By Pepper Parr
November 7th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Do we have any idea what the downtown part of the city is going to look like when all the tall buildings are up?
City council appears to have decided that we are going up – higher.
There is a lot of opposition to that direction – they citizens will work it out as they figure out what they want, what they don’t want and the direction they want to see their city develop.
The Gazette has published a lot of graphics; we have shown computer simulations and architectural renderings. It’s a little different when there is a photograph that has some scale to it – trees that we have walked by many many times on Lakeshore Road are seen beside the fourth and fifth levels of the Bridgewater development.
The view is from a little to the east of Brant Street. They development of the hotel which is the first structure you will see is currently at the fourth floor level. The 22 storey condo will be a little west. The view when thew development is complete will be a lot different than what the public is used to now.
The decision to have a building that would rise to 22 storey’s was made back in 1995 when Walter Mulkewich was Mayor. There was a point at which that structure was going to rise to 30 storeys. At the time it was referred to as a “legacy” project – Burlington’s statement to the world that it had arrived.
The Berkeley on the east side of John Street is selling very well. The development is being built in three phases: the condo at the south end, north of that a parking garage and north of that at Caroline a proposed medical building. The three buildings take up about half of the block from James Street to Caroline.
The structure going up on John Street is are seen beside a house that many people are familiar with. The Gazette is not suggesting that something is right or wrong – our role is to document up and set out for the record what has taken place.
This is the view of the east side of the Bridgewater development where the 22 storey condominium will rise. It will be quite a bit higher than the condo on the right side of this photograph and will dwarf everything that is currently on Old Lakeshore Road.
We would have loved to have been around when the decision was made to proceed with what is now the Bridgewater project.
Isn’t this the exact opposite of the Mobility Hub plan for the downtown which says that tall buildings will be kept higher up Brant Street near Fairview, and on outer areas like towards Maple, but not in the downtown Brant corridor? I swear I just recently read all that, in great detail, with diagrams and drawings and did a survey where I agreed that this was a good plan. Is that in the shredder now?
I was just reading a brief report of Goldring’s address to council on December 1, 2010 and in part he said his priorities were “the need to operate differently–listen to residents, build consensus on downtown and waterfront development, keep taxes low….” (I KID YOU NOT!!!!). Sounded good–unfortunately his performance has not matched his words–something to remember in the election next fall.
I couldn’t agree more. I only hope that a superior candidate will run against him and that the vote won’t be split among a large number of candidates, which would give the incumbent an even greater advantage.
Some council members and the mayor seem to have little to contribute intellectually, don’t represent the citizens, and are there mainly for the pay cheque and pension. That’s the kind of “Public Service” (a term that politicians love to use) that makes me wish that they would go and “serve” somewhere else.
Public consultation around the Mobility Hubs and intensification is an absolute joke! Council and the Mayor lack guts and are afraid to stand up to developers. They perpetuate this nonsense around high rise development and revitalizing the downtown core because it assuages their guilty consciences and provides an excuse to avoid dealing directly with voter anger and opposition.
Let’s hope the same voter rage that brought down Denis Coderre in Montreal Sunday sweeps out Rick Goldring and his cronies next election.
SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION. Let the Councillors know how we feel about their decision on how residents living in the core will have to live with what they want, not what we want. Once again I ask why bother with public input when nothing that is said at these meetings make any difference in the end.
Once these buildings go up, they don’t come down. Where is the Burlington vision? Council on the advice of staff recommendations in the past have made what seem to me are not necessarily in the best interests of the people living in the core. Carriage Gate the developer building on Maria Street, has already reneged on the parking garage and the medical building that was supposed to be built at the same time as the condo that is going up.
Once again the City is planning on working with Carriage Gate on the Brant Street development. They obviously will do what they please. As for the 2 and 3 bedroom units I would like to see how many they are planning and even then nothing is written in stone. Also would like to see the square footage they are allowing for the 3 bedroom unit, bet you won’t be able to turn around without touching the walls.
Why would the City trust this developer to do what they promise, they have already shown us with the Maria Street project that they will do what is in their best interests?
It doesn’t seem like the current city council has a legitimate mandate for that level of change to Burlington. Major policy change like that should have been decided via an election, IMO. The same applies to restructuring of the roads system.