The city’s motion to release the Interim Control By-Law, (ICBL) from all land, except for those that are included in tIhe zoning bylaw 2020-418 that emerged from the ICBL, has been approved.
These lands are generally those south of the GO line, north of Fairview Street, between Brant Street and Drury Lane. This was just one step in the process of sorting out all the appeals regarding the new Official Plan (OP) and Interim Control By-Law (ICBL).
For those of you that may not be familiar with the landownership within the bylaw 2020-418 area, it consists of the seven tower CLV proposal, the Leggatt car dealership, the existing Walmart, Burlington GO and Fairview parking lot, and the lands fronting on the east side of Brant Street, between Fairview and the rail line. These are the only lands that remain frozen.
The appeals of the city’s new Official Plan are overwhelming both in terms of numbers and complexity. Essentially, the entire plan has been appealed.
The city is preparing a final issues list regarding the appeals, which they advise is nearing completion. It is expected that there will be a master procedural order (PO) to set out and establish a phased hearing. Each phase will also have its own PO. It is anticipated that at any future case management conferences (CMC), the appeals of the ICBL and the city’s new Official Plan will be considered concurrently. It would be reasonable to expect that this approach will be extended to each phase of the hearing.
The city has been ordered to file the procedural order (PO) it wants the Tribunal to endorse, with the consent of all parties, by Friday, November 26, 2021. The request may also suggest a timeframe for a future case management conference as may be appropriate for the next hearing phase. If consent is not reached, a CMC is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Tuesday, November 30, 2021.
It certainly appears that the appeals of the OP and ICBL are not yet through the CMC phase, and we are still many months away from knowing when the hearing dates will be confirmed. That date would not be established until after the approval of the procedural order in Nov. 2021, assuming an additional CMC would not be required.
The Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) is extremely busy and its hearing schedule is filling up. Hearings in the summer of 2022 have already been set, which makes one think that not even the first phase of Burlington’s hearing will commence until the late summer to early fall of 2022 at the earliest. Whether or not the OLT issues decisions on each phase of the hearing as it goes along is undetermined at this point. However, upon the conclusion of the hearing, there would be some additional time before the final OLT decision is issued.
What does all this mean? It looks like Burlington’s new Official Plan will not be fully in force until very late in 2022 at the very earliest, more likely sometime in 2023. For at least another year, development will continue to be considered using the existing in-force, outdated, and indefensible OP. Until all the appeals are settled and the new OP is fully in force, Burlington remains vulnerable to existing and future appeals and the outcome of current initiatives, such as the Major Transit Station Area (MTSA) studies, will be impacted.
