Thompson Road South Closure Notice

February 24, 2021March 2, 2021Mike Cluett

A construction notice for Thompson Road south of Louis St Laurent to Britannia has been released by the Town of Milton to begin the process of widening to 4 lanes. As residents will note, there is a lot of new home construction happening now and more for the future as well as new retail developments on both the east and west side of Thompson Road at Louis St Laurent. This will require a staged closing of Thompson Road to accommodate the widening to prepare for future development on Thompson Road.

The first stage of the closure will be from March 8th to June 11th, 2021. Local access to some roads WILL be available during this time but travel from Thompson Rd to Britannia WILL be detoured to 4th Line and heading south to Britannia Road. Residents not familiar with some changes to the roadway, there is now a signaled intersection at Louis St Laurent and 4th Line as well as LSL and Trudeau Blvd.

Please stay tuned to the Town of Milton’s social media page (and mine as well 😉 )for any updates.

(From the Press Release)

The Town of Milton, in conjunction with KAPP Infrastructure, is urbanizing and widening Thompson Road South, between Louis St. Laurent Avenue and Britannia Road, to a 35-metre four lane cross section.

The project includes a roundabout intersection at Whitlock Avenue and Thompson Road South. The intersection of Logan Drive and Thompson Road South will have temporary signals installed as part of this contract. This intersection may be modified to a roundabout intersection as intended in the Boyne Road Network Assessment in the future.

Road closures

In order to execute this work safely, Thompson Road South will have staged road closures for the duration of the contract.

The first road closure is Thompson Road South between Whitlock Avenue and Britannia Road, from March 8, 2021 at 7 a.m. to June 11, 2021 at 7 p.m. Traffic will be detoured via Fourth Line, Regional Road 25 and Britannia Road.

Subsequent road closures, with anticipated dates, include:

Louis St. Laurent Avenue to north limit of Whitlock Avenue from June 14, 2021 to Aug. 27, 2021
Whitlock Avenue intersection from Aug. 30, 2021 to Oct. 15, 2021

Judicial Review for CN Hub Called For By Halton Region

February 19, 2021March 2, 2021Mike Cluett

From Halton Region today.

Halton Region Council met on February 17, 2021 to discuss the Federal Government’s decision to approve CN’s proposed truck-rail hub in Milton. We are extremely disappointed that the Federal Government has ignored its obligation to protect the health of Canadians, especially at a time when health is our collective focus. We are going to court to fight federal approval of the CN truck-rail hub in Milton.

Halton Regional Council has reviewed its legal options and unanimously supported going to the Federal Court of Canada to review decisions by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Cabinet to approve the federal assessment. The Federal Government has ignored the expertise of a panel it appointed, which has said that this project will cause significant harm to the health of Halton residents that cannot be mitigated.

We understand how important this effort is to our communities, and our goal is to ensure that the Federal Government follows its own laws that insist on protection of human health. We cannot see any justification for this Project to be approved when its emission of toxic substances makes it the first project ever subject to a federal panel review that was found likely to cause significant adverse effects on human health.

This project will harm the health of more than 34,000 people who will reside within 1 km of the project. We will continue to work with the community and be their voice on this issue. Our communities have unequivocally opposed this project on the grounds of protecting human health.

We encourage residents to contact their MP and the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to let the Federal Government know your concerns about their decision to approve the CN truck-rail hub in Milton, despite the significant impacts it will have on the health of Halton residents.

To learn more about our position on CN’s truck-rail hub, please visit halton.ca/CN.

This Week On Local Matters

February 18, 2021March 2, 2021Mike Cluett

This week on Local Matters with Mike Cluett I discuss the implications of the recent decision by the Federal government to “conditionally approve” the CN Intermodal in the Town of Milton and Halton Region despites the proponents complete refusal to follow local, regional, provincial and conservation guidelines as any other development in the town. If you would like to have your voice heard, please contact all Halton MP’s (Adam van Koeverden, Karina Gould, Pam Damoff, Anita Anand & Michael Chong)

Here is part one of two with Rita Vogel Post of Milton RAIL www.miltonrail.com

https://youtu.be/i1V5DQqUDxk

Here is part 2 of 2.

https://youtu.be/5kLrA8bYupM

Next Steps with We Make Milton

February 9, 2021March 2, 2021Mike Cluett

News Release

Feb. 9, 2021

Milton Council endorses land-use vision for Milton’s new Official Plan

On Feb. 8, 2021, Milton Council endorsed the vision statement and guiding principles for We Make Milton, the Town’s new Official Plan, greenlighting a modern, forward-looking land-use vision for the community to the year 2051.

