The proposed Minister’s…

The proposed Minister’s Zoning Orders (MZOs) for Midtown Oakville blatantly fail to meet the Ontario government’s own criteria for issuing MZOs. There is no municipal support, Town Council has not endorsed the project and community opposition is clear and documented. Furthermore, there is no justification for overriding established provincial, regional, and municipal planning policies, including the Town’s Official Plan Amendment for Midtown (OPA 70) which was developed transparently, with public input and Council approval.

The MZOs are billed as underpinnning the Transit-Oriented Community (TOC) proposal. This proposal was advanced behind closed doors under confidentiality agreements, pushing a predetermined, developer driven plan/agenda with superficial consultation. The TOC also fails to comply with Premier Ford’s Build Homes Faster agenda and will not deliver a single home before 2031, the Province’s own housing deadline, and in fact the proponent’s own timeline shows construction effectively starting after 2030 with building stretching out over two decades.

There is no benefit from the TOC for the community and citizens of Oakville, nor to the broader public in Ontario. Only the developers and their backing investors stand to benefit (from the land value increase tied to the change in zoning) directly at the expense of the public good. This is unacceptable.

MZOs are meant to be exceptional tools, not self-serving substitutes for proper planning, yet the only rationale offered here is “zoning certainty,” which in reality appears to serve a single purpose of locking in speculative land value and shifting risk from the developer to the public.

OPA70 is a better alternative and is ready to go. Oakville already meets and exceeds all provincial housing requirements through OPA 70 and Oakville has a proven track record for building houses. These MZOs would create an extreme amount of density on Midtown, more than double that of any comparable development in the GTA, without the infrastructure to support it; creating chaos and overwhelming transportation and services that are already overstressed, including local roads, transit, the GO station, and the QEW.

The MZOs would also eliminate affordable housing requirements, which is what is actually needed. This TOC is not about delivering housing; it is about maximizing developer land value at the expense of livability, infrastructure capacity, and the public interest. I believe the only people that seem to benefit from the TOC are the developers.

Oakville is a suburb, people that live here still need cars every day, to get groceries, drive kids to activities, etc. and living near a Go train is not going to change that. Typically, suburbs attract families, so why would it have density that is way higher than any other city in the world? The studio units and one bedroom units are designed for singles or couples, not families. OPA 70 is the only option on the table that makes sense for Oakville and Ontario. There is no necessity or urgency for imposing these MZOs now. In fact, imposing these MZO‘s will eliminate the superior alternative (OPA 70), for the financial benefits of the developer.

I vote NO (as does everyone that I have spoken with on this topic) for these MZOs. I strongly object to the blatant disregard for sound planning and public interest that these proposed MZOs represent.