reflect on the current master planned Millcroft community. The proposed official plan contemplates increased housing through mixed use and high-density housing in the area of Upper Middle Road and Appleby Line adjacent to Millcroft such that we can expect an additional 4,000 to 4,500 new residents. Further development will also occur on the borders of our neighbourhood which will result in more population growth. With this intensification, no new parkland is planned. This fact makes protection of our existing park and open space zoning critically important in maintaining the balance and liveability into the future.
We Love Millcroft, as a community association, was formed in response to a proposal by Millcroft Greens to build homes on the existing open space which is intertwined with the existing homes in our community. The objective of our group is to preserve the existing golf course property as Major Parks and Open Space. We are aware that, by way of an email dated November 17, 2020, Millcroft Greens is requesting that they be exempted from Section 8.4.2(2) b or alternatively that the wording be revised. Secondly, they are requesting that section 8.4.2.2(d) be revised or deleted. It is our understanding that the wording in this plan of section 8.4.2(2) as it exists today has not been altered from the original 2018 Official Plan. Millcroft Greens should have been aware of the City’s intentions before it was formed in January of 2020. It is inconceivable to us that the City, after years of extensive work and planning, would alter these policies at the outset of a Plan which would disrupt an intentional balance between the zoning for planned higher residential development and Major Parks and Open Space. We strongly urge this Council to maintain the original wording for these sections in the Official Plan.
Upon a review of the announcement of Canada’s best City to live in, one can’t help identifying with the Mayor’s comment “The City offers access to the natural environment, something that is hard to come by without spending hours in the car in other parts of the GTA.” When asked on the on-line survey, “Of the four Strategic Directions, which is the most important to you?” city residents voted first and foremost “Healthy and Greener City 41%”. We are asking this City Council to stand by the intentional language of the Official Plan and preserve what makes us #1.
References:
8.4.2(2) b) New golf courses and golf driving ranges, and expansions to existing golf courses and driving ranges requiring additional land, shall not be permitted.
d) A proposal to re-designate lands within the Major Parks and Open Space designation shall only be considered by the City in conjunction with a statutory Official Plan Review
