Amendments to highly contested residential project have been approved by city council in Burlington

After much debate, city council members within Burlington have approved zoning amendments for a highly contested set of residential buildings. 

Once completed, the property in question — 1393 Graham’s Lane — will bolster three structures featuring 722 units in total. 

According to the official session documents from August 7, the recommended changes made on behalf of city staff were:

• Resignation to general mixed-use corridors for the project.
• Amendments to building heights (now 21 storeys).
• Dedication to Parkland by-laws for green spaces surrounding the properties. 
• Construction of a walkway between units. 
• New site-specific forms are to be drafted. 
• Design alterations to proposed buildings.

However, throughout the council session, members raised numerous concerns surrounding a potential deferral of these amendments. Specifically, if the project applicant appeals to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) if the deferral timeline blitzes through the August 23 deadline.

However, some council members remained unshaken by such a prospect. 

“I would prefer, personally — for a lot of reasons — to defer this to September and hear the delegate and have more engagement,” said Councillor for Ward 2, Lisa Kearns. 

Throughout the meeting, other staff chimed in with similar concerns, as mid-summer is often a time when council members and other parties behind proposals like this one, are on vacation. 

“I’m just very conscious of the fact that — starting from the middle of July — is vacation time. So right now, the planning company hasn’t had an opportunity to talk to the applicant, so that bothers me. I feel like we are interested in playing a ‘game of chicken’ with the applicant,” said Councillor for Ward 2, Paul Sherman. 

However, Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward remained unbothered by the potential absence of players within the project (or the interference of the OLT) as she stated to the council, “I will not support the deferral, I am all for giving people more time to make a decision, however, the fact is the OLT exists, and as long as the OLT takes decision making out of the public realm and out of the council’s hands — we have a problem.” 

Ward went on to indicate that all engaged parties have been given adequate time to review amendments and that due to the structure of the OLT, there is no way to guarantee that a non-decision appeal would occur. 

“I think we do a public service if we make a decision one way or the other today,” Ward added. 

Council members then approved these proposed amendments for the 1393 Graham’s Lane via a vote. 

Att the time of publication, no information has surfaced indicating any additional involvement from the OLT.