Transcript: North Oakville Commercial Debate - Planning & Development, March 23, 2026 | Summary 431

Hello and welcome to the March 23rd meeting of the Planning and Development Council of the Town of Oakville. Madame Clerk, do we have any regrets? Thank you, Mayor Burton. Uh, at the moment we have regrets from councelor Nanda. All right. Thank you. Um, council, do we have any declarations of conflict of interest? Madame clerk, I see no declarations. Um, moving on to approval uh or correction of previous minutes. Can we have a mover and secondary that the minutes of the regular session of planning and development session of council March 2nd be approved? Councelor Dudk and councelor Lchenna. Thank you. Any objection? Madam clerk, there being none, the minutes are approved. U moving on to the approval of Heritage Oakville minutes from February 24th. Can we have a mover and seconder for the motion that the committee minutes dated February 24th be received? Councelor Longo and Councelor Shia. Thank you. Any objection? There being none, madam clerk, that's adopted. Uh our uh we have one public hearing item and that is the public meeting report for the town initiated official plan amendment for North Oakville East commercial study implementation. And uh uh I'd like to call on Anna Petrus, our policy planner, to provide a presentation. Welcome Good evening, mayor, counselors, and members of the public. My name is Anna Petrus. I'm a policy planner. The purpose of tonight's meeting is to bring forth the draft official plan amendment to amend the North Oakville East secondary plan and to implement the findings of the North Oakville East commercial study. The report is agenda item 7.1. This is the statutory public comment public meeting where comments from the public will be received. And just to recap, no decision is being made at this time. At a high level, I want to recap the commercial study as it's the comprehensive study that informs the draft policy changes shared with you tonight. It assessed the current and future needs and the key recommendation was a projected demand of about 167,000 to 204,000 square meters of new retail and commercial space um over the long term to 201. The study made a range of recommendations including the following policybased recommendations to rethink the place of commercial uses within the urban structure to allow intram typologies and building formats to consider commercial use requirements and incentives and build on design and placemaking policies for the intram uh building formats. Um through the study um council directed staff to implement the findings and then report back with the official plan amendments. Through the study we also engaged interested parties specifically and industry experts who are uh preparing who are participating actively in development of new non-residential development in Oakville and other municipalities. As staff advanced the implementation, NOCBI has been kept informed on key steps. And fast forward to January 2026, we held meetings between town staff and NOCBI to share the draft policy directions and received NOCby's comments, which echoed similar concerns as we had previously received. We note that to date three formal written submissions have been received regarding the public meeting. All submissions are being reviewed and feedback will be considered as staff work on making refinements to the draft official plan. To draw your attention to the relevant policy framework, I will touch on the town's urban structure and the North Oakville East Secondary Plan. The town's urban structure is is key to managing growth by directing intensification to strategic growth areas over the long term. In the context of North Oakville East, this is within the Trafalgar Urban Corps and Dundas urban core areas. And further policies in the secondary plan provide direction and allow dense development with a full range of residential, retail, service, commercial, and other non-residential uses. The urban core areas are intended and planned as mixed use. The secondary plan clearly states that the vision for North Oakville East is to develop as an urban community that is compact, mixed use, and achieves the vision for complete communities. Various sections of the existing North Oakville East secondary plan relate to um commercial and retail development and the overall provide a flexible framework in terms of the location and amount of retail and commercial that could be developed. It is in response to this current policy framework that the commercial study recommended policy solutions to build on to build on the existing framework. The draft OPA that accompanies the staff report is aimed at maintaining policy flexibility while striking a balance uh to strengthen current policies, respond to current needs, and achieve the long-term municipal planning objectives. Further staff had undertaken additional research and bre best practice review of policies development applications and internal discussions to further inform the draft OPA. As such various parts of the existing policies are being proposed with uh with changes namely that is section 7.3 regarding the community structure 7.5 the community design strategy 7.6 six, the land use strategy and 7.7 community services strategy. To dive deeper into the key components of the draft official plan, I'll start off by visually highlighting the draft changes to figure NOE1, which is the community structure plan for North Oakville East. On the left, you see the existing and on the right, the enlarged map is the proposed. A key change is the introduction of the community nodes denoted as numbers one through four at the major intersections. We have reviewed and updated existing neighborhood