Issue: we are concerned that the current public engagement process will not yield a vision for a Midtown that meets the density target and is integrated with its surrounding neighbourhoods. 

The experts on the surrounding neighbourhoods are the people who live there. We believe that the quality of the vision and its public acceptance will be greatly enhanced by engagement by the consultants and our planning staff in a series of workshops with a small advisory group made up of residents of these neighbourhoods. We do not think that a visioning process, for what will amount to a whole new town in our midst, should be led and conducted exclusively by people who do not live here. 

Issue: we are concerned that the Visioning stage of Midtown Planning is not capturing the uniqueness of Midtown’s relationship with the Town of Oakville. Oakville has a mature community culture and is an existing regional destination. Midtown is being developed right in the center of it.

It is believed that some future residents will select Midtown in order to participate in the activities and services available in the Town. They will wish to become part of Oakville. 

There is a methodology gap if the profile and activities of these residents are not considered as input to the Vision.

Unlike some Urban Growth Centers (UGCs) that are more standalone (for example Vaughn):

- Midtown is only a km away from a renewed downtown, lakefront, and planned cultural hub 

- Midtown will be an easy walk to Oakville Place, a regional retail center 

- Midtown is right on the doorstep of the mature, century old, neighborhoods of Old Oakville

The Vision for Midtown should not be the same as for other UGCs which have emphasis on creating new urban centers. We believe the emphasis should be on integration.  To that end we believe that planning focus should be directed at maximizing connected community/family spaces and facilities and not on trying to force another urban “main street” into the limited space not claimed by development projects.

We understand that some Midtown residents will be primarily interested in the transportation links, GO and QEW, and may have few interests in Oakville outside of Midtown. These residents also need to be accommodated. 

Overview

The Urban Mobility and Transportation Strategy study provides a compelling vision and direction for new urban centers such as Midtown.

Midtown is a vision for a fifteen-minute community embedded in a traditional car-centric suburb. Oakville, like most smaller cities and suburbs, is car centric by design, with cars being a critical requirement for accessing services. The Urban Mobility Report does recognize and acknowledge this but, in our view, does not adequately address the interface between the two. In the inevitable decades-long transition period the livability of existing Oakville neighborhoods seems bound to be negatively affected. 

TCRA has a number of specific concerns.  This document explores and highlights a number of these.

It may be decades until full services are available in Midtown (schools, rec centers, doctors, grocery stores etc.) and until then the residents will be car dependent like the rest of us. What is the transition plan, what will be the growing pains?

Downtown Oakville is a regional destination. With the planned population increase at Midtown, every north-south route will see increased volume, including active transportation. How will transportation to Downtown be managed?

Personal Vehicles

The study is strongly biased against car transport; individual vehicle transport is listed as the lowest priority of all the forms of transport. Study recommendations are to make it inconvenient, if not impossible, for cars. This is fine for movement within Midtown it but does not consider requirements when integrating Midtown with existing Oakville.

TCRA recognizes that the world is evolving, with trends towards increased work at home, delivery services, transportation services, car sharing etc. TCRA asks that policy reflect the core requirement to support the use of automobiles for many years to come.

We are in the early stages of major technological change. Within the Midtown planning horizon (decades) there is an expected major shift to electric vehicles (or alternate clean energy like hydrogen). Electricity will be supplied from non-carbon based sources, without affecting the global environment or air quality.

Because of the practical convenience, and the reduced environmental penalty, TCRA expects that personal vehicles will continue to be a transport of choice in the future. Oakville Transportation policy, and planned road capacity, should reflect this. 

Parking

Development plans have been submitted with 0.5 parking spots per unit. This may be the appropriate number for a fully developed urban community, but it will be inadequate until Midtown is built up. The risk is that Midtown residents will be looking for street parking within our existing neighborhoods or will try to use existing Metrolinx parking facilities. 

TCRA ask that an appropriate minimum be set, considering current requirements.

Road Capacity

Trafalgar Road is the only main artery for north-south travel, and is already gridlocked in peak periods. Similarly for Speers and Cornwall in the east-west direction. 

If tens of thousands of new residents are going to be inserted into this existing built-up area, road capacity needs to be increased. Current proposals are focused on access to and from the QEW. TCRA asks that increased road capacity be considered northwards from Midtown to Dundas Street, and in the east-west direction. 

Active Transportation

Expected is rapid growth in the use of powered bikes, scooters, and other active transports. Safe bike lanes are required for these transport methods, separate from pedestrian sidewalks and roadways:

1. active transport lanes need to be provided from Midtown to Kerr Village, Downtown, and to Lake Ontario. These are not in the current plans.
2. TCRA is very concerned that the existing century old street network in Oakville is not designed for, nor has the space, for these active transports. A solution is needed. 
3. safe pedestrian crossings need to be built at major intersections. 

Access to Downtown Oakville

Downtown Oakville is now an up-market urban main street with a wide array of shopping, restaurants, cafés and coffee shops. It is unique regionally and still evolving in response to a steady influx of wealthy residents. There will be a Midtown transition period where the population there will be increasing quickly well in advance of any comparable “main street” experience. Downtown will continue to be a major attractor through this transition and beyond and in our view the Transportation Strategy report does not adequately consider how to avoid the congestion and even gridlock that is likely to result.

