Sept 8: Neighbourhood information session on ADI revised proposal for 374 Martha St

At the request of a number of residents, I will be hosting a neighbourhood information session on the revised proposal for the ADI development at 374 Martha St. Key dates, resources and background on this project follows.

Date: Thursday, September 8

Time: 7-9 pm

Location: Lion’s Club Hall, 471 Pearl St, Burlington, ON

Purpose of the meeting:

The purpose of the meeting will be to provide information to assist residents to participate in the planning process on this proposal, and share their views with staff, city council and ultimately the Ontario Municipal Board. To that end, some key dates and resources are below.

There are some restrictions on the meeting, given the file is currently before the OMB. I will host the meeting. Planning staff who are not assigned to the file will be in attendance to answer general questions about current Official Plan/Zoning permissions on the site, how the project differs, and the planning process in general. This information is intended to provide an overview to the public about the project, as well as assist any residents who wish to prepare their own submissions to staff, council and the Board. Staff will not provide an opinion on the revisions – that will come with the official staff recommendation report at the end of September.

I encourage residents to submit questions in advance so we can provide answers at the meeting. Questions can be sent to:

We ask residents to kindly RSVP their attendance to my assistant Georgie Gartside so we can ensure the venue is large enough:

How you can make your views about the project known:

There are a number of opportunities for residents to share their views with city planning staff, city council and the Ontario Municipal Board on this proposal. Key dates summary and descriptions are below, followed by links to resources about the application:

Summary of Key Dates (descriptions follow)

• Sept. 8: Neighbourhood information session, 7 pm, Lion’s Club Hall, 471 Pearl St.
• Sept. 15: 4:30pm, Deadline for residents to submit comments on the proposal to city staff: Rosa Bustamante at  or by mail to: 426 Brant St. Burlington, ON L7R 3Z6
• Sept. 30: Staff recommendation report posted online. Agendas & Minutes page, for the Oct. 12 Development & Infrastructure Committee.
• Oct. 12: Public meeting as part of  the Development & Infrastructure Committee meeting, 6:30pm, City Hall, 426 Brant Street, Council Chambers, 2nd floor.
• Oct. 14: Deadline to seek Participant status at the Ontario Municipal Board hearing.
• Oct. 27 & 28: Pre-hearing Conference, 10 am City Hall, 426 Brant Street, Rm 247, 2nd floor. Open to the public.
• Oct. 31: City Council, 6:30 pm, City Hall, 426 Brant Street, Council Chambers, 2nd floor.
• Jan. 23, 2017: Participant statements due to the Board, copy to each of the parties
• Feb. 21-March 6, OMB Hearing, 10 am daily, City Hall, 426 Brant Street, Rm 247, 2nd floor: Scheduled for two weeks beginning Feb. 21. Open to the public.

Description of Key Dates:

• Sept. 8: Neighbourhood information session, 7 pm, Lion’s Club Hall, 471 Pearl St. The purpose of the meeting will be to provide information to assist residents to participate in the planning process on this proposal, and share their views with staff, city council and ultimately the Ontario Municipal Board. Residents are encouraged to submit questions in advance to   and RSVP their attendance to

 

• Sept. 15: 4:30pm, Deadline for residents to submit comments on the proposal to city staff, so staff can consider these in preparing their recommendation report to council. This deadline has been graciously extended by staff (with my thanks) from Aug. 31 to allow us to host the neighbourhood information session and provide residents more time and information to submit comments. Send comments to the planner on the file Rosa Bustamante at  or by mail to: 426 Brant St. Burlington, ON L7R 3Z6

 

• Sept. 30: Staff recommendation report posted online. The staff report will recommend that council take a position on the proposal to do one of: approve, deny, or approve with modifications. The staff recommendation and position that council takes will be forwarded to the OMB as part of the hearing. The staff report will be posted on the city’s Agendas & Minutes page, for the Oct. 12 Development & Infrastructure Committee. It will also be available for pick up at the Clerks Counter, on the first floor of City Hall.

 

• Oct. 12: Public meeting as part of  the Development & Infrastructure Committee meeting, 6:30 pm, City Hall, 426 Brant Street, Council Chambers, 2nd floor. Residents can attend the meeting and share their views with council on the project, up to 10 minutes. Written remarks and/or Powerpoint presentations can be submitted in advance to the clerk:  Residents who cannot attend can still submit written remarks to be included as part of the record for the meeting. As a public meeting, residents do not need to register in advance to speak, but those who do register will be heard first. Register as a Delegation. At this meeting council will take a position on the file, to be forwarded for a final vote at Council on Oct. 31.

