Proposal panned: too tall for Burlington?

NRU
Oct. 1, 2014
By Edward LaRusic

A proposal for a landmark, 28-storey building in Burlington has the local councillor furious and worried that this will become a trend unless the city defends its official plan.

“The proposal is completely ridiculous,” said Ward 2 councillor Marianne Meed Ward. “It is little more than an intensification grab. It completely disrespects the city’s official plan, our zoning, and the resident’s vision as captured in those documents as to how we want to see the downtown develop.”

“I think the community, (and certainly [I am]), is sick and tired of developers who only count density and argue that the only thing that matters is how many units we can shoehorn into a site.”

The proposal by Adi Developments is to amend the official plan and zoning by-law to allow a 28-storey building on the northwest corner of Lakeshore Road and Martha Street, within the city’s downtown.

Development review coordinator Rosalind Minaji said that staff does not yet have a position on the proposal. However, she noted that the Burlington official plan supports a much smaller building - 4 storeys in height - and while there are provisions to allow an increase in density, such provision do not contemplate 28 storeys.

“Our official plan allows for consideration of an increase of height up to eight storeys [on the Adi site], as long as it’s compatible with the surrounding area. So this is a significant departure from our official plan policies.”

Minaji said that while the city is going through an official plan review, “to my knowledge there is no discussion of increasing height in this area.”

The development would be six storeys taller than a 22-storey proposal to the west at 2042, 2048 and 2054 Lakeshore Road, known as the Bridgewater development. The Bridgewater was approved by council in 2006 and is currently going through site plan review.

Meed Ward said that the Bridgewater - which she said she isn’t a fan of either - should be the only building downtown in its height class.

“That site is designated as ‘the’ landmark site in downtown Burlington [in the official plan]. As such, all other developments are shorter than that. That’s the landmark, that’s the one that gets to stand out. Nothing else gets to be higher than that.”

The Adi proposal is for a 0.13 hectares site and comprises 169 one-bedroom and 57 two-bedroom units. On the ground floor would be 348 sq.m. of retail space fronting both Lakeshore Road and a portion of Martha Street. A four-storey podium would frame the street, with what the planning justification report calls a “slender” tower with a roughly 690 sq.m. floor plate rising to 28 storeys. Only 218 resident parking spaces are proposed, no visitor or commercial parking.

“It’s too much density for the site,” said Meed Ward, who said she’d love to see a new building on the site, just one in keeping with the official plan. “It’s an empty parking lot right now. To go from zero units to eight storeys would be terrific.”

In the planning report by Walker, Nott, Dragicevic Associated Limited, the development is justified in part by its location.

The existing site is within the urban growth centre designated in the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. It is also part of a Metrolinx mobility hub. The report notes that the Adi site was identified through a Brook McIlroy/ARUP study of the Burlington downtown mobility hub as a key location for development. The mobility hub study is part of Burlington’s official plan review. (See the July 2 issue of NRU GTA.)

Minaji said staff will be examining the proposal to determine whether it is compatible with the surrounding
neighbourhood.

“[Staff will] have to look at all the supporting materials [Adi has provided], including the angular plane study, the wind study and the shadow study... and of course, [staff will] be taking a look at what the public has to say.”

For Meed Ward, what’s especially important is preventing the Adi proposal from becoming a new benchmark for development.

“When you start picking away ad hoc, piecemeal, you lose your overall vision, you forget your strategy, and then you’ve lost control of your planning and turned it over to the developer with the deepest pockets and the will to fight it at the [Ontario Municipal Board].”

She said that council has done a poor job of defending its official plan and that removes clarity about what the city wants.

That, Meed Ward believes, creates an opening for a developer - like Adi - to go to the board and get heights and densities much greater than those the official plan contemplates.

“Burlington has to be stronger to defend our own OP and zoning. We don’t have a good track record, so it’s a free-forall. I’m not surprised that [Adi] would come with a development like that. There was [Carriage Gate Developments proposal] approved in downtown Burlington a couple blocks away that was zoned eight storeys and got 17 [storeys]. When council approved that it makes it harder for us to stick to our OP and zoning.”

The Carriage Gate proposal, known as the Medica One Medical Centre at 501-515 John Street, was approved in December 2013.

A neighbourhood meeting on the Adi project will be held October 9. A statutory public meeting has not yet been scheduled but is expected to be held in the new year.