Winter conditions 

Winter comes to Oakville. Current plans do not identify mitigations for poor weather.  

The Trafalgar Chartwell Residents’ Association (TCRA) wants Midtown to be developed and endorses the vision for a "complete community" in the Draft Official Plan Amendment, or OPA, for Midtown. We would like to acknowledge the significant time and resources the Town of Oakville has put into preparing this.

This letter accompanies the PowerPoint presentation which will be delivered tomorrow night at the Special Planning and Development Council meeting.
 

This OPA, once approved, will fix the upper limits for what can be built on the developable land in Midtown. As a result, these upper limits will fix the value of the land concerned making it difficult for any future Oakville Councils and Provincial Governments to roll back these limits. Providing public green space, without having to purchase it from either developers or Crown agencies of the Provincial Government, such as Metrolinx, is paramount to the success of this new community. 

We believe that the Official Plan Amendment, as currently written, will result in much greater density in Midtown Oakville than required by provincial mandates, even in the first phase up to 2031. What happens in that first phase will set the tone and character for the new community that will continue to be developed through 2051 and beyond. 

In response to the OPA, it states on page A-7 that Midtown "comprises an area of approximately 103 hectares bounded by the QEW/Highway 403 to the north, Chartwell Road to the east, Cornwall Road to the south and the Sixteen Mile Creek Valley to the west". Although later in the document, the same description contains a phrase "less the" rail corridor and other Metrolinx lands, hydro lands, etc., we know that the actual developable land could be as little as 43 hectares. The TCRA believes that the OPA should define Midtown in terms of the developable hectares since the population requirement is mandated as residents or jobs per hectare. 103 hectares is misleading as it impacts density. This same misleading figure is used in item 20.3.2 on page A-10. It's simply a matter of accuracy.

We object to the use of Floor Space Index (FSI) as a guide for the size of buildings. This is partly because our members – ordinary citizens of the neighbourhood – have difficulty understanding this method of measurement, therefore do not understand what their elected representatives are approving. In addition, and most importantly, it can result in nearly limitless possibilities when it comes to massing and height. We also object to approving FSI of between 4 and 10 for the majority of the developable land in Midtown, approximately 43 hectares.

We understand that the province has limited the Municipalities' power to control growth areas like Midtown. However, we believe that the OPA should contain guidelines that reflect how Oakville can accommodate the minimum required population that the Province has mandated, without resulting in extreme population density. In light of recent Provincial edicts, removing the Municipalities’ ability to restrict building heights, FSI is the zoning tool of choice to control what can be built by developers.

The TCRA accepts the provincial targets and believes that they, while denser than anywhere else in Oakville, can be consistent with the development of a complete community, subject to defining what constitutes a complete community.

TCRA loves crunching numbers, so here are some that you may find startling:

FSI of between 4 and 10, which is what is being proposed for the majority of the developable area of Midtown which is approximately 43 hectares. This means that theoretically up to 430 hectares (4.3M sq m or 46M sq ft) of floor space could be constructed. A hectare is 10,000 sq m or 107,639 sq ft.

For example, if the average unit size was 800 sq ft, with 2.2 people per unit (Provincial figure), that equates to 126,500 people if every developer builds to the maximum FSI, without taking any FSI exemptions into account. 

46,000,000 / 800 = 57,500 housing units

57,500 x 2.2 = 126,500 residents 

This is without taking into account the jobs to be created in midtown. The Town assumes a 65/35 split between people and jobs, thus there would be an additional 68,100 jobs in Midtown, taking the density of Midtown to 194,600. When allocated over 43 hectares, this a density of 4,525 people and jobs per hectare.

As per 20.3.7 (h) of the OPA, limiting the floor plate to 750 sq m, will allow for a tower of 53 stories to achieve FSI of 4 on a one hectare site. This could be divided into several smaller towers, say 14, 18 and 21 stories.

(4x 10,000) / 750 = 53.333

Using FSI instead of building height limits for the Midtown density target for people and jobs has the potential to allow significantly higher density than the Province’s target of 41,200 by 2051. Human nature being what it is, the TCRA expects that many developers will choose to build to the maximum allowed on their properties.  Assuming this, the potential exists for the future built-out density (people and jobs) of Midtown Oakville could approach that of Manhattan today. That would not be Livable Oakville! The TCRA strongly opposes this for Midtown Oakville.

The TCRA believes that Midtown Oakville has to offer more than the high-density areas we are already seeing in Mississauga, Vaughan, Markham, North York and the like. There is a rush by current Midtown landowners to build many, many tall towers containing as many as 70% + single bedroom, 600 sq ft, or smaller, units. We do not believe that that is how we make Oakville more attractive than these other GTA destinations.

With units of that size the target demographic would be 20 to 40 year old singles and couples with very few children. What do they require for recreation? Pubs? Night clubs? Bars? Gyms? Running, walking, biking tracks? And, most importantly, will buildings of this nature provide the much-needed housing that Midtown densification is intended to provide?