Town of Oakville
Developer demand for ultra-tall Midtown towers is spreading.
Nine 40-plus storey buildings have already been proposed for lands just north of the Oakville GO station.
The town is now considering an application for a 58-storey mixed-use building on the east side of Trafalgar Road, just south of the QEW.
A single-storey brick building at 349 Davis Rd., on the corner of the South Service Road, currently houses Powell Insurance Brokers.
The company wants to replace that building with a tower combining residential and office uses, along with ground-floor retail.
It is seeking official plan and zoning amendments to allow the construction of a building of 58 storeys (182 metres) – or about three metres taller than the highest Marilyn Monroe tower in Mississauga.
The plan calls for 388 residential units and 1,470 square metres of office space. A five-storey podium at the base of the tower will house 622 parking spaces in three floors of above-ground parking.
Ward 3 councillor Janet Haslett-Theall says local residents are expressing concern about the creep of mega-towers.
"People are saying, 'There's one, and now there's another, and there's another, and how many more is there going to be like this?'"
But she says that's exactly why town council's Midtown Oakville committee is focused on developing a plan to produce a great community in the area.
"I'm concerned about getting the land use planning permissions right," she said. "I think the most important thing you can do as a representative is to lay the right legislative framework to build the community you want to build."
The Midtown committee was established after a May meeting where council heard concerns from dozens of residents about its Midtown plan, which is laid out in the form of a draft Official Plan Amendment (OPA).
The committee is holding monthly meetings to review the population, density, design, sustainability and transportation links planned for Midtown.
Read more: Special council committee to study Midtown development plans
Its next meeting will be held on Aug. 24 at 6 p.m.
"I'm incredibly grateful we have a large number of residents who speak up about height or parks or the road network or the size of the units," says Haslett-Theall, who notes that those details create a vision for the community.
Ward 3 councillors Haslett-Theall and Dave Gittings have created a website at www.midtownoakville.ca to communicate up-to-date information to residents.
The Davis Road application will be officially introduced to town council at a public hearing that has not yet been scheduled.
