The last full council meeting a couple of weeks ago went long…very long by some standards.  It was close to midnight by the time councillors, staff and some candidates made their way back home.

There was a public meeting on the Derry Green Corporate Business Park (James Snow Parkway, north to the 401, east to roughly Trafalgar and then down to the creek) but the last part of the discussion came from a motion by Councillor Cindy Lunau to expand the hamlet known as Campbellville.

As Tim Foran of the Milton Canadian Champion outines in his article, there are a few more changes coming to the quiet area of Campbellville.

Changes could be coming to Campbellville

The quiet hamlet of Campbellville could become a little noisier in future due to some changes made by Milton’s town council last week.

An existing no heavy truck prohibition along Campbellville Road, between Milburough and Guelph lines, will be removed, council decided without discussion.

The change is part of the Town’s handover of responsibility for maintaining the roadway to Halton Region, an uploading that will save Milton taxpayers some money.

The Region has indicated it plans to invest millions of dollars to improve the roadway to major arterial conditions in future years.

Council also decided that, subject to necessary studies, it will try to expand Campbellville’s urban boundaries westward.

If the expansion receives approval from Halton Region and the Province, which Town staff indicated is actually unlikely, it would allow for new development in some of the area bounded by Campbellville Road to the south, Twiss Road to the west, Hwy. 401 to the north and the hamlet’s existing boundary to the east.

The last major addition to the hamlet was Bridlewood Estates, a subdivision of million-dollar homes currently under construction.

The motion made by Nassagaweya Councillor Cindy Lunau to expand the hamlet came on the day council was approving its updated official plan following four years of planning for future growth by Halton Region and the Town. The motion passed 5-4. Lunau’s ward colleague, Jan Mowbray, supported the motion while the regional councillor for the area, Barry Lee, didn’t.

“I’m of the opinion there’s a certain critical mass (of people needed) to make a hamlet sustainable,” Lunau explained for her motion.

Mississauga-based investment company TSI International, which uses land banking as part of its real estate investment strategy, owns most of the property included in Lunau’s motion and has been the only developer that has asked for the hamlet to be expanded, Town staff confirmed.

Supporters of the expansion, including Lunau, Regional Councillor Colin Best and Mowbray, expressed concern the motion’s wording was obviously in support of TSI’s request as they didn’t want to be seen to be favouring one developer’s land over another.

Lunau had originally put forth a motion suggesting the Town support minor expansions to hamlets, in general. However, the Town’s lawyer advised council a motion indicating the Town has some idea where it wants to grow would have a greater chance of getting approval from the Region and Province.

TSI’s request was shot down by Halton Regional staff in December, when it completed an update to its own official plan. In a response document released at that time, Halton staff said they didn’t believe including TSI’s 100-acre property in the urban area was a “minor rounding out of the hamlet,” something allowable under Provincial legislation during the official plan update process.

Last week, the Town of Milton’s lawyer told council it was still unclear how many acres would actually constitute “minor” to the Province.

Town planning staff had also recommended against expanding the hamlet. In a June 10 document, staff explained the Province’s Greenbelt Plan only allows rounding out of hamlets if the proposal has been supported by appropriate studies assessing the need for the expansion as well as the availability of water to service the development. Those studies haven’t been done, according to staff.

Prior to council’s vote, Town Senior Manager of Planning Policy Barb Koopmans told council that Halton Region has “clearly advised” it won’t approve the expansion to the hamlet in the absence of such evidence.

That news upset Colin Chung, the planning consultant for TSI. He said after the council session the company has offered for years to do whatever studies are necessary, but never got confirmation from municipal planners.

TSI’s property is approximately 100 acres. The majority are forested and designated natural heritage system, but about 15 acres are rural, including some along the Twiss Road frontage.

Lunau suggested much of the land could be donated to the town for use as trails by local residents.

Here is an article written by Tim Foran of the Milton Canadian Champion outlining details on the changes to Milton’s Official Plan.

In his article he mentions a local resident Michael Fox that I referred to in my Communication post recently.  Also he refers to comments that resident Steve Camilerri made regarding the benefit of Milton Transit, the new route for his area in September and how council should focus on its growth.

Town council approves significant growth plans

The future is written but the book may need some revisions.

Milton council Monday night signed off on two secondary plans that will guide the last phases of residential and employment growth originally designated in the Town’s 1997 Official Plan.

