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Burlington, Ont.—Dec. 1, 2022— Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022 was passed by the Province of Ontario Legislature on Nov. 28, 2022, even though the deadline for feedback on the Bill has been extended to Dec. 9.

The changes in Bill 23 will significantly limit the City’s ability to provide and make important housing-related infrastructure and service decisions resulting in increased costs for Burlington residents.

Changes in Bill 23 that will have an impact on the City’s quality of life and revenues to support complete communities include:

• Removing tools available to the City to deliver housing which is affordable to many Burlington residents
• Removing the ability for the City to choose where to locate parkland for new developments
• Capping the amount developers contribute to new parkland
• Less fees the City can collect from developers for essential infrastructure like community centres, parks, roads and other community amenities
• Changes to existing heritage property planning: any property added to the heritage register must be heritage designated within two years or it will be automatically removed
• Changes to conservation authorities that impact our ability to mitigate risks of a changing climate and the Greenbelt boundary

The City has limited revenue sources and as result of Bill 23, residents may face higher property taxes. Bill 23 will also affect the City’s ability to provide much needed capital infrastructure to support growth such as roads, parks, community centres and other community amenities.

Ontario is in the midst of a housing affordability crisis. The City of Burlington Council approved the Burlington Housing Strategy in June 2022. In recent years, both staff and City Council have been active in reviewing and processing residential development applications with a total of 21,700 units in its development pipeline as of June 2022.

The province has proposed building 1.5 million new homes over the next ten years. Ontario is asking 29 municipalities, including Burlington, to commit to a housing pledge. Their expectation is these 29 municipalities, 25 of which are in the Greater Golden Horseshoe, will take on 80 per cent of the population growth to hit the target for new homes through accelerated growth. The province has assigned Burlington to add 29,000 new homes and prepare a housing pledge.

City staff presented Report CS-12-22 Consultations on Bill 23, the Build More Homes Faster Act, 2022 to City Council outlining the potential impacts on Burlington.

City of Burlington staff are responding to the Province of Ontario regarding Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022 using a set of guiding principles that are aligned with the City’s Vision 2040 – Burlington’s Strategic Plan, From Vision to Focus, the Official Plan and the Housing Strategy:

• More homes built faster
• Complete communities
• An engaged community
• Matters of Provincial interest
• Public health and safety
• Environment, urban design and climate change

Burlington is a city where people, nature and businesses thrive. Sign up to learn more about Burlington at burlington.ca/subscribe and follow @CityBurlington on social media.

Quick Facts – Bill 23

The province introduced Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022 on Oct. 25, 2022, with the goal to enable construction of 1.5 million new homes in Ontario by 2031.

Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022 was passed by the Province of Ontario Legislature on Nov. 28, 2022. The deadline for feedback has been extended to Dec. 9.

The omnibus bill changes existing statutes including:

• The Planning Act,
• The Ontario Heritage Act,
• The Development Charges Act,
• The Conservation Authorities Act, and
• The Ontario Land Tribunals Act

Quotes

City of Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward

“Bill 23 will devastate municipal finances and our ability to fund things such as parks, community centres, transit -- all the amenities a growing community needs. Those costs will be shifted from for-profit developers to taxpayers. We’ll show that as a line item on your next tax bill.

There is no guarantee that savings will be passed on to buyers, or that buyers are first-time homebuyers and not investors. This will simply deliver profit on the backs of residents without doing anything to increase housing supply and affordability.

Minister Clark recently wrote to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and the Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM) caucus), expressing the Province is committed to seeing Bill 23 through with no proposed additional changes to it and they are committed to ensuring municipalities are kept whole. However, there is no clarity around how this will happen. In addition, the Province is expecting municipalities to fill the gap in funding infrastructure by making applications to the Federal Housing Accelerator Fund.

Our recently completed Burlington Housing Strategy provides a roadmap for addressing local housing needs. It will help us increase attainable housing options that meet the needs of all current and future residents at all stages of life and at all income levels.

We are ready to be a partner with the Province on housing supply and affordability, but this Bill won’t deliver either.”

Mark Simeoni, Director of Community Planning

“The legislative amendments contained in Bill 23 amount to the most drastic changes to the land use planning process that Ontario has seen in decades. There will be considerable impacts on how Burlington plans and protects for appropriate development within the City.

