Minister Clark Announces Burlington Can Adjust Urban Growth Centre Boundary
The Hon. Minister Steve Clark from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing delivered amazing news for our city at a press conference earlier this morning.
The Province has approved our request to adjust the boundaries of the Urban Growth Centre (UGC), allowing us to move the designation that was once centered on our downtown core to focus instead on our Burlington GO Station and thereby direct future development with height and density to where it belongs: near mass transit.This is a journey that started back in 2011 and saw many challenges over the years as our community repeatedly voiced their growing concerns that our Official Plan and the development they were seeing was not aligned with their vision for our city. They did not see the cherished character of our downtown and lakefront being protected and preserved. This is a big part of the reason Burlington elected a new mayor and five new memebrs of council in 2018.We heard the call for change from across our city, and over the past two and a half years, we did the work to deliver for our community.Today’s announcement is a crucial step in the journey towards creating the community we envision.[embed]https://www.facebook.com/MayorMarianneMeedWard/videos/1905523672947440/[/embed] Burlington is open for business, and the downtown will continue to grow and evolve. By adjusting the boundaries of the UGC this way, we are in the driver’s seat, not the applicants and not the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT). The UGC was often misused to justify overdevelopment, even though we’ve taken our share of growth and met (and will exceed) the UGC targets. This misuse has led to land speculation, pushing affordability out of reach. Adjusting the boundary of the UGC takes the pressure off and allows appropriately scaled growth to proceed.
Our revised new Official Plan -- that has already been approved by Halton Region -- includes stronger protections for green space, heritage, jobs, our rural community, established low-density neighbourhoods and, of course, a special focus on preserving the character of the downtown. It’s a plan that balances good planning principles with the ability to accommodate our share of provincial growth targets and aligns with what our community is asking for.
This great outcome is grounded in extensive study, analysis, planning rationale and feedback, and from day one, there was unanimous support from all members of our city council this term for this change. Our Executive Director of Community Planning, Heather MacDonald, has provided clear and consistent professional planning advice to council to fully complete the necessary and substantive planning policy work to support the recommended UGC boundary adjustment. I am grateful for the diligent work she and her team has done throughout this process.We did not do this alone. This has been a truly collaborative process with our community, including residents, developers, partner agencies, your entire City Council, City and Regional staff, our Regional Chair and fellow Halton Mayors. This outcome today is also the result of a great deal of hard work and advocacy from our local MPP Jane McKenna, and everyone at the Ministry of Municipal Housing and Affairs, led by Minister Clark.We know this was not an easy decision for Minister Clark, and we thank him for listening to the data, the planning rationale, the advocacy of our council, our fellow Halton mayors and Chair, our staff, and most importantly -- the people of Burlington. With this decision, he has shown himself to be a friend of Burlington. I know he listened to all the feedback carefully, and ultimately was persuaded by the planning evidence and the community voice.I’ve had the opportunity to meet Minister Clark through my role on the Ontario Big City Mayors (OBCM) and the Large Urban Caucus of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO). It’s a huge asset that he is a former mayor himself. He understands that local government knows our community’s needs best as we are the closest to the people. Whenever he has come to OBCM or AMO, he has listened, consulted, asked questions and heard our feedback to shape the best policy decisions. It’s been great to collaborate with him around those tables on a whole range of issues and we’ve seen our feedback translate into policy.One of the silver linings of the pandemic has been the close relationship that has been forged with our office, and all our elected representatives at provincial and federal levels. We have worked side by side with MPP McKenna to serve the residents of our community, and that close working relationship will last well beyond the pandemic. She has shown herself to be a fighter and strong advocate for residents’ needs.There is more to come in the months ahead, as we provide input to the Region’s Official Plan Review that is currently underway. We have done a lot of work to get to this point, and we have a lot of exciting growth and development ahead of us that will help us build complete communities, accommodate the population growth that wants to live here, and ensure that as many of the characteristics that make Burlington so special are preserved and protected for our residents and businesses.Thank you Minister Clark, for this decision and this great news for our community.Thank you MPP McKenna, for your tireless advocacy to help us get here today.And I want to emphatically thank city staff, city leadership, my fellow councillors Kelvin Galbraith, Lisa Kearns, Rory Nisan, Shawna Stolte, Paul Sharman and Angelo Bentivegna, and all the people of Burlington whose passionate hard work and meaningful feedback have brought us to this point.We did this together, and we will continue to work together to help Burlington grow and evolve in a way that honours everything that makes this city the best place to live, work and play.[gallery ids="25120,25121,25122,25123,25124,25125,25126,25127,25128,25129,25130,25131,25132,25133,25134"]Related Links: