Another jam-packed Council of the Whole (COW) meeting on March 4 and 5 lies ahead with the regular committees, 15 consent items, nine legal confidential items, and the ever-popular Statutory Public Meetings.
Consent items are staff reports and bylaws that are felt to need no discussion (in public) and are mostly “receive and file.” However, each councillor (and the mayor) can ask that the item be moved to open discussion. We’ll see if and when that happens.
Expect items 5.4 (a bylaw to regulate distribution of graphic images) and 5.14 (Burlington solar incentive proposal), among others, to be discussed.
Item 5.4 relates to pamphlets and flyers that may be dropped into our mailboxes, displaying disturbing images designed to provoke residents to react, respond, and possibly donate to an organization. Other municipalities have limited or imposed fines on organizations distributing such material.
Item 5.14 relates to a program similar to the Build Better Homes program that offered homeowners an interest-free loan to install heat pumps; in this case, the proposal is to cover building permit costs for solar system installations. There’s also 5.15 in consent items that directs those who have taken a loan to repay that loan over time through their property taxes.
Other consent items impact some “housekeeping” actions such as the Red Tape, Red Carpet program; downtown parking changes; salaries to council members and citizens who sit on the Committee of Adjustment; levies for businesses in the two BIA districts; the city’s operating budget performance for 2023; and the appointment of deputy clerks (after the departure of Kevin Arjoon from the position of city clerk by January of this year). Deputy clerks will fill in until a full-time clerk is hired.
The big-ticket item for the Corporate Services, Strategy, Risk, and Accountability Committee (CSSRA) will be a presentation by the executive director of Burlington Economic Development (EcDev), Anita Cassidy, on a potential development by the Alinea Group at 1200 King Road. You can read the report by clicking here.
If you drive eastward on Hwy 403 near King Rd., you may have wondered what that big empty space to the south is and what might be built there.
Alinea originally proposed an athletes’ village and sports complex in conjunction with Hamilton’s bid for the 2026 (and then 2030) Commonwealth Games. That came to a halt when the group behind the bid withdrew their proposal and the need for the complex at 1200 King Rd. vanished.
The current vision suggests an NHL-sized hockey arena with an attached hotel and a community centre, and some residential housing — an unspecified number of units but in conjunction with the municipal housing target of 29,000 units.
But first, the city is expected to remove the employment area zoning for the area and purchase the land from “the landowner.” EcDev has already signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Alinea.
This is the first of many steps towards any shovels going in the ground and many questions need to be asked and answered before anything proceeds. What is being put before committee is to “Direct the City Manager to work with the Executive Director, Burlington Economic Development to report back in Q2 2024 with an update on future investment opportunities on the 1200 King Road site.”
Also, two items at CSSRA deal with the governance of different organizations.
In November, there was concern about the structure and recruitment of volunteer board members for the Burlington Performing Arts Centre (BPAC). BPAC is one of several arms-length organizations that receive city funding to operate in a city-owned building.
Staff were directed to institute an independent governance review and report findings back to council by March 31. An independent expert conducted his review and the results will be presented at COW.
The other governance issue involves Tourism Burlington and Burlington Economic Development combining operations. A special committee was struck to recommend a governance framework with the intention of the merger to take place no later than Jan. 1, 2025.
CSSRA will also request the City Clerk to retain an independent consultant to conduct the Council Composition and Ward Boundary Review with a budget of $200,000. That means we might have either a different makeup of the number of councillors and/or ward boundaries in future elections.
The public was asked last year for input on ward boundaries and one expects that feedback to help inform what Burlington citizens wish to see in the future.
The last council composition and ward boundary changes were in 2005. The city’s six ward boundaries were re-drawn, and a seven-member council was maintained. Burlington has had a seven-member council since 1997, when Burlington had a population of 139,000. Since the last review, the population of Burlington has increased from approximately 160,000 in 2005 to approximately 186,948 in 2021.
In 2021, Ward 3 had a population of 23,497 (the smallest population) while Ward 5 had 36,049 people (the largest).
The staff report includes comparisons with several other municipalities. Burlington has a seven-member council; Oakville has a 15-member council. Guelph, with a population of 143,740, has a 13-member council, and Caledon, with a population of 76,581, has a nine-member council (the next lowest of the comparison group).
Between the consent items and the CSSRA list, that should take up most of day one of COW. A second article will look at items to be discussed at Environment, Infrastructure and Community Services (EICS) and Community Planning, Regulation and Mobility (CPRM); these will include the Tyandaga Golf Course report, fireworks, 1026 Cooke Blvd., and more.
Again, as always, if you wish to delegate on these or any other items on the COW list, contact the city clerk’s department before the deadline of Friday, March 1 at noon, or click here.
