Burlington’s Community Planning, Regulation and Mobility Committee has endorsed the Region of Halton’s proposed Official Plan Amendment 48, which identifies the strategic growth areas in Halton. City staff offered a series of administrative recommendations, but essentially the entire regional plan has Burlington’s support.
The city’s endorsement, this week, came at the same time the region announced dates for public meetings on its proposed plan. A virtual meeting for Burlington residents is scheduled for Tuesday, May 11, at 7 p.m. That meeting may include discussion about the proposed boundaries for Aldershot’s new Major Transit Station Area (MTSA) surrounding the GO station, considered an area of significant future growth.
The region hopes to confirm the MTSA boundary, which generally includes lands up to 800 metres from the GO station or about a ten-minute walk to the trains, but skirts around the controversial streets of Queen Mary, St. Matthew’s, and Clearview avenues. Once the region approves the boundary, the city will get on with detailed planning for the area.
City Planner Alison Enns raised eyebrows at this week’s meeting when she said that the properties adjacent to the MTSA boundary, like those on Queen Mary, St. Matthew’s, and Clearview avenues, will eventually be part of the detailed planning process. “Even where a property is not included in the MTSA boundary…the area-specific planning process…will consider the areas around MTSA.”
Realizing this could be somewhat controversial, Councillor Kelvin Galbraith asked for clarification.
“One of the key reasons [to study the adjacent streets] is to identify pedestrian connections that might be needed, or different impacts that adjacent properties may experience. It’s certainly on our minds as we start to bring forward what the workplan would look like for the MTSA area-specific plans,” said Enns.
Galbraith is aware of the neighbourhood’s desire to keep the three streets outside the MTSA, and he lives on one of those streets.
The region has also scheduled a public meeting specifically for residents of North Aldershot. This will be held on Monday, May 17, at 7 p.m.
The region is discouraging new growth in North Aldershot, except for lands already approved in the central sector.
“Extending the urban area into North Aldershot was not a consideration because lands in NA [North Aldershot] would not have been a logical extension of the Burlington urban area and were not contiguous to the existing urban areas.”
Several North Aldershot developers and land owners are unhappy about the restrictions and are placing their hopes on the possibility of exceptions to the rule. In fact, at a Burlington committee meeting on April 6, Regional Planning Director Curt Benson hinted at the possibility of exceptions. Bridgeview would be one possibility.
“We did recognize however that there are some smaller pockets of North Aldershot that are largely urban in nature and there may be some advantages to looking at those a little bit closer in terms of whether or not they can come into the urban boundary because they already exhibit those characteristics and are largely serviced,” said Benson.
The region has offered the following information for anyone who wants more information about the Official Plan or plans to join the public meetings.
Online: Visit halton.ca/ropr on the date of the Public Information Centre to join.
By phone: call 1-855-703-8985 (toll-free).
- Meeting ID: 970 665 2261
- Passcode: 858099 (if requested)
There is also an online questionnaire that may be completed.
