MAD Closing Statement
Good Afternoon, Madam Chair and Member Crowe, my name is Kirk Robinson, and I am a founding director of Millcroft Against Bad Development.
Millcroft Against Bad Development, commonly known as MAD, was formed and registered immediately following the September 21, 2020, public pre-application announcement to build on Millcroft’s Open Space.
Our team is composed of 3 Directors 2 Executives and 30 Neighbourhood representatives.
Our mission is to maintain the existing Mill croft Golf Course lands as Major Parks and Open Space.
MAD is aligned with various other organizations related to environmental protection and smart development.
We are focused on organizing the community voice and resources in opposition to Millcroft Green’s application to infill the golf course with residential housing.
We are Millcroft’s community voice. Our support is City wide.
Today, MAD represents close to 5,900 members who have signed a petition against the development, each of which have been sent to the City of Burlington over the past 3 1⁄2 years. 2,560 of these members live in Millcroft with 840 of them backing on the golf course. The majority of the remaining 3,340 members are located throughout Burlington.
It is Clear there is a City wide opposition to this application.
You heard evidence in this hearing that Millcroft was designed specifically as an integrated community, balancing the need for housing, the need to accommodate the natural watershed that moves through the area, and the need for healthy open space.
The open areas were utilized by providing a golf course for residents and neighbouring communities. It was a holistic approach that took years to design and gain approval and more than a decade to construct. Today, the community is near complete with close to 4,400 homes.
The Millcroft golf course, which is completely embedded inside our community, was also designed to provide three essential needs:
#1
To provide Major parks and Open Space for the health of both our10,000 Millcroft residents and neighbouring communities. This is particularly relevant to the over 100 homes that abut these lands as well the rest of the Millcroft Community.
#2
To act as a Flood Management System for stormwater events,
As we heard from the experts, these areas are critically important to the storm water management and flood prevention system in Millcroft. Under cross-examination of the Millcroft Green’s expert witness by the City of Burlington legal counsel it was pointed out that there were 961 resident flooding complaints reported by Appleby creek residents, representing 30% of all complaints in the City.
Millcroft Greens would have us believe that hardening large portions of open space, significantly altering Appleby Creek and the storm drainage systems will not increase the rate of flooding.
With all due respect, under taking all this work for “no increase in flooding” is poor justification. Hardening a natural stormwaterfeature is only going to exacerbate this situation.
It is our community that will face the uncertainty that inherently is included in the Millcroft Greens experts’ assumptions.
#3
To provide a home to our abundant wildlife.
Most noteworthy of our wildlife, and a favorite of my grandchildren, is our Trumpeter Swans tagged by the Ontario Swan Conservatory, named Merlot and Cabernet (which I should mention have a very large following on our social media).
The key reasons that MAD is opposed to the development on Areas A, B, C, and D are:
These areas serve individually and collectively as vital pockets of existing green space for Burlington residents.
The whole character of the Millcroft neighbourhood is in jeopardy should these golf course holes be filled in.
As we have heard throughout this hearing, this is the view of the City of Burlington after doing extensive work with outside consultants.
It is the view of the expert Planning witness that MAD brought before the hearing.
It is the view of the over 80 delegates at the initial public meeting on the application conducted by the City of Burlington.
It is the view in the Written comments submitted to the City for the public meeting which are found in Exhibit 1, Volume 8, beginning at page 57 and continuing to page 1,109. A staggering 1,052 pages of public comments against the rezoning of areas A to D.
1,052 pages of public comments
In fact, the only ones that we are aware of that believe this application should be approved and does not change the character of the community, are the developer and their consultants.
The City of Burlington has stated that for the last 40 years these areas are and have always been zoned as Major Parks and Open space.
In fact, when the Millcroft Community was first approved, the City official plan stated that should they decide to close the golf course, these lands would remain as Private Open Space/Parkland in perpetuity.
Millcroft Green's lawyers have suggested that there is no such thing as "in perpetuity" for open spaces and questioned the intent behind this designation.