It also endorsed an update to that same official plan. The document now includes new ‘smart growth’ policies that will govern areas of future growth from 2015 to 2031.

By that time, Milton is projected to be a community of almost 240,000 and its urban fabric will stretch to Hwy. 407 in the east and Lower Base Line in the south.

Council unanimously approved all three plans. However, planning staff indicated Monday there’s a long list of future studies that still have to be completed including assessing the price tag for the infrastructure necessary to accommodate future growth. Those studies will likely result in tweaks to all three plans before Halton Region, the municipal planning authority, gives its stamp of approval.

While much planning is left undone, it was still imperative council approve the three plans Monday, according to staff.

The Province had set a deadline of June 16 for lower tier municipalities such as Milton to update their official plans to conform to legislation enacted earlier in the decade, such as the Greenbelt Plan and the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

Milton’s new official plan also had to be brought into conformity with Halton Region’s December update to its own official plan, ROPA 38, the result of the Sustainable Halton planning process.

But there was no such such deadline for Milton to approve the two secondary plans, one for the Boyne Survey residential area to be built south of Louis St. Laurent Boulevard and another for the Derry Green Corporate Business Park destined for the area east of James Snow Parkway.

However, staff reports said the two plans must be completed by June 16 so that developments in the Boyne and Derry Green areas would be “grandfathered” and governed by the policies in the 1997 Official Plan rather than new less development-friendly ones contained in the updated official plan.

Those new policies, first outlined in Halton’s ROPA 38, could “potentially impact (the) feasability” of development in the Boyne and Derry Green areas due to their requirement for higher densities and the application of an enhanced natural heritage system that includes links between key natural features, stated staff reports reviewed by council.

The new policies also require all players at the table — the local municipalities, school boards, developers and the provincial and federal governments — to agree on what infrastructure is necessary to support “complete communities” and provide evidence the money is in place to build it, so that taxpayers don’t take the hit.

Municipal planners have said they expect these ‘growth must pay for itself’ policies to be challenged at the Ontario Municipal Board as soon as the Province signs off on ROPA 38.

Council didn’t discuss the decision to grandfather the two secondary plans. However, the Town’s consultant said after council it’s common practice for developments to be governed by the policies in place when they first began.

“Is it fair to change those (rules) in midstream?” asked consultant Elizabeth Howson rhetorically.

The policies in the updated official plan were applauded by local resident Steve Camilleri, who said he appreciated the focus on intensification and smarter development.

Camilleri, who lives near Derry and Holly roads, said he has lived in his community for four years but will only be getting a bus route this September.

Though he said he’s thankful to get it, he supported the municipality’s efforts to get transit on track quicker in the future.

“The answer is public transit and it needs to be looked at as an asset,” said Camilleri.

ROPA 38 policies require municipalities to have a plan in place to provide public transit to new subdivisions as they come on stream.

Another delegate to council took a dimmer view of intensification. Michael Fox, a resident of Frobisher Boulevard, petitioned council to reduce the heights allowed in the official plan for the section of Main Street in front of the GO Train station.

The plan allows the north side of Main Street across the street from the GO station, between Ontario Street and Thompson Road, currently occupied by low-rise commercial and industrial units, to be redeveloped into four-storey buildings, with potential for a maximum of three more storeys through typical bonusing provisions. Immediately adjacent to the GO Station, the plan allows for 10- to 14- storey buildings.

Fox said 72 of his neighbours, more than half of whom have pools, could be affected by shadows of buildings of that height.

However, Town staff responded the four-storey limit and the bonusing provisions haven’t changed since the 1997 Official Plan.

“To take away what is currently permitted without justification would be problematic,” Barb Koopmans, Milton’s senior manager of policy planning, told council.

She added developers are required to do a shadow impact study when filing their development application.

Through the site plan approval process, staff can mitigate any potential impact by buildings higher along the edge of Main Street but “step down” at the rear of the lot, she added.

Ward 4 Councillor Paul Scherer pointed out to Fox the original heights proposed the Town’s intesification background study called for buildings of six to eight storeys opposite the GO Station, which was ultimately dismissed in favour of keeping the status quo.

“I think we’ve done a reasonable job of protecting the neighbourhood,” said Scherer.

Ward 1 Councillor Rick Day was absent for the four-hour session as he was away on business, Mayor Gord Krantz said.

