milton town council

Pedestrian Bridge Approved Public Input Requested

Mike Cluett

From the newswire of the Town of Milton

NEWS RELEASE

April 25, 2012

Milton connects communities with pedestrian bridge

The construction of a pedestrian bridge over the existing Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), between Thompson Road and James Snow Parkway, has been approved by Milton Council.  Construction will begin in May 2012 and is anticipated to be completed at the end of 2012.

A Public Information Session, detailing the plans and designs of the bridge, will be held on May 10, 2012, from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., with a brief presentation taking place at 6:30 p.m. The session will be held at the Milton Sports Centre, Banquet Room, 605 Santa Maria Blvd..

The overpass, which includes accessible ramps, asphalt walkways, lighting and landscaping, will provide a much-needed connection between Clarke Neighbourhood to the north and Dempsey Neighbourhood to the south. It will allow more direct pedestrian access to the GO Station, Bishop Reding Secondary School, Milton Leisure Centre, Centre for the Arts, Memorial Arena and the downtown area.

Identified in both the Bristol Secondary Plan and the 2007 Trails Master Plan, the pedestrian bridge will provide a safer alternative for crossing the railroad tracks for both pedestrians and cyclists while adding to the trail routes within the Town.

Following three public consultations in 2008 and discussions with CPR and Conservation Halton, a detailed design of the pedestrian bridge was completed. At the beginning of 2011, the project was approved by Milton Council to be moved up from 2018 to 2012.

Additional information about this project is available on the Town of Milton website (http://www.milton.ca/en/townhall/cp_railwaypedestrianbridge.asp) or by calling 905-878-7252, ext. 2571 or 2169.

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For further information, please contact:

Jennifer Reynolds Director, Community Services – 905-878-7252, ext. 2180

Liliana Busnello, Communications Specialist – 905-878-7252, ext. 2154 

Cell Tower Open House Coming Up This Thursday

Mike Cluett

This is just a reminder that the Altus Group will be holding a public information session / open house this Thursday April 12th at 7pm in Milton Leisure Centre.

As viewers of this blog will know, there is a lot of discussion amongst local residents about this ranging from outright opposition to people accepting it as a way of improving mobile services in town.  I urge you to send me your comments as well as the contact at the Altus Group before April 12th to make sure your views are heard.

I have spent a number of days door knocking the area in ward 6 listening to concerns from residents and answering any questions that I can.  There is a lot of data to review and its not an easy issue to deal with.  The best advice I would have is to get as much information as possible during this public process.

Recently CHCH News had a story on some of the local residents commenting on the potential tower installation.

If you remember back at the beginning of March, I posted the information that was sent to councillors in the area to ensure there is a full and open discussion of what is coming down the road with this potential cell phone tower installation. According to the guidelines & regulations, the Town of Milton notifies the residents within the 120 m radius of these types of issues. Im not saying thats wrong, but I am not a fan of that small radius and think that in cases like this, more homes should be notified, hence my original posting. I wanted to ensure as many people as possible are informed of whats happening and provide sources of information so that we are all fully informed and get both sides of the issue. The final decision belongs to Industry Canada and the town provides its comments during this public process.

There are a number of residents circulating a petition against the cell tower and if you would like more information send an email to me and I can forward you their contact information.

No matter what side of the issue you are on, I do urge you to review the available information in my previous posts, comments on the blog as well as what the Altus Group will present at its public information session on the 12th.

I look forward to attending the meeting on the 12th and I hope to see you there.

Milton Town Council Meeting March 26 2012

Mike Cluett

The next meeting of Milton Town Council is on Monday March 26, 2012 starting at 7pm at Milton Town Hall.

The governing body of the Town of Milton is Town Council, consisting of the Mayor and 10 Councillors who represent Milton’s eight wards.  Milton residents elect members of Council for a four-year term of office.  You can find a link to watch the Town Council meetings here.  The meetings are also broadcast on TV Cogeco (Channel 14).

Town Council deals with:

  • Matters requiring policy direction
  • By-laws or by-law amendments
  • Responses or actions to pertinent issues

Council also makes decisions on the recommendations of Milton’s two Standing Committees of Council:

  • Administration & Planning Committee
  • Community Services Committee

The link to the agenda can be found here.

Some of the highlites in the agenda are as follows:

If you have any questions, please feel free to call or email me mike@mikecluett.ca You can also go to the Watch Online link on my page to view from the comfort of your home.  I look forward to seeing you there.

Weekend Reading

Mike Cluett

As I posted in my recent entry for the Administration & Planning Standing Committee, there are a number of issues to be discussed this coming Monday night.

One of them is a public meeting regarding a proposed zoning bylaw amendment for a property at Thompson Road and Louis St Laurent.  There is an application moved by the owners to allow the construction of a Tim Hortons restaurant on that land, located at the north west corner.  Right now its vacant land, not well kept up and lacking a sidewalk to allow for pedestrians to safely cross the street.

Here is a link to the application.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to attend the meeting at Town Hall this coming Monday March 19th at 7pm to have your say.  As always you can email your questions to me mike@mikecluett.ca and I can ask them on your behalf.

Some of the concerns that I will raise at the meeting is the possibility of traffic concerns in the area.  As with many drive through restaurants there is a concern of overflow traffic at peak times coming on the road, which can lead to potential issues.  After meeting with the designers of the property a few weeks ago, they showed me diagrams of what it will look like and hopefully will address those concerns.  If the zoning bylaw change goes through, there is still a lot to be done before the shovel hits the ground.  There will be traffic studies done to gain some insight of what might happen if the restaurant goes through.

