138 More Homes
Hamilton Spectator Article:
Millcroft Greens, in the process of building 90 homes and a 130-unit apartment building on its golf course, now wants to build 138 more homes on part of the remaining land.
The property owner applied to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing for a Ministerial Zoning Order to override local open space zoning and allow housing development on 25 of the golf course’s remaining 100 acres.
It’s the latest in an ongoing dispute between Millcroft Greens and the City of Burlington over development of 2155 Country Club Rd.
It’s unclear if Millcroft Golf Course, which is only operating nine holes this season while construction preparation is underway for the already approved development, will survive in some form.
Millcroft’s proposal to the province requests it be allowed to build the additional housing while leaving the remaining 75 acres of the golf course “as protected open space.”
The MZO application is posted online at the Environmental Registry of Ontario. Public comments can be submitted until July 5.
The application also asks the minister to add long-term care and retirement uses at 4274 Dundas St., a site previously approved for residential development. The post states the Dundas Street site is currently occupied by a golf course maintenance shed.
Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward said on June 10 that city council and the community have been clear that property zoned for open space, including Millcroft Golf Course, is not where they want to see housing development.
“Urban green space is hard to come by,” Meed Ward said in a telephone interview.
She noted Burlington city council applied to the province for two separate MZOs itself, first asking the minister in July 2024 to maintain existing open space zoning on the land, despite Ontario Land Tribunal approval the month prior of development on parts of the golf course. That application was denied.
In 2025, the city requested the minister maintain existing open space zoning on the remainder of the property not approved for development.
After last year’s request, the city and Millcroft Greens entered a provincial mediation process that failed to reach a resolution. No decision on the second MZO has been issued.
In response to the city’s second request to the province, Scott Bland, president of Argo Development Corporation, stated in a letter to Meed Ward that city council “should not pursue a forced outcome” through an MZO.
The city issued charges under its tree bylaws around tree cutting at the development site in September. Those charges are still before the courts.
This past March, the city confirmed it had offered $15 million to purchase part of the remaining Millcroft Golf Club land, but the offer was rejected.
Meed Ward said the only way remaining open space on the golf course property could be protected now is if the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing steps in and issues a zoning order doing so.
“We’ve done everything, as a city, we can,” she said.
Millcroft Greens representatives did not respond to questions by deadline, but directed a reporter to a statement posted on its website.
According to the statement, the application to permit further development is “a direct result of the mayor’s violation of an agreement that she made with Millcroft Greens in April 2025.”
The Argo Development president’s 2025 letter to Meed Ward states the mayor’s office contacted the property owner that April to discuss the future of the land and “mutually agreed that discussions between the city and Millcroft Greens should continue before any formal MZO request would be pursued.”
Meed Ward responded to Bland in a letter, stating: “Burlington council has been clear and united in our stance to preserve this golf course as green space for the community” and council unanimously supported the request to preserve the balance of the golf course.
She said this week the city paused submission of the second MZO application until after the provincial facilitation.
When the facilitation process ended in December 2025 without a mutually agreeable resolution, the city’s application was officially filed in March 2026, the mayor said.
For construction updates on sections of Millcroft Greens approved for development, go to burlington.ca/millcroftgreens.
Millcroft Greens, a partnership between the existing golf course operators and Argo Development, owns Millcroft Golf Club.
