After years of discussion, debate and dissension, Oakville has finally approved a roadmap for development of the Midtown area.
The next big job, town councillors agree, is convincing the provincial government to buy into the vision.
Midtown, a roughly one square kilometre area around the Oakville GO station, has long been slated to receive the town’s densest growth.
But in May 2023, community push back against a plan for a dense series of 40-plus storey towers led council to rethink its development vision.
Read more here: Councillors vote to do more homework on Midtown development plan after hearing public concerns
A new plan – which comes in the form of an Official Plan Amendment (OPA 70) – was unanimously approved by town council on Tuesday night (Feb. 18).
The plan still envisions dense housing that will bring nearly 30,000 residents and jobs into the area by 2051. Towers taller than 20 storeys in height will still be built, but developers will be forced to provide community benefits in exchange for higher heights.
Ward 3 councillor Janet Haslett-Theall, who spearheaded the move to the lower density vision in the name of livability, said Midtown will still face "tremendous challenges" as it redevelops.
"Does it achieve all that some of us desired? No, because let’s be honest – it’s still a lot of people," she said. "But it’s a bold, responsible, balanced approach for optimizing the developable land."
Still, the hard-fought plan may yet flounder without support from the province and its willingness to modify a controversial tall tower plan it has proposed for the area.
Simply to come into law, the OPA requires approval from Ontario’s minister of municipal affairs and housing.
But there’s widespread agreement that to be effective, it needs to apply across all of the land in Midtown.
That means convincing the Ontario Ministry of Infrastructure to reconsider a Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) proposal it unveiled in November 2024.
That plan would allow Distrikt Developments to build 6,900 units in 11 towers in the 50-storey range on four properties near the GO station.
Read more here: Province's tall tower plan will ruin Oakville, warns community group
Town planning staff has said the plan is too dense, fails to address traffic, flooding and green space issues and offers little in the way of community benefits.
Oakville councillors and many residents’ groups have also voiced unhappiness with the proposal.
Even local Conservative MPP Stephen Crawford has said his government’s TOC plan is "excessive and out of step with the community’s expectations," although he promises nothing more than to "advocate for a more balanced and reasonable approach to development” and “champion Oakville’s interests at Queen’s Park.”"
Mayor Rob Burton, who has thrown his support behind Crawford’s re-election bid, is promising to “strongly advocate” for provincial approval of OPA 70 and to ensure any future TOC aligns with the town’s vision for Midtown.
For a provincial government eager to build housing, Burton suggests the town’s vision offers a sensible approach.
“OPA 70 will result in needed housing sooner than the impractical, unrealistic and over-ambitious TOC proposal ever could,” he said, at the end of Tuesday's meeting.