There are a lot of drivers in Milton who use James Snow Parkway south of Derry as a route to get home and around town.  That road didnt even exist a year or so ago but has now finished its construction but the effects are still being felt.

While this road was under construction the speed limit was reduced to 50km/hr, as most roads under construction are.  Recently reported in the Champion back in December, that stretch of road was approved for an increase in the limit to 70km/hr by Halton Regional Council.  When changes are made to the speed limits, the Region or the municipality in charge of the road should, within a reasonable amount of time, put new signs up showing the different limits.

Many drivers who take that road found the limit difficult to change as most were coming south on James Snow Parkway from the 401 and the speed limit dropped from 70 km/hr to 50 rather quickly.  Halton Regional Police responded to a number of complaints from drivers who speed excessively down that stretch of road took it upon themselves to set up “speed traps” as a way of educating drivers and of course, hit them in the pocket book.

Problem is, according to a new article in the Milton Canadian Champion by Tim Foran, the police force were informed of the speed limit change but yet this past week, held a speeding blitz where a number of drivers were hit with speeding tickets.

Over at the Hawthorne Villager forum people were speaking out how unfair this practice was and it also raised a few issues legally speaking about the validity of the speeding tickets.  Sure the limit was legally 70km/hr but the posted speed limit was still 50km/hr.

I consulted a good friend of mine and paralegal extroridinare Dave Sokolowski of Sokolowski Legal Services for an answer.

He said, “A law or a by law may be passed at any time, but until it is enacted it is not in effect. The councils decision to increase the speed limit on this stretch of road although passed in December technically was not in effect until the signs were changed.

The Highway Traffic Act is clear that all drivers must obey the posted signs, much like if you were travelling through a construction zone and the speed limit is reduced. You may have driven on that road 900 times at the speed limit of 80, but once the signs go up that its 60, that is the rate of speed that you must travel at.

Although I cannot speak as to why the officers were running the “speed trap” before the signs were changed, I can say that they were not doing anything wrong at the time.

Everyone who has recieved a ticket does have the right to be able to fight it. I cannot say that the Crown involved that day would have the charge withdrawn, but they may have it reduced so that there are no points against your license. “

If you found yourself to be one of those people with the traffic tickets and would like to get some legal advice or representation, I recommend speaking with Dave at Sokolowski Legal Services to find out what, if anything you can do about the tickets.

This of course provides me an opportunity to remind everyone that the limits you must drive at are the posted speed limits.  Please take your time around town and obey the speed limits.

I’ll see you at the doors.

With many of us still braving the malls and the roads rushing out to get the last of the Christmas presents for under the tree, our thoughts arent usually on things like “intesification” of Main Street.  It is important to know that town council will be reviewing a study on how a large portion of our town will look in the coming years.

I know I havent really talked about it here, other milton bloggers like Jennifer Smith, have taken up that cause, but here is a news story from Tim Foran at the Milton Canadian Champion outlining what the study might find and what the next steps are.

Being at one of the town meetings on this, I have to echo the comments from some of the councillors including the Mayor when we ask “HOW are we going to pay for all of this?”  The provincial government has come up with guidelines for growth and the town is responsible for getting us there.  The province wants it done by a certain time, but the thing that will drive the debate is cost!

Intensification strategy to go before council in January
By Tim Foran, Metroland West Media Group

An intensification strategy outlining which of Milton’s numerous strip malls, parking lots and low-density commercial and industrial properties are prime spots for offices and condominiums is expected to go before councillors for approval next month. The strategy is the result of the Town’s intensification and infill study, which was received for information by council recently.

According to materials prepared by Meridian Planning Consultants, hired by the Town to do the study, most of the growth would be accommodated in what the Province has designated as Milton’s urban growth centre (UGC), one of 25 such areas in the GTA. This UGC generally straddles Main Street between Martin Street and Thompson Road, but also dips south to include the industrial land along Nipissing Road. The strip of Main between Ontario and Thompson, around the GO train station, is a prime candidate for future intensification, according to the consultant’s materials.

Meridian’s Nick McDonald told the Town’s planning committee at a recent meeting Milton’s UGC is unique in that it doesn’t encompass the historic downtown core. The UGC is about 135 hectares in size and must be planned to accommodate a density of 200 jobs and residents combined per hectare, equivalent to about 27,360 people, according to Provincial legislation. On paper, Milton’s 1997 Official Plan already allows for a density of 170 in the area, but the reality of what exists on the ground is far different. Currently, the UGC has only 7,300 people and jobs in an area characterized by low-density commercial units, vacant lots, light industrial buildings, and large surface parking lots.

