Burlington mayor calls on province to protect Millcroft greenspace

Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward is appealing to Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his provincial government Friday to protect greenspace in her city.

The mayor and a group of residents are fighting to stop housing development on a golf course in their Millcroft neighbourhood.

Pat Kearse was attracted by a special feature when she moved to the neighbourhood eleven years ago — the golf course that ran behind many of the houses in the area.

“And we love it and it was supposed to be open space forever,” said Kearse.

Kearse and her husband Brent say they were told it would always be greenspace, but that’s changing.

WATCH MORE: Millcroft development sparks health and safety concerns

“We’re disgusted, we feel cheated,” said Kearse. “We came here, all of us — I think there are something like 800 households that are on the golf course — we’ve all been cheated out of our open space and our privacy.”

Despite the opposition of local residents and the City of Burlington, heavy equipment moved in last year to start removing the trees behind Kearse’s house, clearing the golf course for housing in the first phase of development work.

“We had the opportunity to wake up one day and we heard heavy machinery in our backyard, and there were these very large machines coming in, basically taking all the trees willy-nilly, right from roots up,” said Brent, “and it was like, ‘what can we do about this?,’ and obviously nothing.”

With the approval of the Ontario Land Tribunal, development work began, and phase two planned for the second half of the golf course.

READ MORE: Parties agree to mediated discussions on controversial Millcroft Golf Course development

“We are adamant that phase one is destroying the neighbourhood and phase two is just exasperating that structure,” said Cynthia Shanahan, a spokesperson with Millcroft Against Bad Development.

The residents who oppose the development, and the city, say they are not giving up.

“We hope the developer gets the message loud and clear: greenspace is not the place to develop, on floodplains is not the place to develop, and the fight is still on,” said Shanahan.

As well as losing greenspace, they’re afraid development will open the way for the kind of flooding that happened in Niagara during the summer.

Ward has written to the provincial government asking for an immediate decision to support the city council’s unanimous opposition to the development plan.

READ MORE: Burlington seeks zoning order to protect Millcroft Golf Course

“What we’ve asked for is to issue an order that keeps the zoning what it is now, which is parks and open space,” said Ward.

This, as development opponents vow to keep the fight going.

“We are not giving up hope,” said Shanahan. “The glimmer is in our eye.”

“I’m never going to stop fighting for this,” said Ward. “This is critically important. This is greenspace that we need for our community, we need it in this area.”

Ward says an immediate provincial decision could avoid a long and expensive appeal before the Ontario Land Tribunal.

WATCH MORE: Driver charged in Milton Hwy. 401 crash that sent four to hospital