June 15, 2021— Press Release
From West End Home Builders’ Association CEO Mike Collins-Williams, MCIP, RPP
The West End Home Builders’ Association (WE HBA) is disappointed by the announcement by Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward and Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark to remove the Downtown Burlington Urban Growth Centre and relocate it to overlap with the existing Burlington GO Major Transit Station Area. In the middle of a housing crisis within a region that is challenged to achieve its existing growth expectations, now is not the time to remove opportunities for new housing supply in complete communities like Downtown Burlington where people want to live, work and play.
WE HBA members have made significant investments in Downtown Burlington and believe today’s announcement does a disservice to downtown businesses and will stagnate much needed development of new housing supply in a complete community with easy access to amenities, public transit and services. Since the provincial Growth Plan was established in 2006, the Urban Growth Centre attracted new development and housing to support the downtown business community. Furthermore, since 2006, not a single Urban Growth Centre where intensification, investment and public service facilities are supposed to be concentrated has been removed by either Liberal or Conservative provincial governments. The WE HBA recognizes the mayor’s elected mandate in 2018, but this decision will undermine the provincial government’s 2020 improvements to its own Growth Plan due to local political circumstances. This will set a precedent for future Mayors and Councils within the Greater Golden Horseshoe that are opposed to density and intensification in their own downtown to remove provincial Urban Growth Centre designations.