center activity nodes and um classified them as primary activity nodes and secondary activity nodes. Most of the locations remain the same, but through the review, specific changes have been made to some neighborhoods. And staff also note that internally we have flagged further refinements to make more accurate um changes as as they are intended on this community structure plan. In terms of the community nodes, they are intended to serve as strategic locations for retail and service commercial and have a focus with the greatest concentration and densest clustering. It also takes advantage of some existing retail clustering that is taking place. New policies provide direction and clarification on how commercial nodes should be developed and state that such uses should be located within mixeduse buildings. development should orient the street to create active, safe and pedestrianoriented environments. And as part of this, we are um shifting the focus away from retail and commercial having to only front trfalar and dandas and added policies that speak to allowing these uses and buildings to be located on smaller, narrower roads, namely avenues and connectors to help facilitate the active safe and pedestrian environment. policies are introduced to require minimum leasable GFA for retail and service commercial uses in the commercial nodes and that it will be implemented through the development application process. Policies are also introduced to require the replacement and protection of existing non-residential uses. It is important to protect what we already have for the primary and secondary activity nodes. The draft policies are building on the existing framework and these existing locations are identified on the community structure map. Overall, the policies and intended function as central activity nodes is carried forward with small revisions to specific locations. The new policies direct that minimum GFA should be provided for each pro primary and secondary activity node. These locations are intended to place a greater emphasis on the day-to-day needs of the surrounding neighborhood and are differentiated mainly through their size. Lastly, I turn my focus to the enhanced policies for intramus uses and phase development, which help address the concerns of short-term market realities, but still achieving the long-term municipal planning objectives we have on an interim basis. The policies permit standalone retail and commercial buildings. The draft policies direct how uses and phase development should be implemented and requires applications to demonstrate the appropriate sighting and configurations of buildings to support future intensification. This includes addressing matters related to the provision of local roads, creation of safe pedestrian and transit friendly routes, the orientation of main entrances of building buildings, parking, intensification of the buildings, and allowing flexible design of commercial spaces to accommodate a wider range of uses. Staff have prepared the draft OPA to reinforce the vision of North Oakville East for compact mixeduse complete communities by more clearly stating where and how the retail and service commercial development should occur. Flexibility is still maintained for these interim uses and phase development. However, it is coupled with these appropriate uh sighting policies to help achieve our long-term planning objectives. The draft OPA has been prepared for tonight's public meeting and has been posted online for public comments. As part of tonight and next steps, staff will receive feedback and proceed to make revisions to the draft OPA. Staff will undertake the revisions and bring back a recommended official plan amendment to planning and development council in Q2 2026. To conclude the presentation, I would like to highlight the report recommendations in front of you tonight as seen on the slide and I thank you for your time. I'm happy to take your comments and questions now. Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Petrus. Um, uh, you have some questions. Let's start with councelor Shia. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. Uh, couple questions. So, the new section um 7.3 uh.4 four commercial on page five and six outline there is primary and secondary activity north intend to serve local retail service and convenience needs directly within the neighborhood. So can can you provide examples of the what the type of business like uh envisioned for the secondary activity nose through the mayor to the counselor. Thank you for your question. We did a deeper dive on this to see how best to differentiate the primary activity as well as differentiate them from the neighborhood nodes. Um we've strategically not limited or strictly permitted a certain set of uses to allow the commercial development to happen a bit more naturally and organically and be flexible. The intention is those day-to-day needs. So could be uh convenience store um could be um you know like a laundry um dry cleaners. So it doesn't have to be a specific and one type of use. It could still include the the broader use of uh what is permitted in the zoning in terms of like service service um commercial uses. Okay. So furthermore, how will our zoning and design guideline protect the residential neighborhood from the potential noise deliver trucks and the local traffic associated with this uh integrated hubs through the mayor to the counselor. Those are u kind of standard you know standard elements we review through the development application process. So we would continue to ensure that uses are compatible uh that noise and other matters are mitigated and we uh welcome any comments or suggestions you may have related to