Overall, the changes through Bill 23 will require the City to undertake significant revisions to its land use planning process and will have substantial impacts on associated planning and financial outcomes.”

Joan Ford, Chief Financial Officer

“Bill 23 will have significant and broad detrimental consequences to municipal finances. It will limit the City’s revenue potential to support growth-related infrastructure. The legislative changes are contrary to the guiding principle that growth pays for growth and shifts the burden on municipalities to fund growth-related infrastructure.”

Links and Resources

• Vision 2040 Strategic Plan
• Official Plan
• Burlington Housing Strategy
• More Homes Built Faster Plan
• Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022

We’re working to help communities in Halton, including Burlington, get connected to 5G networks faster! Creating a Municipal Services Corporation can provide telecom providers with easier access to streetlights and telephone poles, supporting quicker broadband enhancements and installation. Learn more and share your feedback.

Learn more and share your feedback.

The benefits of 5G

The City of Burlington has declared the official election results from the 2022 Burlington municipal election.

Of the 142,218 eligible voters in Burlington, 39,217, or 27.6 per cent, voted in the 2022 election, including:

• Advance voting locations (Oct. 15 and 18): 4,018 votes
• Online voting (Oct. 11 to 20): 14,980 votes
• Election Day, 24 voting locations (Oct. 24): 20,219 votes

The four-year term of office for the elected representatives is Nov. 15, 2022 to Nov. 14, 2026.

The first meeting of the newly elected Burlington City Council will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 6:30 p.m., at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre, 440 Locust St. At the meeting, members of Council will be officially sworn in. This meeting is open to the public.

The official election results are as follows:

Mayor
Marianne Meed Ward

City and Regional Councillor Ward 1
Kelvin Galbraith

City and Regional Councillor Ward 2
Lisa Kearns

City and Regional Councillor Ward 3
Rory Nisan

City and Regional Councillor Ward 4
Shawna Stolte

City and Regional Councillor Ward 5
Paul Sharman

City and Regional Councillor Ward 6
Angelo Bentivegna

Halton Regional Chair
Gary Carr

Halton District School Board Trustee – Wards 1 and 2
Matthew Diodati

Halton District School Board Trustee – Wards 3 and 6
Xin Yi Zhang

Halton District School Board Trustee – Ward 4
Margo Shuttleworth

Halton District School Board Trustee – Ward 5
Amy Collard

Halton Catholic District School Board Trustee – Wards 1 and 2
Kirsten Kelly

Halton Catholic District School Board Trustee – Wards 3 and 6
Trish Nicholls-Powell

Halton Catholic District School Board Trustee – Wards 4 and 5
Brenda Agnew

Conseil scolaire Viamonde
Pierre Gregory (acclaimed)

Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir
Dominique Janssens (acclaimed)

Burlington is a city where people, nature and businesses thrive. Sign up to learn more about Burlington at burlington.ca/subscribe and follow @CityBurlington on social media.

View the list of candidates running in Burlington’s 2022 municipal election

A total of 52 candidates are certified to run in the 2022 municipal election in Burlington. The candidate nomination period for the 2022 Burlington municipal election closed on Aug. 19, 2022 at 2 p.m. The official list of certified candidates running for positions, including those on City Council, Regional Chair and School Board trustee, is as follows:

Voting for the Burlington municipal election takes place between Oct. 11 and 24, 2022. There are three ways to vote:

• online, using Internet voting, from Oct. 11 to 20, 2022

• in person, at advance polls on Oct. 15 and 18, 2022

• in person, on election day, Oct. 24, 2022.

For all the latest news and updates about Burlington’s 2022 municipal election, visit myvoteburlington.ca.

Alert Burlington is Burlington’s public notification system for community emergencies. Residents and anyone who works within Burlington is encouraged to subscribe to the free community alert service.

When a community emergency is possible or has already happened, important messages will be sent by text, email or recorded phone message to anyone who subscribes and lives or works within the affected area. Messages can also be sent out in various languages.

Register for Alert Burlington

To register, you will be asked to create an account with your name, address and mobile phone number, land-line phone number and/or email.

