Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie is speaking out after the Ford government used a controversial zoning tool to add thousands of units to a new development planned for the city’s Lakeview neighbourhood.
On Friday afternoon, the province issued two ministerial zoning orders (MZO’s) impacting developments currently underway in Mississauga.
One of the orders will allow the size of a new mixed-used community planned for Lakeshore and Dixie roads to effectively double, from approximately 8,000 to 16,000 units.
The other order will fast-track development on two parcels of land at 3355 and 5645 Hurontario Street.
A staff report that was to be tabled at that meeting warned of a number of “significant concerns” around adding units to the development, including “insufficient” road and school capacity and the undermining of a years-long planning process.
The staff report also warns that the MZO could impact the development of an adjacent site to the north due to “insufficient road capacity” along Lakeshore Road East. Nearly 4,000 residential units were planned for that site.
“I would have appreciated a heads up and further consultation with myself and the community. I think we should have allowed the meeting to go forward tonight before any decisions were made,” Crombie told reporters on Monday morning. “We want to build smart communities and we want to put height and density where it is appropriate and where it is reasonable. Our belief is that the community will feel that this is not a reasonable amount of height and density for the area.”
The master plan for the transformation of a 177-acre site on the grounds of the former Lakeview Power Generating Station was first tabled in 2018 and has been revised on several occasions since then to allow for additional units.
The latest council-approved plan called for 8,050 residential units, 180,000 square feet of commercial space and 14 acres of employment lands.
However, the plans for the area are now likely to be significantly overhauled to allow much greater density than originally contemplated.
“What they are now planning to build is Belleville or Woodstock on the land that is available and whereas we have the housing commitments to build those new units what we don’t have is the infrastructure commitments for the new transit and transportation,” Crombie said. “In the southeast end of Mississauga, Lakeshore Road is already very congested and has just two lanes. So we don’t have the road network in that area and we don’t have the commitment for the schools, the paramedic stations, the police stations and the fire stations to build out a complete community.”
City was ‘blindsided’
In a news release issued late Friday afternoon, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark said that the orders “will facilitate the province’s work to tackle the housing supply crisis and ensure that housing supply growth is aligned with and oriented around Ontario’s billions of dollars of historic investments in transit and transit-related infrastructure.”
But the city councillor that represents the Lakeview area says that by unilaterally doubling the size of the development, the Ford government is undoing planning work for the site that dates back to 2006.
“We had a very comprehensive report saying that this is a bad idea, that you don't want to do this and we were sending that back to the ministry and copying the minister on this when we got absolutely blindsided at 5 p.m. on a Friday going into Mother's Day weekend,” he said. “It's devastating. The infrastructure concerns weren't taken to account and the vision of this has not been taken into account. We went from a mid-rise development to essentially the sky's the limit with removing height caps and things like that. So this has changed the trajectory and what this was and is intended (for the area) dramatically.”
The government has said that it will continue to work with stakeholders “to facilitate approvals and ensure the realization of tangible community benefits.”
Dasko, however, said that he feels like the city will now have to “start at square one,” with some of the planning work, as the intended vision for the neighbourhood has been “completely upended.”
He also said that he fears a planned two-kilometre bus rapid transit line along Lakeshore Road East will be insufficient to accommodate the thousands of new residents along Mississauga’s lakeshore.
“Planning was always predicated on that 8,000 units since this was put forward as a master plan community. So that's what people were working on up at the region and also at the city in terms of pipes in the ground for somebody that wants to have a drink of water or flush a toilet. All of these things were always based on those types of numbers,” he said. “To say I am disappointed, devastated would be an understatement.”
In a statement provided to CP24 on Monday, a spokesperson for Clark said that the orders "will support the creation of thousands of new homes near transit, as well as impressive public benefits paid for by the home builders.
"The government will continue to make use of the tools at its disposal in order to tackle the housing supply crisis by supporting the construction of the new homes Ontarians need and deserve," the spokesperson said.
