MAD RESPONSE TO CONCERNS RAISED WITH CITY OF BURLINGTON AND OUR FUTURE STEPS

MAD RESPONSE TO CONCERNS RAISED WITH CITY OF BURLINGTON AND OUR FUTURE STEPS

MAD has received numerous concerns and questions as to Why the City of Burlington has taken so long to take a position on the Millcroft Greens Application/Resubmission only to be superseded by Millcroft Greens appealing to the Ontario Land Tribunal?

Again we are very disappointed that Millcroft Greens has taken this action without allowing the City of Burlington to complete their review and have the final public meeting with Council to make a decision on the Application.

MAD has been in regular contact with the City of Burlington officials. We did ask whether it would be better for Council to turn the application down within the 120 day period they have under the Planning Act to make a decision. Their view was that due to the complexity of the application and its impact on the City of Burlington, it would be better to make this decision after doing a thorough review of the Application so that they would be able to strongly support this decision when it was inevitably appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal.

We believe the City has worked effectively to complete their review and were months away from completing it despite Millcroft Greens making significant changes to their stormwater approach and other changes in their latest resubmission done in April 2022. Further points to support our view are:

• Due to the complexity and sensitive nature of this application, you will see from the Resubmission documents on the City site, that numerous agencies and parties provided concerns/questions to the Applicant (some 97 pages). As well the Burlington Planning Department provided their initial concerns/questions (22 pages). The majority of these concerns and questions were provided to Millcroft Greens in 2021. As a result of these concerns and questions, Millcroft Greens resubmitted their application in April 2022 responding to the points and making significant changes to the floodwater management solution. They are now using large storage tanks in the proposed development areas and taking the pond by the windmill off line. There are also many other changes (ie. 90 homes instead of 98, 6 meter buffer zone incorporated into lots instead of standalone, etc.).

• As we all know from the flooding that has occurred in the proposed development area and homes surrounding it, stormwater management is a key concern that should in itself prevent the development from occurring. In light of the highly technical nature of this area, the City not only reviewed it with their own internal experts but also required a peer review to be completed of the solution hiring Woods Environmental. In addition, Conservation Halton began a larger study with respect to Stormwater management which included what was being proposed by Millcroft Greens. The Halton Region are involved in reviewing this as well. In that the Stormwater solution was significantly changed in the resubmission, these parties have all been working diligently in respect to the new solution. We understand from the Burlington Planning Department (who are coordinating efforts between the four parties) that this work was to be completed in the next few weeks.

MAD has consulted Allan Ramsay, who is our outside Planning Expert, to better understand the process going forward as well determine what our next steps should be. From this discussion, we understand that while the jurisdiction for the decision on the resubmission has changed to the Ontario Land Tribunal, the City of Burlington will be a party to this Ontario Land Tribunal and need to decide what position they will take. We are meeting with the City Officials in the next few weeks and are hopeful that they will continue to obtain feedback on the resubmission from the public, complete their review of the resubmission and strongly fight against this resubmission in the Ontario Land Tribunal process.

With the upcoming City council elections in October, it will be critically important to make the Millcroft Greens proposed development on Open space in an Established neighborhood a major election issue as the Appeal before the Ontario Land Tribunal will not be completed until 2023 so it is the New Council that will have carriage of this matter. We will need to ensure we understand the position of any Mayor or Ward candidates on this item and vote accordingly. In September, well in advance of the City election, we will be asking each of the candidates their position then communicate this to you.

In regards to the Current City council, we believe they will support fighting against this application as they have already demonstrated, in the New Official Plan that they approved, that they would prevent changing Open space in an Established neighborhood except as part of a comprehensive review of the Official plan done every five years. The conditions under which Open space in an Established neighborhood can be changed in an Established neighborhood were not set out in the New Official Plan. It would seem to us that this would only be done where there were no other alternatives available to meet the population goals for the area as set out by the Region/Province (we will ask the City Officials in our next meeting if this is correct). Unfortunately, the Millcroft Greens appeal will be made based upon the prior Official plan which does not have this provision however we believe this is a good indication that the current City Council will strongly support fighting against this application at the Ontario Land Tribunal.

Assuming the City of Burlington decides to complete their review and fight against the resubmission at the OLT, we believe from discussions we have had with outside experts, that the costs associated with MAD being a party to these proceedings with legal counsel and Allan Ramsay as our Planning expert will be in the neighborhood of $100,000. To support MAD with a donation, please go to our webpage at Millcroft Against Bad Development . Further fund raising efforts will begin in September.

Finally, MAD will be meeting with Effie Triantafilopoulos (MPP) who has been a very strong supporter of ours to determine what other actions we should take now that this application has been appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal. We again would encourage anyone who has not signed our electronic or wet signature to do this along with anyone else who supports us. Effie will continue to take to the Ontario Legislature our Wet signature petitions.