Residents and local politicians in Burlington are upset over the approval of a condo that some worry will ruin the city’s small-town appeal. But the mayor hopes that an updated city growth plan could prevent this from happening again.
“The original application was much, too much for that location, I was extremely disappointed.” Rick Goldring, Burlington Mayor.
The Ontario Municipal Board gave their stamp of approval on Tuesday for a 26-storey condominium, which would sit just across the street from a 22-storey condo. During an appeal, the OMB makes sure cities are meeting Ontario’s policies when it comes to growth. The OMB refers to a city’s ‘official plan’ which maps out how it plans to facilitate intensification. At the time of the condo developer’s appeal seven months ago, Burlington’s official plan was outdated and didn’t meet the province’s growth standards thus, the condo was given the green light to do so.
“It’s one of the reasons we’re going through our official plan review right now, to bring it up to date and make it current and compliant with provincial policy so it can have much better protection going forward with the new local planning appeal tribunal.” Goldring.
That tribunal is set to replace the OMB in the near future. The city says the plan has been worked on for nearly seven years and is close to being finalised.
“We identified that the growth will be in downtown Burlington around our three GO stations and an area we’re calling ‘uptown’ which is Upper Middle road and Appleby Line.” Mary Lou Tanner, deputy city manager.
A three-tower community, which includes a 24-storey tower that overlooks the Burlington GO station is already sold out.