 

• Oct. 14: Deadline to seek Participant status at the Ontario Municipal Board hearing. Residents can seek “participant” status at the Ontario Municipal Board hearing on the file. Participants are allowed to provide comments to the Board about the proposed application. There is no cost to participate. Participant submissions are typically heard after all evidence is presented by the “parties” to the hearing. Those seeking participant status must advise the Board and all parties of their intent (including a written statement outlining the nature of their interest). The Ontario Municipal Board has a Citizen Liaison Office to assist residents to participate in hearings. Information about participating in a hearing is here: Participate in a Hearing

Send your statement and request to be added as a participant in the hearing to the following, quoting case #PL150274:

Ontario Municipal Board:

1. SUSAN de AVELLAR SCHILLER, Vice-Chair, Ontario Municipal Board, Care of Environmental and Land Tribunals Ontario, 655 Bay Street, Suite 1500, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1E5,

Parties to the hearing:

1. Adi Development Group Inc,  4190 South Service Road, Suite 200, Burlington, ON L7L 4X5
   
2. City of Burlington, 426 Brant St., P.O. Box 5013, Burlington, ON L7R 3Z6, care of counsel: 
3. 6965083 Canada Inc. (Subsidiary of Sunlife Financial Inc.), 1800 – 181 BAY STREET, BROOKFIELD PLACE, TORONTO ON M5J 2T9, care of Counsel P. Devine, Devine Park LLP, 250 Yonge Street, Suite 2302, P.O Box 65, Toronto, ON, M5B 2L7  
4. 2145024 Ontario Ltd., care of Counsel S. Snider, Turkstra Mazza, 15 Bold St. Hamilton, Ontario L8P-1T3  

 

• Oct. 27 & 28: Pre-hearing Conference, 10 am City Hall, 426 Brant Street, Rm 247, 2nd floor. At this meeting the Parties to the hearing will discuss the “issues list” and whether there have been any changes to the list as a result of the revised proposal. The original issues list outlined 26 issues. ADI issues list – pl150274-oct-14-2015-ord The issues list will form the basis of the full hearing which begins Feb. 21. The issues list is due to the board after the Council meeting Oct. 31. Residents who have sought participant status should attend or send a representative to the pre-hearing conference. It is open to the public.

 

• Oct. 31: City Council, 6:30pm, City Hall, 426 Brant Street, Council Chambers, 2nd floor. Residents can attend the meeting and share their views with council on the project, up to 5 minutes. Residents who spoke at the Oct. 12 D&I can speak again if they bring new information. Residents must Register as a Delegation in advance. Written remarks and/or Powerpoint presentations can be submitted in advance to the clerk:  Residents who cannot attend can still submit written remarks to be included as part of the record for the meeting. At this meeting council will vote on the recommendation arising from the D&I meeting. That position will be forwarded to the OMB hearing.

 

• Jan. 23, 2017: Participant statements due to the Board, copy to each of the parties (at the above noted addresses).

 

• Feb. 21-March 6, OMB Hearing, 10 am daily, City Hall, 426 Brant Street, Rm 247, 2nd floor: Scheduled for two weeks beginning Feb. 21. Open to the public. Participant statements are typically heard at the end of the hearing.

Resources:

• City of Burlington webpage dedicated to the project: Adi Developments – 374 Martha St. Includes description of the project links to the applicant’s background reports, city staff reports, and more.

 

• Original Issues List for Ontario Municipal Board, outlining key issues of the project to be discussed at the hearing. ADI issues list – pl150274-oct-14-2015-ord

 

• Ontario Municipal Board procedural order, with list of parties and dates: ADI-procedural order-pl150274-Mar-31-2016

 

• Staff report on the original proposal, recommending refusal of the application: ADI 374 Martha Staff Refusal Report PB-23-15, Staff_Presentation – ADI 374 Martha March 30 2015