addressing community concerns. Okay. My second question is the policy require interum use that's within the commercial nodes to demonstrate how buildings will develop over the long term through the intensification plan. So my question is what the mechanism or timeline will this town staff to enforce to um ensure developer don't just building and temporately single star uh story plaza and leave it over for five or 10 years delaying our permanent mixuse through the mayor to the counselor. um the protections we can have um are really through these policies that we bring forward and how we structure them. the policies right now don't set any kind of a sunset clause or specific limited timeline but it is their intended that um we want this you know for the short term in so there's no specific timeline attached to it but the intention of the intensification and that long-term um you know demonstration of its potential is to protect for that future opportunity say when other factors and other conditions are right um which could include you know market conditions to be favorable for those subsequent phases to come online. So we are open to comments around timeline but currently as prepared there's no specific timeline to you know limit interim uses or how that should specifically come online. Okay then you mean the short term so how how short it is three years five years or 10 years we don't have the idea about that. So through the mayor to the council there's no specific timeline but definitely by doing this we would be requiring and hoping that the developers commit to multiple phases and that say a standalone uh building is just for the time being but uh that's something we can take back review further and try to clarify in terms of a potential um you know timeline and review other policies that may give us direction of what would be an appropriate uh policy to consider. Okay. Thank you. My last questions is parking is always the big issues for North Oakville residents. So there's in this report there's shade shared parking for uh retail and service use. So what is that? So the report uh I identified there's no service parking be located between buildings and the public sidewalk. Given the north Oakville we still have a very high car dependent. How will staff evaluate this shared parking models to guarantee we don't cause parking shortage in North O again through the mayor to the counselor. Thank you for your question. We know that parking is is a common concern. Um, so this is really just to enable that to happen and we do have further zoning regulations that specifically govern parking standards for specific uses. So this really just um puts a bit of emphasis that there may be opportunities say for a residential building to share the visitor component with perhaps related adjacent commercial uses on that site. So you could potentially, you know, through a parking utilization study determine what is appropriate, how much, how to share, and that information is generally reviewed through our development application process through uh you know transportation study that incorporates parking specifically. So that wouldn't change. That would remain the same as our standard review practices. And this is just at the official plan level to um to give a bit of a you know incentive and some direction that we can allow shared parking to happen where it's appropriate and definitely it would be a sightby-sight analysis through our you know transportation staff. Okay. Thank you. Uh thank you very much. Thank you again for for the wonderful job you have done. Thank you. I would love to move the motion after that. Thank you. Thank you councelor Councelor Adams. Thank you very much for the the presentation and the report. Um I appreciate a lot of the work that's gone into this in particular the effort at trying to uh require certain amounts of development to happen within um the nodes within the neighborhoods. I think that that's an important element and something that we've really struggled with over many years now. Um we recently received uh correspondence from number of the land owners and developers in the area and um I wondered uh how staff imagine treating some of those pieces of correspondence and that input. Uh I noted that within that material uh in particular as an example on page 39 of 67 of the correspondence um there's a a map of the it's called the North Oakville East Secondary Plant Existing and Planned Commercial Developments and it's dated May 2023 by MHBC and uh it looks to me like it's got sites listed as being commercial or planned commercial that I don't think are going to happen or or will happen. They've been planned as pure residential in some cases and I I wondered um you know how accurate is this? It's being presented to us by a by one of the developers uh and I I'm concerned that it's showing us stuff that's inaccurate. Um and I want to make sure that staff recognize that through the mayor to the counselor. Thank you for your question. We've definitely uh reviewed the submissions and we will do a deeper dive after tonight as well. Um I believe what you are referring to is the study that NOCBY had prepared in May of 2023 and that was um submitted to staff. So that is a report we have considered through the commercial study before and we do review the locations uh which are part of that community structure map in light of current development uh applications and existing opportunities which is part of why in some cases we've made those specific changes. Um, so we can definitely do a deeper dive and if there's anything specific you'd like to share with us, we're welcoming those comments and further review the mapping that they're sharing with staff. Okay. I