The latest version of a plan for Midtown will emerge on Tuesday, April 2.
There’s little reason, however, to expect it to be significantly different from the high density, tall tower 'concept plan' that’s been under discussion.
Midtown – the roughly one square kilometre around the Oakville GO station – has long been slated for a dense, pedestrian-oriented urban neighbourhood.
But over the last 10 months, the town has been looking to develop consensus around how to accommodate 50,000 new residents and jobs in the area by 2051.
A concept plan released at the end of January envisions numerous tall towers for the area between the QEW and Cornwall Road, running from Chartwell Road to the Sixteen Mile Creek.
Read more here: Should tall towers dominate Midtown's future?
The plan calls for the tallest towers (ranging from 35 to 48 storeys) to dominate the blocks around Trafalgar Road north of the railroad tracks.
Heights would taper down to 25 storeys alongside Sixteen Mile Creek and 10 storeys in areas bordering low density neighbourhoods.
That vision will form the basis of development policies for the area, which will be captured in a draft Official Plan Amendment (OPA) that the town plans to release on April 2 and review on April 22.
Council is expected to approve a Midtown OPA in June.
At this week's special council meeting on Feb. 27, residents and developers had a final chance to comment on the concept plan.
"No do-overs"
Oakville’s residents' associations continue to express concern that the town is planning for too many people in too little space.
Since last spring, the groups have been making repeated presentations to council expressing concerns about the height and density of the towers.
Despite a general consensus that the development will add badly needed new housing in an under utilized area of town, they question the "hyper-density" planned for a small space with limited access.
Residents keep asking for an alternative to a tall tower development plan but haven’t been listened to, said George Niblock of the Oakville Lakeside Residents Association.
"What we see presented has the same problems that residents started out saying they wanted to fix many months ago," says Niblock.
Read more here: Residents' associations spearhead opposition to Midtown plans
They're concerned that the town won't be able to ensure timely provision of necessary services like parks, playgrounds, schools and other social infrastructure that will make Midtown a complete and livable community.
And they are worried about the impact of traffic and construction on existing Oakville residents.
In several joint presentations, residents’ associations urged the town to consider lower rise development and a shift of some planned Midtown population to other growth areas.
"There is a real risk of getting it wrong," warned Douglas McKirgan, of the Trafalgar Chartwell Residents' Association.
"We are preparing for a new city of 50,000 people to be built on one square kilometre in the middle of our town during the next 28 years. The consequences of getting it wrong are fairly dire. There will be no do-overs."
By the numbers
- Halton Region is planning for 1.1 million new residents and 500,000 new jobs by 2051.
- Oakville’s portion of this future growth amounts to 442,941 people and 212,116 jobs.
- Midtown must accommodate at least 32,000 people and 17,000 jobs by 2051, on a net developable area of 40 hectares. (This chart here outlines where the rest of the people will go.)
- Midtown Oakville includes approximately 140 land parcels with about 50 different landowners. This map here identifies lands in private and public ownership.