Future of Burlington: Mobility Hubs

NRU
July 2, 2014
By Edward LaRusic

Burlington considers mobility hubs as useful planning tools to manage growth and help the city intensify and adopt complete street principles.

Planning and building director Bruce Krushelnicki told NRU that the challenges with creating mobility hubs are not unique to Burlington’s context, but that they are “good challenges.”

“We see a lot of potential in mobility hubs, potential for increased mixed use and density, better use of the lands adjacent to our transit stations. Right now they’re a sea of parking and low-density development; we’d like to see that changed.”

Early last month the development and infrastructure committee received a study detailing the opportunities and constraints for four mobility hubs in Burlington. Burlington GO is recommended to be the first undertaken, sometime between 2016 and 2019, followed by Downtown Burlington, Aldershot GO and finally Appleby GO. The committee asked staff to create an official plan review policy based on the study.

The city retained Brook McIlroy and ARUP in August, 2012 for the study, which will inform the city’s comprehensive official plan review, as well as their upcoming transportation master plan.

Krushelnicki said that there is a two-stage process to creating mobility hubs in Burlington.

“Stage one, it’s simply to bring our official plan to a point where it acknowledges the existence of mobility hubs... basically this will create a policy framework for mobility hubs in general, identify their location in the city and provide some generalized designation or overlays to show them in their urban structure. Stage two later on will be the development of master plans for each of the mobility hubs.”

Two of the hubs - Burlington GO and Downtown Burlington - have been identified by Metrolinx as a gateway hub and anchor hub respectively in its regional transportation plan. Burlington identified the Aldershot GO and Appleby GO as future mobility hubs in response to Metrolinx’s intention to create express rail along the Lakeshore GO line between Hamilton and Oshawa by 2023.

While guidelines have yet to be created for individual transit hubs, the study makes some broad recommendations about land use, height and transportation for each of the four proposed mobility hubs.

Two of the hubs are located in Burlington councilor Marianne Meed Ward’s ward - Burlington GO and Downtown Burlington. She told NRU that developers are already seeking to take advantage of nearby transit nodes, most notably Molinaro Group’s Paradigm Condos, a group of five 18- to 24-storey buildings located near the Burlington GO station that was approved at the Ontario Municipal Board in 2008. Meed Ward hopes Paradigm Condos will give them a “real time case study” on how to plan for mobility hubs in the future.

Meed Ward notes that one of the biggest challenges is getting the parking right. She said one resident concern with intensification is increased vehicular traffic in the neighbourhood. In response she notes that parking standards were relaxed for Paradigm Condos, and this should be an example for how to plan future development.

“Until people start to see how a mobility hub will be developed, with buildings and uses, it’s still an abstract concept. [Paradigm Condos] has been the first opportunity to see how it might function. We’re seeing that it can work really well.”

The study identifies the potential for streets in all mobility hubs - such as Fairview and Brant Street near the Burlington GO - to become complete streets, with consideration given to pedestrians and cyclists.

Krushelnicki notes that Burlington was built for cars, however, so adopting active transportation modes will be a “slow and progressive” process. “[Building complete streets] is going to be a slow process that will take place over many years.”

The study also recommends a number of official plan changes, including incorporating mobility hubs in the Burlington official plan, defining the role of mobility hub connector roads and incorporating policies to support mobility hub development, such as master plans and development incentives.

Metrolinx has not identified Burlington’s mobility hubs as priorities for completion by 2023, and thus there is no funding committed to any of them. However, the staff report suggests the work from this study will help the city “explore funding opportunities [and] partnership with Metrolinx and other potential partners.”

Staff will be undertaking additional consultation in the fall, with a final policy directions report expected to be before council in 2015.