• Staff evaluated the proposal on the basis of 13 housing intensification criteria; descriptions of these criteria can be found in the Official Plan here: Section 2.5, page 10: Housing Intensification and include the following (residents are encouraged to refer to these criteria in their own submissions):  adequate municipal services exist; off-street parking is adequate; municipal transportation system can accommodate any increased traffic flows; close to existing or future transit facilities; compatibility is achieved with the existing neighbourhood character in terms of scale, massing, height, siting, setbacks, coverage, parking and amenity area so that a transition between existing and proposed buildings is provided; effects on existing vegetation are minimized; significant sun-shadowing for extended periods on adjacent properties, particularly outdoor amenity areas, is at an acceptable level; accessibility exists to community services and other neighbourhood conveniences such as community centres, neighbourhood shopping centres and health care; capability exists to provide adequate buffering and other measures to minimize any identified impacts; where intensification potential exists on more than one adjacent property, any re-development proposals on an individual property shall demonstrate that future re-development on adjacent properties will not be compromised;  natural and cultural heritage features  and areas of natural hazard are protected; proposals for non-ground oriented housing intensification shall be permitted only at the periphery of existing residential neighbourhoods on properties abutting, and having direct vehicular access to, major arterial, minor arterial or multi-purpose arterial roads and only provided that the built form, scale and profile of development is well integrated with the existing neighbourhood so that a transition between existing and proposed residential buildings is provided. These criteria will be used to evaluate the revised proposal.

• Staff evaluated the proposal on the basis of 9 compatability criteria as follows: Scale, Massing, Height, Siting, Setbacks, Coverage, Parking, Amenity Area, Transition Between Existing and Proposed Buildings. These criteria will be used to evaluate the revised proposal. Residents are encouraged to refer to these criteria in their own submissions.

• Staff also evaluated the proposal based on six Urban Design Policies in the Downtown Urban Design Guidelines as follows: Building Heights, Horizontal Through-Wall Venting, Building Setbacks, Building Stepbacks, Visual Angular Plane Analysis, Tower Location and Orientation, These policies will be used to evaluate the revised proposal. Residents are encouraged to refer to these policies in their own submissions.

• Zoning Bylaw Part 6 deals with downtown zoning.

Background:

The proposal, originally envisioned as a 28 storey L-shaped building wrapping around 380 Martha St., has been modified after ADI acquired 380 Martha St. That parcel has now been incorporated into the project. The height has been changed to 26 storeys. The above ground parking in the original proposal has all been put underground. The full list of revisions is below.

The proposal requires both an Official Plan and Zoning bylaw amendment, and has been appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board for a decision. Staff and city council unanimously opposed the original proposal. Staff and council have yet to take a position on the revised proposal, which will occur at the Development & Infrastructure Committee in October. Council’s position will be forwarded to the OMB as part of the hearing, which is scheduled for two weeks beginning February 2017. All meetings are open to the public.

The full list of revisions for the enlarged site is as follows, and can be found in:

• the applicant’s Planning Justification Report 374-Martha-Planning-Justification-Report-June-2016
• City of Burlington notice of revisions.  160712-COB-NOTICE-374 Martha
• updated chart provided by applicant showing the revisions between the first 28-storey proposal, the revised June 2016 proposal, and the existing Zoning regulations: 160718-Key Changes between the Original and Revise

The original proposals (28- and 26-storey), June 2016 revisions, supporting documents and staff reports are available on the city web site dedicated to this project here: 374 Martha

CONSOLIDATED LIST OF REVISIONS:

• elimination of the above-grade parking garage in favour of residential and amenity space
• reduction in the height of the podium from five storeys to one- and three-storeys, above which a 23-storey tower would rise
• total height of 26 storeys (88.4 m), inclusive of the podium; first proposal was 28 storeys, 87.86m, revised to 26 storeys before the adjournment; zoning bylaw allows 4 storeys
• area of the development site increased from 1,359 square metres to 1,701 square metres
• overall gross floor area increased from 15,089 square metres to 19,159 square metres (which is primarily the result of the substitution of the above grade parking with residential and amenity space uses)
• floor space index has increased slightly from 11.9:1 FSI to 11.26:1 FSI; zoning bylaw allow floor area ratio of 4:1
• residential units increased, and the mix changed: from a total unit count of 192 units in the original 26 storey proposal  (mix=145 one-bedroom units; 45 two-bedroom units; 2 three-bedroom units) to a total of 240 units in the revised 26-storey proposal (mix=4 studios, 162 one-bedroom /one-bedroom plus den, 74 two-bedroom/two-bedroom plus den) (Note: first proposal, of 28-storeys, had 226 units)
• Indoor and outdoor amenity areas redesigned; first proposal (28-storeys) had 1,991 m2 of amenity space; June 2016 revised proposal has 3,258 m2 (Note: zoning bylaw requires 4,800 m2 amenity space)
• amenity areas located on 2nd, 4th, and 20th storeys
• parking increased commensurate with the increase in the number of units; now includes 241 parking spaces on 6 levels underground for 240 residential units; First proposal, of 28-storeys, had 218 spaces, 2 levels of above ground and 4 levels of underground. Zoning bylaw requires 300 spaces
• ground floor retail space has increased from 327 square metres to 423.2 square metres.