Millcroft Advocates In Favour of Purchase

Millcroft resident Shanahan stated “we don’t care what the price is, as long as it’s sold within reason. Selling to the City will ensure that there will be no building on floodplain. Flooding is our number one issue”.

Burlington Today Article: February 24, 2026

Burlington city council will discuss the failed purchase of Millcroft Golf Course early next month.

Talks are expected to take place in a council meeting in the first weeks of March.

In a now-deleted post first shared on Feb. 22, Mayor Marianne Meed Ward and Ward 6 Councillor Angelo Bentivegna said the city had attempted to buy the land from Argo Development Corporation for $15 million. It is unclear why the it was deleted, but Bentivegna said the post was put up too early.

He did not elaborate on what that meant, and would not provide BurlingtonToday any additional details. He said when city staff gets all the information needed, it will come out.

Meed Ward’s communications team wrote yesterday that they are also gathering information and will provide more details in the coming days.

“The situation is concerning and I hope to know more soon,” Ward 3 councillor and Deputy Mayor for the Environment Rory Nisan said.

A Millcroft Against Development member said that the city may not be going far enough with its offers to purchase the property from Argo.

Cynthia Shanahan, a resident of the neighbourhood for three decades and executive for MAD, said the potential purchase is worth it.

“Is buying the property for $15 million worth it?” she said. “We do not care if it was bought for $25 million or $10 million. It has to be bought.”

Despite the city’s offer to buy the property for three times what it was last sold for in 2020, Shanahan said she expects Millcroft’s property values have tanked.

“My house has probably dropped by 30 per cent,” she said. “I did a rough calculation, and I am figuring that Millcroft alone has probably been devalued by $100 million.”

As of Tuesday at 1 p.m., screenshots of the deleted statement can be found on community advocate group Millcroft Against Development’s website.

In full, the statement reads:

Dear residents,

We wanted to provide you an update on the work that we have been doing to try to save Millcroft greens from development.

City staff and Argo had been in formal discussions with the assistance of a Provincial Land Development Facilitator. However, in December 2025, those conversations ended without agreement.

Councillor Bentivegna and Mayor Meed Ward worked with council to provide direction to staff to have discussions with representatives from Argo on the potential for the City to acquire all or part of the golf course lands.

Recently, our staff followed up those discussions with a letter expressing the city's interest to acquire the lands for $15 million - representing roughly three times what they purchased the land for in 2020.

We have now received information confirming that Argo are not willing to sell its land to the City. Additional information on this matter will be shared through future updates to Council, but we wanted the community to have this information as soon as possible.

While we were hoping for a different outcome, we will continue to advocate for saving Millcroft. Our best hope continues to be provincial intervention through a Ministers Zoning Order that preserves the land as parks and open space.

You can assist by writing your MPP to request the province to issue the MZO.