I would just like to express my disappointment at the Mayor of Oakville’s comments in his recent email newsletter about working on a motion to limit the expansion of the urban boundary that will put at risk Milton’s ability to grow into a complete community.
Halton Region yesterday had a workshop that lasted several hours where Halton planners answered many questions brought forward by my colleagues around the table coming to the conclusion that the only option to move forward on is minimal expansion to the urban boundary.
For the last 10 plus years, Milton residents have worked on a vision they wanted for our town. There has been in person consultations, Milton’s Vision report and a lot of discussion on Lets Talk Milton about what we want Milton to be in the coming years.
Without expansion of the urban boundary, it puts at risk our long term economic development plans and bringing jobs for residents to live, work and learn in our community. A majority of Milton Town Council along with a majority of our Halton Region Councillors agree with the urban boundary expansion.
The sole Milton voice at Halton Region that opposes our vision that we have built is Councillor Best. He feels that all we need to do is “drive around town” and see that we have enough space for development out to 2051. This is a completely uninformed analysis based on anecdotal evidence. He ignores the numerous Region & Town of Milton’s studies and Land Needs Assessments that have come to the conclusion that no urban boundary expansion will work.
The next meeting of Halton Region council will be on February 16th where this and possibly other motions will be entertained to delay the submission for our official plan. If we don’t meet this deadline, there are chances where the province will step in and plan our growth without our plan.
This cannot happen. Its not about saving farmland as they might say…its simply about politics. Let Milton control its own growth and not have outside forces dictate to us what kind of community we should be. We already know what kind we want…a complete community.
Mr Cluett, i disagree with your opinion expressed above: 1: This is not “simply politics”: This is way too much about politics, and it SHOULD be about our community’s responsible action concerning growth management. In the face of the fight against Global warming, you must have not yet read about why past planning principles must change in order to maintain our planet’s sustainability. “Research shows that without very significant change to current automobile-dependent growth patterns, the Toronto metropolitan region will experience greatly increased environmental degradation, traffic congestion and related economic losses, and dysfunctional urban environments” (neptis foundation, commentary on the growth plan)
2: Colin Best is not uninformed: In fact he has consistently provided information about growth management, agriculture, and density strategies, that seems to fall on deaf ears. You appear to be the one ignoring many reports and studies that demonstrate that growth can indeed be managed without doing more harm to the environment. In my view, and because we cannot ignore global warming, if there is a way to achieve the required population increase without using up more land, then you have a moral obligation to do that.
3: I am disappointed that Milton has chosen to play “Business as Usual” instead of demonstrating leadership about our municipality’s possible contribution to creative solutions.
4: When Council voted in favour of Option 4 (3300 hectares of farmland to be paved over) last fall, the message was “we need all this land to make it work”. Now you’re voting for an option that uses less land (2120 hectares), and once again wanting us to buy the message of ” we need all this land to make it work”. Perhaps if you try one more time, unlock some of your creative potential, be the leader that Milton needs, you could move us in the direction of a Sustainable Future.
Yesterday, Marina Huissoon gave an excellent presentation on Zoom about densification and how important it is for Halton to act on the climate emergency it declared. Sorry you missed it.
Councillor Cluett, has no one ever explained to you the concept of the “missing middle”? There are many, many housing options between ground level units and apartment towers. Claiming that if we don’t build single family homes then everyone would have to live in tall towers simply lacks imagination. Take a walk in the established neighbourhoods of Toronto, Montreal, London – any older Canadian city and you’ll see low rise apartments, multiplexes, courtyard apt., laneway homes, etc. It’s the way cities were designed and we can do it again.
There is a plethora of information on how suburban sprawl (which is characterized by low-density residential housing, single-use zoning, and increased reliance on the private automobile for transportation), is bad for our health and is financially and environmentally unsustainable.
The original Growth Concept 3 presented by staff proposed less land. This tells me there is no question we can do better.
This is about saving farms and saving the planet. We’re paving over our farms, while burning down the Amazon Rainforest to make farms…brilliant. Over half of young people are living with constant climate change anxiety, worried about the future. Halton Region did declare a climate EMERGENCY. Dismissing our legitimate concerns as “simply albout politics,” I find to be extremely offensive.
There is also a plethora of information continued in the two Land Needs Assesments presented to council as well as staffs comments that we can NOT accommodate the growth targets without urban expansion.
The initial report from staff looked at a number of options and not just one and concluded then that it wasn’t workable and will not comply with the provincial growth plan.
My comments about it being political was directed at the actions behind this motion and not the SSH group. I’ve outlined why I disagree with many conclusions made by the group in previous comments and posts.
If you look at the secondary plans for places like Trafalgar corridor and Milton Education Village you will see we ARE planning for sustainable walkable communities. And even with this kind of development of the missing middle etc our town staff, the regional staff and 2 land needs assessments have come to the conclusion that it simply can’t be done.
Thanks for your comments.
Well spoken. It really is about the environment, no other hidden agendas. We have to think of the future, no more time to push the painful changes down the road and let someone else, some other Regional Council, deal with it. It has fallen to us and we mustn’t shy away from our duty to future generations. Our children will be grateful.
Yes I’m familiar with these types of development. We also have to take into consideration many other factors not of which is one of the important ones called market demand. We are working to provide all types of housing options from single family homes to townhomes to low and mid rise developments as well as high rise both rental and condo to give all Miltonians options. The prices are getting higher pricing our younger people out of the market which means many of our kids will have to move out of town where there options available.
Reducing the area on which to grow jobs and residential development means less options. We’d have to grow higher and more often which means more towers and less of other important items like parks, less options for school construction and other things Miltonians value.
We’ve spend the last 10 plus years coming up with a vision for Milton. Some support that vision and sadly others say one thing and vote the other way. I’m voting t bring Milton’s collective vision to a reality.
Thanks for your comment.
Information provided has been incomplete and slanted. I’ll trust the views of Milton’s staff as well as the regions when they say we can’t comply with the provincial growth plan. I’ll leave the driving around town urban planning to him.
The motion being out forward my the mayors of Oakville and Burlington actually do why you say shouldn’t happen. Kicking the can down the road. Letting someone else make the tough and in some ways inevitable decision for urban expansion.
Milton came with a plan awhile back with a much more bigger ask but compromised going forward with a smaller ask. Land needs to be available when it’s ready for development and kicking the can down the road will result in all future development for jobs to be delayed and miss opportunities for the desired plans for walkable complete communities. There were some lost opportunities in Derry Green for that type of development but feet dragging like this led to some missed opportunities. I don’t want that to happen again. Milton’s vision is too important.
2051. That’s how far into the future the province is asking Regional Council to commit. So that the land will be available if and when developers get around to it. Think back to the world 30 years ago, the internet had barely been invented and its changed everything, everywhere. Yet Regional Council is suppose to give its land away for some development so far in the future it’s nearly mythical. And there’s already over 5000 acres of Halton farmland already promised and available, (but thankfully not yet build upon). And now you want to give away 5000 more??? That’s 10,000 acres. Let those 5000 presently available acres be the home of jobs and opportunities. Tell them no, Mr. Cluett, tell them they’ve got enough of our children’s heritage already. They’ve got enough to keep their bank accounts nice and full for decades to come. Tell them you’ve got to think of Halton’s children now, and keep our land, so in 2051 they’ll still have a future.