It is recommended that anyone who is registered log-in once a year to ensure their contact information is accurate.

To comply with the SMS regulations of the CWTA, we must indicate that message delivery is not guaranteed, and that SMS text message rates may apply.

Read the 2021 Annual Engagement Report and the supporting documents. The report is going to the Corporate Services, Strategy, Risk and Accountability Committee on May 4.

Thanks to everyone that shared their feedback in order to help the City make the best decisions.

On Wednesday, Jan. 19, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., the City of Burlington will host its eleventh COVID-19 telephone town hall event. The town hall provides an opportunity for the community to hear information and ask questions about the on-going COVID-19 pandemic and recent impacts on city programs and services.

The town hall will be hosted by Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, who will be joined by a panel of local leaders, including representatives from Joseph Brant Hospital, to help answer residents’ questions.

How to Participate

Residents who would like to participate in the town hall can do so in the following ways:

1. Register in advance: Burlington residential phone numbers will be randomly selected to be part of the telephone town hall. Residents who would like to be added to the telephone call list can email

getinvolved@burlington.ca by noon on Jan. 18, 2022. Please note: if you registered for any of the previous town halls, you are not required to register your phone number a second time. If you wish to have your phone number removed from the call list, please email getinvolved@burlington.ca by noon on Jan. 18, 2022.

2. Join by telephone: Anyone who does not receive a telephone invitation can call 1-800-759-5308 just before 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 19 to join the town hall. For those individuals calling in, please be advised more than one attempt may be required due to the high volume of traffic on the phone lines. If the first call does not connect, please hang up and dial the 1-800 number again.

3. Listen to audio: Live audio from the Jan. 19 town hall will be broadcast on YourTV, channel 700 on Cogeco and on the YourTV Halton YouTube page.

Once the call begins, a moderator will provide participants with instructions for how to submit their questions to the leadership panel.

A recording and transcript of the town hall will be posted online after Jan. 19 at burlington.ca/townhall.

Thank you for your feedback and involvement in the Burlington Housing Strategy so far!

Next up - The Housing Needs and Opportunities Report

This report provides a full picture of Burlington’s housing needs and opportunities. The report covers the technical background work and feedback from the second Housing Strategy survey, Housing Strategy Working Group, Housing Strategy Steering Committee as well as City and Regional staff. The report also identifies five themes that form the pillars for the development of the City’s Housing Strategy.

You’re Invited to a Virtual Open House

Burlington Housing Strategy Virtual Open House

Monday, Nov. 29, 7 to 9 p.m., on Zoom

Please join City staff for a discussion on the Housing Needs and Opportunities Report and an update on the Housing Strategy. The Open House is a chance for you to explore the findings in the report, ask questions, share feedback and learn more about the Housing Strategy Project.

A chance to delegate - Dec. 7 Community Planning, Regulation and Mobility Committee Meeting (CPRM)

We will present the Housing Needs and Opportunities Report to Burlington City Council at the Community Planning, Regulation and Mobility Committee Meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 7.

You can read the staff report on the Housing Needs and Opportunities Report starting on Nov. 26, 2021 on the city’s meeting calendar entry for the Dec. 7 CPRM or by searching the online calendar for the meeting date (Dec. 7) of the Community Planning, Regulation and Mobility Committee, a standing Committee of Council. The report summarizes the work done to date on the Housing Strategy, including key findings, recommendations and next steps.

If you would like to speak to the Housing Needs and Opportunities Report, please sign up to delegate. The deadline to register to delegate is Dec. 6 at noon.

On October 27th, the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) released its decision on Lakeshore Inc.’s proposal at 2069-2079 Lakeshore Rd. The City strongly disagrees with and is shocked by the ruling, which allows for a 29-storey building at that location.

This decision is not at all reflective of the planned context for the Downtown as expressed in the new Official Plan. It not only ignores the citizens of Burlington and Halton Region, and their Councils, it has ignored the stated intent of the Minister of Municipal Affairs to change the planning context by adjusting the Urban Growth Centre (UGC) boundary. City Planning and Legal staff will review the decision in more detail to determine if a review of the decision by the Tribunal or a Court should be pursued, including their findings on the City’s motion regarding the impact of the Urban Growth Centre (UGC). At a special meeting of City Council on Nov. 3, staff will present these potential options and next steps in-camera.