The vision statement is:

Milton 2051: Choice Shapes Us
In 2051, Milton offers a diversity of options for how and where we live, work, move and grow. As we evolve, choice is what shapes us.

The new vision for Milton’s Official Plan has been crafted to reflect the things that the community and stakeholders deemed important and valuable, through extensive engagement. The vision builds on Milton’s attributes and the community’s priorities, and is intended to be realistic, yet aspirational.

“Over the years, Milton has evolved into a diverse, young and innovative community,” said Mayor Gord Krantz. “The new vision for our Official Plan reflects our growing community, provides choice for residents and makes Milton a Place of Possibility for all. Choice will shape our community to the year 2051.”

Milton’s new Official Plan vision statement is supported by a set of guiding principles that identify more specific directions for protecting and enhancing the community’s core values and priorities. Moving forward, the vision will provide the basis for policy development and be included in the new Official Plan, once drafted and approved.

“The Choice Shapes Us vision articulates that the need for choice will inform how Milton physically changes in terms of land uses and built form, and will guide how the Town makes decisions about managing future growth and development,” said Barb Koopmans, Commissioner of Development Services. “Milton is a diverse community, therefore the choices it offers will be diverse, too. Sometimes choices will coincide and sometimes they will differ. Making choices will involve compromise and trade-offs as Milton evolves and grows. As we make choices, we want to be inclusive and enable a community that provides something for everyone.”

The Council-approved We Make Milton Visioning Report is a major project milestone, marking the end of the second phase of the new Official Plan project. The Report details the vision statement, guiding principles, community feedback and results of significant public consultation efforts.

Next steps

The We Make Milton project is now moving into Phase 3: Big Questions, where staff will identify and answer critical policy questions about how to manage change to the year 2051 based on community input. Phase 3 includes detailed policy discussions and recommended policy directions for Milton’s new Official Plan. Four discussion papers will be drafted with recommended land-use planning policies that focus on four key themes developed through the visioning process – living, working, moving and growing in Milton.

About We Make Milton

The We Make Milton project is intended to be an innovative, engaging and inclusive undertaking through which all residents can find meaningful, equitable and relevant opportunities to contribute. It’s a community engagement initiative to encourage residents, businesses and stakeholders to get involved in the creation of Milton’s new Official Plan.

The community is encouraged to stay involved and follow the project on Let’s Talk Milton, the Town’s public engagement platform.

– 30 –

Milton Council Meeting Feb 8th

February 3, 2021March 2, 2021Mike Cluett

There will be a number of important items discussed at the upcoming Milton Town Council meeting on Monday February 8th.

On the agenda will be 2 public meetings. One to discuss a condominium development on Thompson Road South for 35 freehold townhome units.

The second public meeting will be for 180/194 Bronte St S which is for a 9 storey 241 residential apartment building. Details found here.

Another interesting discussion will happen as council receives a presentation and report on “We Make Milton” and move towards our new official plan. This is the next step in a process we began back in June of 2020 on our website www.letstalkmilton.ca and received input from the public and interest groups in Milton. This report is part of the “BIG QUESTIONS” stage of the official plan development.

This is an exciting part of developing Milton’s growth as we head into the future. Many of the residents brought up some incredible ideas and visions of what Milton will be as we continue growing into a complete community.

You can view the 56 page report here for more information and I’d love to hear what you have to say – agree / disagree – its all important to hear as we move forward designing and building Milton in the next 30 years. Do we need a variety of housing options? What kind of amenities would you like to see us focus on building as projects like Milton Education Village and Trafalgar Aegerton Corridor’s are developed?

