A hearing to argue about the merits of nine controversial Midtown condo towers has been set for the spring of 2025.
The future of the towers – which range in height from 44 to 58 storeys – will be decided by the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) following a hearing scheduled from April 7 to May 16, 2025.
That is, unless the town and developer Distrikt Development reach a negotiated settlement before then.
The developer is proposing towers on three Midtown properties near the Oakville GO station (full application details in links below):
- 217-227 Cross Avenue and 571-595 Argus Road (Currently home to a medical office building, low-rise commercial building and fast-food restaurants, including McDonald’s) - three towers at 58, 49 and 44 storeys
- 590 Argus Road (the Holiday Inn site) - three towers at 58, 50 and 44 storeys
- 166 South Service Road East (the old Hikers Haven plaza) - three towers at 44, 50 and 58 storeys
The town, which is in the midst of an exercise to determine what Midtown development should look like, failed to make a decision on those applications within a required time frame. That led Distrikt to appeal to the OLT for a decision.
Read more: How livable are 58-storey towers?
The tribunal is a provincial appeals body tasked with making land use planning decisions.
It held an online case conference held last week, to set a hearing date and determine who would be given rights to take part in the hearing of the appeals.
A local citizen group, the Oakville Community Association (OCA), was granted participant status.
That will allow it to review all the documents filed in the appeal and submit written submissions to the tribunal, explains OCA president Michael Reid.
The group, which has concerns about the height, density, traffic and infrastructure cost of the applications, has offered to work alongside other Oakville resident associations.
"OCA wants to ensure that Oakville residents have a voice, and to present comments in written form about the deficiencies of Distrikt’s applications, and how the livability of Oakville will be negatively impacted by the applications," said Reid.
The 103-hectare area bounded by the QEW, Sixteen Mile Creek, Cornwall Road and Chartwell Road known as Midtown has long been planned for a high-density residential and mixed-use neighbourhood.
Details about the future of the area can be found on the town's website, as well as on a separate website set up by Ward 3 councillors Janet Haslett-Theall and Dave Gittings.
Distrikt is currently building two 30-storey condo towers – the tallest so far approved in Oakville – at Trafalgar Road near Dundas Street.