I am writing to express my…

I am writing to express my strong opposition to the proposed Minister’s Zoning Orders for Midtown Oakville and to urge that they be withdrawn.

These MZOs would impose extreme and reckless density on Midtown that far exceeds any comparable development in the GTA, without the infrastructure needed to support it. Local roads, transit, the GO station, and the QEW are already under strain. Oakville’s approved Official Plan Amendment 70 already permits densities up to 6.0 FSI, which is very high by North American standards and more than sufficient to meet housing goals. Pushing densities far beyond this is neither necessary nor responsible, particularly when the MZOs remove affordable housing requirements and undermine livability.

The process behind these MZOs represents a serious override of local democracy. OPA 70 was developed through a transparent, publicly engaged process and approved by Council, fully aligned with provincial policy and Oakville’s strong housing delivery record. In contrast, the Transit Oriented Community proposal was advanced through confidential, developer driven negotiations with limited and superficial consultation. This approach mirrors the governance failures revealed in the Greenbelt scandal, where provincial powers were misused to benefit private interests. The Province should not repeat that mistake.

The MZOs also fail to deliver on the Province’s own Build Homes Faster objectives. By the proponent’s own timeline, this project will not deliver a single home before 2031 and will take more than two decades to complete. There is no urgency to justify extraordinary provincial intervention. OPA 70 is ready to proceed now, meets and exceeds provincial housing targets, and reflects Oakville’s proven ability to build housing efficiently.

The economic rationale for these MZOs has collapsed. The current market no longer supports high rise projects dominated by studio and one bedroom investor units, which is what this TOC proposes. Oakville needs family oriented, complete community housing that can actually be delivered. These MZOs will not accelerate construction. Their real effect is to lock in inflated land values for the developer, shift risk to the public, and eliminate a superior, deliverable alternative.

Finally, these MZOs clearly fail to meet the Province’s own criteria for issuing them. There is no municipal support, no Council endorsement, clear community opposition, no justification for overriding established planning policy, and no credible urgency. MZOs are meant to be exceptional tools, not substitutes for proper planning or mechanisms to provide zoning certainty for speculative land value.

For these reasons, I urge Infrastructure Ontario and the Province to withdraw the MZOs, halt the Transit Oriented Community proposal, and proceed with OPA 70 as the responsible, community supported, and policy compliant path forward.

I vote NO to these MZOs.