Another item that will be discussed (in the consent agenda) is the report from staff on Milton Town Council’s salaries and expenses for 2011.  Ive attached a quick snap shot of the report listed by individual councillor.

There is also a technical report that will be presented by staff on a recomendation of a zoning bylaw change for the property located in the area around Ferguson (north of Clark Blvd) , Armstrong and Derry Road.  If you live near the area its where a number of homes will be built soon and its getting ready for construction.  Also in the area is the property that will be a future public school at Sauve Road & Ferguson.  The report is outlining why the bylaw should be changed from Holding status to RMD which is residential medium density development.

Ive attached a map of the area from the report.

Here is a link to the report.

And finally there will be presentation from staff on reaction to the provincial governments recent release of the Drummond Report.  If you have had a chance to review the close to 500 page report, you will know there are many recommendations made to the provincial government to reduce the over $16 billion deficit.  These recommendations arent guaranteed but many of them have caused the ears of municipalities like Milton and Halton’s ears perk up.

Here is a link to the staff report on Drummond.

If you have any questions on these or other matters at this meeting, feel free to call  or email me and let me know.

Community Fund News Update

Mike Cluett

Almost a year ago, Ward 5 Councillor Arnold Huffman had asked the Community Services Advisory Committee (CSAC) to review possible changes to the Milton Community Fund to allow for a special category to be set up specifically for Milton based service groups like the Optimist Club, Rotary Club and Royal Canadian Legion to name a few.

This option was reviewed by the CSAC members (of which both Arnold and I are council representatives for) and the report was returned to council with the recommendation that it not move forward.  Before the report from CSAC could be voted on by council, a motion to defer and send it back was moved and passed.  This allowed CSAC to review it again along with additional feedback from area service groups with the result being the same.

This means the $100,000 will be put back into the Community Fund for 2012.  This amount for the last few years had been allocated to fund the construction of the Milton Centre for the Arts and once that was completed, it was to be directed back into available funds for allocations by CSAC.  During the 2011 budget process, Arnold made the motion to have CSAC review the special allocation in the fund for service clubs and over a year later the matter has been resolved.

The 2011 Community Fund allocations this past year actually ran out as there were so many qualified applicants.  As Milton grows and if the Community Fund is to be successful we need to make sure that there is enough money in the fund for future needs.  Funding for the CF comes from the slot revenues from OLG and not from your tax bill.  With the CSAC motion approved by Milton Council, the $100,000 will be available for all members of the community through the fund.  When the 2012 guidelines have been approved by council later this month, I will post a link so people can apply if needed.

Here is a brief history of the Community Fund.

For some background information you can check out Champion coverage here.  Also, here is a report from the Milton Canadian Champion.

Service groups denied – Council votes against matching program from Milton’s Community Fund

Councillors have voted not to allocate $100,000 from Milton’s Community Fund specifically to service groups.

Without discussion on Monday night, council approved a staff report that recommended against a new matching program to help service clubs fund Milton-based projects.

Ward 5 Councillor Arnold Huffman asked staff to investigate the feasibility of the program in early 2011. At the time, he said the matching program would help fundraising initiatives for new projects and possibly increase membership levels. Huffman was absent from Monday’s meeting.

Twice, the Community Services Advisory Committee (CSAC) — the committee that reviews the community fund allocations — voted against the matching program. One of the meetings took place in late January and members of Milton Council were not permitted to attend as to not influence other CSAC members.

Close to $290,000 from the 2011 Milton Community fund was distributed to individuals and groups in town.

The 2012 program will see $350,000 distributed.

Upcoming Public Meetings

Mike Cluett

There are two upcoming public meetings on Monday March 19th as a part of our Administration & Planning meeting that residents in ward 6 would be interested in.

The first one is a potential development at the north west corner of Thompson Road and Louis St Laurent that would possibly bring in a Tim Horton’s restaurant along with drive thru across the street from the Metro Mall.

Here is a link to the public meeting notice.

I had an opportunity to meet with the person designing the development and I was very encouraged that the designs included lots of room for cars to enter without having any backup on the main roads (Thompson / LSL)  Its a situation that many drive thru’s run into…too many cars at busy points in the day lead to spillage on the roads and potential safety issues and traffic backups.

In addtion to a well designed parking lot with lots of spaces and room to move for vehicles, the outward design is also very nice.  Utilizing stone in the design keeps with the “escarpment feel” Many residents have commented that new development in Milton seems to be all over the place design wise and no continuity.  As soon as I can get the designs scanned in (likely when the agenda is available online – Thursday before the meeting) I can post it to show you.  It does look really nice, but I wont know until the final presentation is made.  This meeting is to ask for a zoning by law change to allow this future development.  There is still time before the site plans etc are to be presented.

Residents are invited to send submissions to council for that meeting either in writing or in person if they have any questions or concerns.  As always if you do have any questions you can email me mike@mikecluett.ca & I can bring them up.

The other public meeting to be held that night concerns zoning application at the corner of Hwy 25 and Louis St Laurent from Mattamy Corporation.  The link to that public notice is here.

That is a request to change the zoning to Future Development, which can lead to something similar at this location as the previous one, or something different.  The full details will be listed before the meeting so if you have any concerns, please let me know.

So what do you think?  A Tim Hortons is good for this location or not?  Do you think it will benefit the area or add to congestion?  Let me know mike@mikecluett.ca or feel free to leave a comment here.