There is also a forum at www.letstalkmilton.ca where you can register your opinions directly to our staff. This is a long but important process in visioning what Milton will become in the next 30 years and we want to hear from everyone. Feel free to leave comments here as well.

The coming years will be exciting for this town as we continue to grow and build a strong, inclusive and diverse community and its important your voices are heard.

Until then, be safe everyone.

mike cluett, milton town councillor, halton region councillor, mayor town of milton mike cluett,

Outdoor Rinks in Milton?

February 1, 2021March 2, 2021Mike Cluett

There seems to be a lot of discussion about town run outdoor rinks recently.

I’ve received a number of emails, calls etc from residents asking about them. Here’s a little rundown of what’s going on.

First off, we did have an outdoor rink at Rotary Park and due to warmer than normal winters the last few years, low usage and eventually costs we are not offering that service at this point. Going back a number of years, outdoor rinks were looked at but as we all should remember, the winters haven’t been as cold as they have and the outdoor rinks we did have went unused. Lots of people commenting “were in a pandemic” so it should be a “no brainer” when it comes to outdoor rinks.

One of the things I’d like to bring up is the the budget for 2020 was approved back in 2019 – pre pandemic so its not as simple as find the money somewhere and build them. Budgets are prepared ahead of time and a lot of what seems as we “should have known”, we didn’t know when preparing and approving the budgets. All municipalities are not equal and Milton is a perfect example of that seeing how we’ve been growing rapidly, and quite frankly, haven’t been keeping up with staffing as I feel we should have…but that’s another story.

For whatever reason our council has an issue with staffing that should and will be addressed as we move forward. Some on council feel that increasing staff levels is increasing bureaucracy and its been difficult over the last few years of growth to make improvements. That aside, our staffing levels aren’t where they should be an tough decisions had to be made to ensure tax increases not get out of hand. Now as I like to say…what’s next! Myself along with a number of members of council have approached staff to consider some options going forward for the next budget. There are some municipalities who run their own outdoor rinks, have money set aside and staff set aside to operate them.

Others have what I like to consider, neighbourhood sponsored outdoor rinks. These are where a community applies to have an outdoor rink in a park area and the town will install but neighbourhood residents will monitor and maintain them during the winter season.

Going forward staff is working on an action plan to have something available for next season. This doesn’t address the issues we have now where a) the weather has been ideal b) lockdown situation and people risking their lives skating on stormwater management ponds that were NOT designed for skating. These issues are going to be addressed as we prepare the next years budget. 2021 budget was a difficult one for many municipalities, Milton especially. We came out of it a lot better than others did and we’re very proud of the work our staff and council direction provided in maintaining our finances. There will be more information as we move forward with that. Rest assure that you have been heard by me and many other council members and this will be made a priority.

https://twitter.com/HRPSMiltHH/status/1355922382712676357

Speaking about safety regarding storm water ponds. Many people have different opinions on why these are built in our new subdivisions. Some think they are there to provide naturalized space for birds, fish and other animals. Others believe they are there for environmental purposes. Storm water ponds are constructed to prevent flooding. They are there to catch the water run off from roads and streams etc. and prevent basement from being flooded. Period. They are not there for winter activities like skating and walking on them. They are not there for spring and summer activities like fishing and swimming.

They serve the purpose of preventing flooding. They are not designed or maintained to have a safe skating surface or sledding during the winter. They contain road salt, silt and dirt from road and are not conducive for a good skating or stable surface. That’s why we have signs all around these ponds saying no swimming/no skating/no walking all around them. Last December we tragically lost the life of a young child who was on that ice. The levels are not uniform throughout the pond and that can cause some portions of the ice to be much thinner and inconsistent and walking/skating/sledding on the ice can cause it to break. We do not want to have another tragedy like this again which is why you are seeing police and bylaw officers monitor them and remind people of the rules set in place for safety.

Thanks for all your input and we look forward to hearing from residents as we build some options for next season. Until then, lets do what we can this year to help people get outdoors and exercise as much as possible, while doing it as safely as possible.

Until then, be safe everyone!