“All we can do is plan and encourage and provide (allowances),” McDonald told the committee when questioned on the likelihood of being able to meet the intensification targets. “We can’t build, we can’t compel anybody to build.”

While the UGC is expected to be the centre of Milton’s intensification, the Town’s consultant has also identified 187 hectares of potential intensification sites in other areas of the town, mostly concentrated along Bronte and Ontario Streets and Steeles Avenue. About 30 per cent of this area is currently designated for employment uses, leaving 70 per cent, or 144 hectares, for potential residential and mixed-use development. The consultant has identified less than three hectares of potential intensification sites in Milton’s historic downtown core.

Town Planning Director Bill Mann has previously said he’d like to see employee-intensive offices included in the plan rather than just residential condominiums. Indeed, at this point, the Town is only planning to add 5,300 residential units — about 12,500 people — within its entire built boundary, an area generally bounded by the borders of the town as of 2006. The majority of those people could be housed in the UGC, according to the consultant’s materials. That’s a small percentage of the new residents Milton is expecting over the next 22 years. Current municipal plans project the community’s population to jump from the 85,000 it’s at now to 238,000 by 2031.

Of that amount:

• About 27,500 people are still to come over the next few years to the Bristol and Sherwood Survey areas that have been under construction for much of the past decade.

• Another 50,000 people would be housed in the Boyne Survey area, which is the area of land south of Louis St. Laurent Boulevard to Britannia Road, between Tremaine Road to the west and James Snow Parkway to the east. The Boyne, Bristol and Sherwood Survey areas were the three phases of residential growth identified in Milton’s 1997 Official Plan.

• Between 2021 and 2031, Town and Regional plans currently identify another 63,000 people to be housed in future residential areas to the east and south of the town. This new growth would see urban Milton extend close to the borders of Mississauga and Oakville.

Tim Foran can be reached at tforan@miltoncanadianchampion.com

Its gone!

Yep, thats what I said.  Gone.  Halton Regional council, in a last minute amendment to the budget removed the salary raise they would have received (amounting to roughly $17,000 in total) and remains a 0 % increase.

While the amount might look to some as minimal it does go a long way to letting taxpayers know that they should be the primary concern when it comes to taxes.

It looks like they listened to the people who sent them emails, called them and by the comments on my blog entry a few days back, no one was happy about paying them more.  One of the most interesting comments from the article is from Tom Adams, who is a regional councillor for Oakville and former Green Party candidate federally. 

He said that council was second guessing the citizens committee who made the recommendation.  From what I understand, and please correct me if Im wrong, the citizens committee makes a recommendation.  That is not saying its something that has to be done.  So council can at anytime say no to that recommendation.

Dictionary.com defines “recommend” as:

to advise, as an alternative; suggest (a choice, course of action, etc.) as appropriate, beneficial, or the like

Its not second guessing the committee at all.  I appreciate the fact that this committee exists and it should continue in making its suggestions for local governments, but the beauty about it is that council CAN say NO.

As Burlington councillor John Talyor said, its not political games, it’s the taxpayers money.

I for one am very glad this didnt go through.  I could only wish the same could be said for the Town of Milton in the recent budget.

Here’s the story from the Champion.

Zero tax hike budget passed
By Tim Foran, Metroland West Media Group
Dec 18, 2009

The elimination of any salary hike for regional councillors was a last-minute change to Halton’s $1.1 billion 2010 budget approved Wednesday. The changes, proposed by council’s budget review committee Monday, won’t change the overall requested tax levy, meaning there will be no increase next year in property taxes for regional services, which include items such as police, ambulance and regional roads maintenance. There will also be no increases in water rates, which are paid by Halton residents on their electricity bills. Staff achieved the zero tax and rate increases in part by instituting a freeze on tax-supported new hires, except for police personnel, and keeping the number of municipal staff at 2008 levels.

Read more here

As an avid reader (and participant) in my daily travels to the Hawthorne Villager, the topic of growth is one that never seems to die down.  Some like it and some dont.  Some want it to stop now that they’re living here and some accept it as inevitable change.