Burlington’s revised new Official Plan (OP) was approved by Halton Region on Nov. 30, 2020. The new OP includes stronger protections for green space, heritage, jobs, the rural community, established low-density neighbourhoods and a special focus on preserving the character of the downtown. The modifications presented in the final Notice of Decision address the issues of non-conformity, changes to Provincial Plans and policies, and Official Plan Amendments and the need to balance Regional and Provincial conformity requirements. In addition, the modifications capture endorsed policy modifications related to two areas identified by Council for re-examination and refinement. The policies of the Official Plan with the recommended modifications establish a comprehensive policy framework to a planning horizon of 2031.

At the hearing, the City argued that Lakeshore Inc.’s proposal for 29-storeys was not appropriate for that location for a number of reasons, including the fact that the proposal far exceeded the height limits of 17-storeys allowed in that area, the City’s vision and planned context for the downtown as expressed in the new Official Plan, and the proposed building’s height and mass were not compatible with or provided appropriate transition to the surrounding area. In its decision, however, the OLT states that the development should be allowed as because provincial policy in the Growth Plan directs new residential growth to the Urban Growth Centre in a significant or ‘optimized’ manner. The decision underscores the importance of the future boundary adjustment of the UGC to the Burlington GO station and the need for the new downtown policies in the new OP to be determined and brought into force. The OLT stated “The Tribunal finds that there is no evidence of negative impact or any other justification for the modifications as advanced by the City to support a 22-storey tower instead of the 29-storey tower under the Lakeshore Proposal. Moreover, there is also no basis for the resultant substantial reduction in the number of residential units stemming from the City’s proposed modifications. The height reduction alone would eliminate between 63 and 77 residential units. Reducing the tower floorplate to 690 m2 as proposed … would eliminate a further 64 to 80 residential units.”

The City further argued that it is on track to meet or exceed provincial growth targets and regardless, the number of residential units should not result in a development that is incompatible with the existing area.

This decision is not indicative of the best planning outcome for Burlington residents or City of Burlington planning goals.

Quotes

Mayor Marianne Meed Ward and Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns

“This is a devastating and shocking decision imposed on our community, which completely disregards the vision of residents, council and staff for this area. And so, Council will be examining all of our options for a review of this OLT decision.

This decision completely dismisses the considerable feedback from residents in opposition to this file - and their valuable suggestions for what would be appropriate. This decision ignored over 100 people who took the time to attend a community meeting, delegate to council, and write pages of letters. There was no acknowledgement of our community's voice in this decision.

The decision highlights the inappropriate application of Provincial Planning Policies to justify overdevelopment and underscores the importance of a speedy decision from the Minister to remove the Major Transit Station Area designation from downtown and adjust the boundaries of the Urban Growth Centre to the Burlington GO Station, where this scale of development should be. We will continue to work to defend our plan and put growth where it belongs.”

Now we need your feedback. The input you provide may inform:

- Refinements to the vision (i.e. land uses, building heights, urban design considerations etc.);

- Precinct changes (i.e. policy directions, boundaries, built form directions etc.);

- The preparation of the area-specific plans or the development of policy.

This project may feel familiar. From 2017 to 2019 the City worked on developing area-specific plans (ASPs) for the 3 GO Station areas, then called the Mobility Hubs Study. The MTSA ASP project will build upon and advance the work done through the Mobility Hubs Study.

For more information on the 2017-19 Mobility Hubs Study and to learn more about this project, please refer to the report Planning for Burlington’s Major Transit Station Areas: What you Need to Know available on Get Involved Burlington. Visit the project page for additional information.

The objective of this project is to plan to accommodate new residents and jobs by setting a vision for three unique, complete communities that are centered around the City’s three GO Stations along the Lakeshore West rail line. These communities will be environmentally friendly, infrastructure-efficient, walkable, bikeable, and will support local and regional transit with a diverse mix of uses such as employment, housing, recreation and shopping.

Aldershot MTSA Workbook

Appleby MTSA Workbook

Burlington GO MTSA Workbook