We suggest that if the original wording said "in perpetuity" then that is what was meant in plain terms and there is no other possible interpretation.
In all subsequent City official plans, this designation of Major Parks and Open space remains in order to maintain the character of the Millcroft neighbourhood and preserve the benefits envisaged in the original concept.
To date, No Major Parks and Open Space lands have been rezoned for residential development .
Should the Tribunal approve this application, we believe it would be the first time in Burlington that Major Parks and Open Space is allowed to be rezoned to residential development.
This would be a very dangerous precedent to have when the City of Burlington is facing a parkland deficiency.
Burlington City Council has committed and identified the City areas to accommodate its assigned share of Housing construction ( 29,000 new homes) as set by the provincial government.
They have achieved this without needing to develop Major Parks and Open Space, but instead intensifying development near transit corridors and transit hubs and other areas zoned for residential development such as the downtown.
They have not designated Millcroft as an intensification area.
In fact, Millcroft Green’s 90 high priced executive homes will not impact Burlington’s housing availability in any significant way, nor will it provide affordable housing.
For Millcroft Greens to suggest otherwise is self serving in the extreme.
The target area for significant high rise housing and commerce close by adds to the importance of preserving Millcroft’s existing greenspace.
This is one of the reasons there is so much MAD support from neighbouring area citizens for MAD’s efforts.
We request that you prefer the evidence of Mr. Allan Ramsay, MAD’s planning expert, who clearly articulated the residential development on Areas A-D is not compatible with the surrounding community.
The proposed development will result in an over development of the sites and development that is out of character with the scale and massing of building in the surrounding area.
Development on these areas will significantly impact the character of the immediate neighbourhoods not only for the over 100 existing homes on the golf course.
There is no dispute amongst the experts that the proposed development will result in the removal of a significant number of mature trees in Areas A-D.
There are approximately 560 mature trees in Areas A-D with Millcroft Greens wanting to remove over 350 mature trees (63% of the trees in Areas A-D).
It will take decades to restore the tree canopy in these areas.
While Millcroft Greens has tried to downplay the significance of the loss of mature trees, anyone who has had established trees replaced with saplings will tell you this is a poor substitute. Those mature trees are important to the community's psychological wellbeing and homes to the community’s wildlife.
In regard to the applicant's desire to distinguish between “Privately held versus Public held” making a difference as to whether Major Parks and Open space should be rezoned, we believe that there should be no such distinction.
The Applicant was fully aware of the zoning of the property when they recently entered into the joint venture with the existing owner. X2
There are many examples of private owners of lands designated as Major Parks and Open space operating a very successful business on these zoned areas. One example of this in Burlington is the Burlington Golf and Country Club.
In summary, Madam Chair and Member Crowe, throughout this tribunal process Millcroft Greens have focused on minimizing the impact of this development and downplaying all the concerns raised by the community.
Remember those 1,052 pages?
In preparing our closing comments we referred to the OLT mission statement, which highlights the intention of “support(ing) strong, healthy communities and the public interest”.
Public interest is often defined as the welfare or well being of the general public.
It can also mean making decisions that serve the greater good rather than focusing on private gains or individual benefits.
It is our contention that the development, however well supported by Millcroft Green’s documents and technical studies, is not contributing to a strong healthy community.
In fact, it is the opposite.
It will work to the permanent detriment of this long standing and stable community.
We mentioned earlier about the high level of community involvement and opposition to this development.
I am sure you would agree that this has been exceptional.
Combined, we all represent “the public” and it is our strong contention that Millcroft Greens has completely failed to provide a meaningful justification for this development.
Furthermore, with all its disruption, risk and loss of open space, they have also completely failed to establish that it is actually in the public interest.
If this development cannot be considered in the public interest, then it has no reason to proceed. X2
Accordingly, Madam Chair and Member Crowe, we respectfully request that the application be denied with respect to areas A to D and that the subject lands retain the city Official Plan designation of Major Parks and Open Spaces and city zoning of 01 Open Space.
