MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, Sept. 19, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Many prominent businesses and landowners along the Dundas Street corridor in Mississauga are expressing alarm at the City of Mississauga’s August 10, 2022 decision to approve several Official Plan Amendments (OPAs) that reinforce the status quo and severely limit the creation of new walkable, climate friendly, transit oriented communities and housing.
“It is really disappointing and frankly concerning that a Council, which is supposed to represent the interests of all of its constituents, is prioritizing the unfounded concerns of a single business over a large number of long-standing small businesses and landowners that have served the City for decades. Even more disappointing is that the City is taking a position that these OPAs are unappealable,” said Mr. Stephen Sparling, President, Dundas Landowners’ Association (DLA).
Mississauga City Council voted to transition nearly all lands on Dundas Street between the borders of Oakville and Toronto to Mixed Use yet voted to keep the lands on the stretch of Dundas Street between Haines and Blundell Roads, the site of two upcoming BRT stations, zoned for Employment Area only. This decision comes after a nearby manufacturing facility pressured the City Council to freeze the ability of their neighbouring land and business owners to redevelop their properties for residential mixed-use purposes, citing land use compatibility concerns. This is despite several examples of properties across Ontario where food industry operations neighbour residential uses without issues.
“Members of the DLA see this stretch of the Dundas corridor as more than just employment land. The City’s inherent favouritism of a single business over the requests of many landowners of 57.5 acres of prime mixed use lands facing Dundas Street is frankly disappointing. We have and remain ready to come to the table to make sure our properties are part of a meaningful solution,” said Mr. Moe Ahmed, President and CEO, Ahmed Group. “It is especially concerning to us considering the City is taking a position that is contrary to both Regional and Provincial guidelines and policies.”
In April 2022, following a Municipal Comprehensive Review (MCR) required under Ontario’s A Place to Grow Growth Plan, the Region of Peel adopted a new Regional Official Plan in support of the province’s objectives. The Region of Peel’s plan aligns with the provincial plan to reclassify the entire length of Dundas street for mixed use development, enabling major improvements to transportation, sustainable transit-supportive development, and intensification. This reclassification from employment to mixed use is necessary to support the anticipated population and job growth along the corridor that will result from the upcoming Dundas Bus Rapid System (Dundas BRT) and Hurontario Light Rail Transit (Hurontario LRT).
Despite endorsing the Dundas Connects Master Plan and supporting both the upcoming Dundas BRT and Hurontario LRT, the City of Mississauga has decided to contradict both the Government of Ontario’s A Place to Grow Growth Plan and the Region of Peel’s Official Plan by refusing to remove the lands from its own designated Employment Area. This decision has been made without regard for the several business owners in the area who urged for the removal of the Employment Area designation numerous times at various Mississauga Council and Committee meetings in July and August. Moreover, the City’s refusal creates an alarming conflict between the Region’s new Official Plan on mixed land use allowances on Dundas.
“I have been a member of this community for close to 40 years, and I was excited to finally see the City planning for significant investments for the area, including the two massive BRT stations nearby,” said Mr. Bob Rabbito, President, TruTone Electronics. “The BRT has the potential to grow the number of people who can live, work, shop, and eat along this stretch of Dundas. But the actions of the City to exclude a huge portion of land on Dundas Street, including our property, from mixed use zoning and keeping it essentially just industrial effectively limits our ability to grow as a business within an active and thriving community.”
In July, the Region of Peel Council unanimously reaffirmed its decision that they would continue to support the various land and small business owners, members of the Dundas Landowners’ Association, against the objections of the single manufacturing facility’s demands that the 57.5 acres of lands in question remain as Employment Areas.
“The City of Mississauga’s August 10th decision means the Region of Peel will have to step up and do the right thing again,” said Mr. Paul Tavora, President, Tavora Foods. “We hope that they will overturn Mississauga’s short-sighted OPAs and remove our lands from the Employment Areas to allow for residential mixed use developments, despite the one business's continual attempts to roll back planned land-use changes and maintain the lands’ designation as Employment Areas.”
In addition to a change in land use designations, DLA members requested the City of Mississauga allow for taller building heights along the corridor for increased density to better leverage the upcoming Dundas BRT. However, the City’s ultimately approved OPAs include low and restrictive height limits within the local Major Transit Station Area (MTSA) plans. MTSAs are lands generally within a 500-800 metre radius, about a 10-minute-walk, of a transit station or stop, primarily located along existing or planned transit corridors (e.g., GO Train, Light Rail Transit, BRT). The City imposed unreasonable height limitations in the MTSAs are contrary to both Regional and Provincial guidelines.
“Nowhere in Ontario has a municipality included height caps or restricted land use in their MTSA OPAs. Why is the City of Mississauga doing this to us here? As a proud home builder, I’ve never seen this amount of red tape by any municipality I’ve worked with before, and I’ve worked with many,” said Mr. Drago Vuckovic, President, Ashley Group.
The City of Mississauga is the first municipality in the Region of Peel to complete its MTSA OPA and many DLA members have expressed concern that City staff have rushed their recommendations to present at City Council’s last meeting of the year before the municipal elections. Some members of City Council acknowledged this and the contentiousness of the report and sought to defer the vote to after the elections, giving time for City staff to reconsider landowners’ concerns. However, the motion to defer was ultimately unsuccessful, losing by a slim vote of five to six, resulting in the OPAs being adopted on August 10, 2022. Mississauga was the first City in the Region of Peel to pass its OPAs, and the only municipality in the Province to have included maximum height limitations in their MTSA OPA.
“We own one of the largest parcels on Dundas Street in Mississauga. Unfortunately, the amount of bureaucracy in the City when it comes to redevelopment is exemplified by these recently approved OPAs, and coupled with rising costs and inflation, greatly disincentivizes us from investing in the redevelopment of our property for housing,” said Mr. Wen Qing He, President, Mississauga Chinese Centre.
“We know how committed the Province and Region of Peel are to addressing the housing crisis and to supporting transit-oriented development,” said Mr. Sparling. “We look to Peel again to reaffirm its decision to remove the lands along Dundas between Haines Road and Blundell Road from Employment Areas and remove the unreasonably restrictive height limits being imposed across Dundas Street. DLA members want to be a part of Mississauga's progress and contribute to a future where the need for housing is addressed and businesses, homes, and recreation spaces can all co-exist.”
Mississauga City Council’s vote on the deferral of the contentious MTSA OPA on August 8, 2022 (Five to Six). Not shown: Councillor Sue McFadden voted ‘Yes’ verbally in favour of the deferral and Mayor Bonnie Crombie voted ‘No’ verbally against the deferral
Mississauga City Council’s final vote to approve the contentious MTSA OPA on August 10, 2022 (Nine to Three)
About the Dundas Landowners’ Association
The Dundas Landowners’ Association (the DLA) is an incorporated not-for-profit association representing the interests of its members, primarily family-owned small business landowners along the Dundas Street corridor in Mississauga. The corridor is set to undergo a significant transition in the coming years and the DLA will fight for the most important stakeholders of that transition, its members, each step of the way. Business owners along the Dundas East corridor who would like to raise their concerns and join the DLA in its efforts are encouraged to contact the DLA.
For media inquiries:
Stephen Sparling
Dundas Landowners’ Association
contact@dundas.cc
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