February 20th, 2020
BURLINGTON, ON
Beside the issue of buildings that too many people thought were just too high – the issue of the boundaries for the Urban Growth Centre and the bus terminal on John Street were what irked people.
Who drew those boundaries and who in their right mind would describe the bus terminal as an MTSA (Major Transportation Service Area)?
A number of well-informed people delegated to city council urging that swift action be taken on both issues.
In a report to her constituents the Mayor recently said:
“Council recognized from the beginning of our review of the downtown the need, and the desire in the community, to review the MTSA and UGC designations which have been used to justify overdevelopment. The question was when to initiate that review.
“Our decision, and one I stand by, was to let evidence and independent study inform our discussions.
“To let the community know our process, council passed a staff direction last May to review the appropriateness of downtown’s Major Transit Station Area and Urban Growth Centre designations at the end of the Interim Control Bylaw/Official Plan review studies. The OP review study will be complete after new policies are considered in April, and after that we will be in a position to initiate the review of the MTSA/UGC designations sometime this spring.
“Those designations are set by provincial and regional governments, and only those levels of government can make any changes. The two consultant reports position us with solid independent planning rationale for these conversations with Halton Region and the Province.
“ We have kept Halton Region planning staff and our local Member of Provincial Parliament Jane McKenna apprised of our studies, timelines and process and all have been involved in and supportive of our work.”
The questions that derive from a very solid position is: So the John Street terminal loses its MTSA status – which would suggest that a developer could no longer rely on that status to justify a high rise development – and there are a few very close to that station which are in the pipe line – they appear to be parked at LPAT hearings.
The Urban Growth Centre boundary was set by the province. They didn’t “impose” it on the city. They set the boundary and the council at the time went along with it. Oakville didn’t go along with the boundary they were given and managed to have theirs changed.
At this point a lot of commercial and development investing has been done based on the boundary – does the city have a hope in ‘hades’ of getting it changed – at this point in time with the current provincial government?
It will be interesting to see how that initiative works out.
This is not what the we love Burlington etc organizations see as the new boundaries that they have been asking for. It seems to us that this is not our city decisions that are being made. They, go through the motions but we get what the 7 who sit at the table want
Both Downtown MTSA & UGC designations are incongruent with the OP being proposed and likely to be approved, so it makes no sense to leave them as-is. As far as maintaining the market value of properties that the developers speculated on, that’s the business risk that they took knowing that there was no guarantee. For the most part, they have had their way with our Planning Department and profited nicely in the past.
Too Little,Too Late….Hope I am wrong.
Unfortunately, you’re not.