Growth in Milton, as with other municipalities is mandated by the Province.  They produce guidelines and directions for the town and its up to the local council to marry those needs with reality.  There are number of projects being worked on within our borders that will contribute to that growth, such as the Derry Green Business Park east of James Snow Parkway and the intensification of Main Street from JSP to Bronte Street.  There have been a lot of numbers thrown around from 150,000 to 175,000 and even up to over 300,000!!!

At a recent Chamber of Commerce breakfast, the Town Planner Bill Mann told the business community at large the population of Milton could reach anywhere from 300,000 to 350,000 in the coming years.  This doesnt mean we’ll be at that point anytime soon as there are many decades worth of development to go through to get to that.

I found those comments, which are detailed by Tim Foran at the Milton Canadian Champion article, interesting along with a letter to the editor against growth in Milton.

Here is the letter by Linda Arone.

DEAR EDITOR:

My husband and I met in 2002. At that time I lived in Mississauga and he lived in Vaughan.

Our dates and weekend getaways were always in the Milton area, at conservation parks, tourist farms, farmers’ market, etc. We loved the quiet charm, the small-town culture and the friendly people of Milton.

In 2006, when we got married, our obvious decision was to purchase a home in Milton. To our disappointment, this town has continued to grow beyond its capacity, and I find myself sitting in more traffic now than ever before and being cut off by extremely inconsiderate and aggressive drivers.

So as a relatively new resident of Milton, I feel for the Miltonians of 20-plus years ago, but I also sympathize with all the newcomers who had hoped to start a new life in the lovely, close-knit and safe little town we used to know as Milton.

LINDA ARONE, MILTON

Sifting through some of the older editions of the Milton Canadian Champion, I found this article from Tim Foran about a spirited discussion on growth a couple of town council meetings ago. Just goes to show that the battle between “growth vs no growth” still rages on in the council chambers. 

I dont know about you but I really enjoy Tim’s point of view…sometimes not quite agreeing with him, but he is definitely detailed and thorough.

Here’s the article.

The resurrection of an old but tired battle was played out between two older but spirited warriors at Milton’s council session Monday night.

Councillor Rick Day, who’s been around more than his surname indicates, woke himself and kicked off the kerfuffle during debate of a fiscal analysis that estimates Milton’s taxes would have to rise about 1.8 per cent a year above inflation between 2021 and 2031 to pay for the growth currently being planned for that time period. That’s actually less than the 2.5 per cent increase estimated for the growth currently under construction in the southwest and west ends of town, noted the Town’s treasurer Linda Leeds.

In mischievous spirits, Day, likening the analysis to a ‘doomsday report’, put the question to Leeds:

“Are all these problems related to growth?” a question that elicited an awkward silence amongst the assembled.

Leeds, ever the civil servant, hesitated to reply, wary of feeding a political agenda.

“It’s an easy answer,” Day pushed, smiling. “One syllable; three letters, not two.”

“You’re killing me,” Leeds finally replied, laughing.

“None of us are proud to be the fastest growing municipality in Canada, we’re embarrassed by it,” Day continued, getting serious.

That shot across the bow of the good ship Milton, in particular pro-growth Cap’n Krantz, drew a proportional response.

Noting Milton’s residential property tax rate is the second lowest in the GTA after Toronto, Krantz defended the Town’s containment of service levels the past decade: “In my opinion, over the years the councils have made some pretty wise decisions.”

In reality, both men are correct.

Day’s implied position that something has been lost here beyond dollars — perhaps not the community spirit, but the small town feel — is believed by those who engage in old vs. new Milton debates.

But Krantz’s push more than a decade ago to bring up The Big Pipe — the Lake Ontario water that allowed growth — was a recognition of the inevitable expansion of Milton, though it likely moved up the process a decade or so.

It’s time though for these old foes to scabbard their swords and pull out a pen; to work on finding a way to make new Milton work as well as the old one; to stop signing off on development applications on paper and then letting the bureaucrats deal with them; to get involved in the design of these multiple thousand-home communities – from the street layout to the driveway lengths to the placement of drive-thrus, noise fences, and even a store residents can walk to for milk.

And speaking of growth, there is a public meeting at the Town Hall Chambers on November 16th at 730pm regarding the new development plan for the area east of James Snow Parkway.  There are lots of changes coming down the pike and if you live in the area, like I do, its best to be informed of those changes.

You can find out more about the Derry Green Business Park proposals on the Milton website under projects.  Here’s that link.  The details of the public notice can be found here as well.

TOWN OF MILTON