just want to make sure that it's it's accurately considered and not taken at face value. Um, the second part of that set of submissions is I will generally describe as a desire to be able to build commercial plazas um, which is not in keeping with the vision for North Oakville. uh and I think that's clearly identified within the material that you've put forward. Um and I want to make sure that we have a a method that we think is um viable in terms of bringing forward things like grocery stores uh and other retail activities that we think we need for a complete community without creating uh these large parking space kind of areas that they clearly show in uh plazas like the Clare Place G Plaza that they show in the pl in Milton with the freshco which are are I would say historic types of commercial plazas that are big box style format um is am I correctly portraying um the difference between what we're trying to do and what they're pushing through the mayor to the counselor um you know in summary yes the material that is part of that report demonstrates you know a traditional big box standalone own single-use type of building with surface parking. And the direction of the official plan amendment is very much in line with more, you know, compact mixeduse development. Um, and, you know, would hopefully move away from that model and give that specific and clear direction for mixeduse buildings. um the location of these retail and commercial uses within um you know the say the podiums of mixeduse buildings. We are intentional in making those revisions to the policies to direct retail and service commercial to mixeduse buildings. So that is very much in line with where we're headed and that's reflective of the current policy framework and also the directions of the commercial study. Okay, thank you very much for those answers. Um I feel good about the fact that we're in alignment on that vision. Um I have just one other minor uh request and that is in the uh the mapping in this sorry I don't have is it schedule 901 the community structure where you show the uh the primary and the secondary activity nodes. Would it be possible to use a different color or something to show the secondary activity node so that it's more easily distinguishable on the map through the mayor to the counselor? Yes, that's an easy change. We've noted that. Thank you very much. Thank you, councelor. Councelor Omira. Uh, thank you, worship. Um, just out of curiosity, what is the current commercial um size of commercial in the north northeast Oakville right now? How much commercial do we have? Through the mayor to the counselor. So, you're asking about the just to clarify the question if I may, the amount of current um retail and commercial that's within North Oakville. Yeah. I mean, I think I I I remember reading somewhere we need 1.7 million um acres or square meters, I forget what the number is, but I'm just trying to gauge to what we have right now compared to what we know is the needs assessment for the area right now. And I I I don't know if you have those numbers handy. So we do have that assessment specifically through the commercial study where the consultants looked at what we have existing and that was part of the um you know the baseline and the jumping off point of what is the projected need. Um, if my memory serves me correct, I believe it was in the range of 150 um,000 to 200,000 square square meters. No square feet. It would be square feet because the study was primarily completed in square feet and then we have subsequently obviously translated to square meters. So that was that snapshot in time. Um last year as an update so around spring summer of 2025 we did a further analysis of what has been newly approved and at that time it was approximately 48,000 square ft of new commercial space. So in the context of what we need and what we're seeing come online it is a very small amount and the projected need um you know like you're seeing the numbers is much higher about 1.7 million. It's it's a it's a number that we are not even close to the moon in terms of achieving in terms of what the needs are in in North Oakville. I I I believe anyway. Well, we don't have to get exact numbers there. So, um I I guess where where my struggle is is in the letter from NBI, they have they have said like this isn't going to we can't do this. The performers don't work in terms of mixeduse communities and mixeduse buildings. We will not be able to deliver commercial. So, I guess what my question is is, are we gonna continue to see this gap not get closed um in concerns of of not having the flexibility um to build what is needed in the community because we have a vision of what we want rather than what can actually happen. I guess I'm wondering if you can maybe speak to that through the mayor to the counselor. I will start off and I may open it up to um anyone um any of my superiors here tonight. So we definitely are aware of the comments submitted by Noby indicating that the policy framework you know is is challenging and that um you know the direction for mixed use is you know in and they're kind of paraphrasing not achievable. Um we are very much in line with achieving the vision of the North Oakville East official um secondary plan and all that policy context was you know in great detailed considered through the commercial study and as part of that the consultants you know thoroughly engaged the land owners. So part of the uh you know the rationale and the way in which the recommendations from the study were framed were considering and about considering you know the market realities of today uh and other factors that are beyond just purely the policy piece. So, we think that we can get to the same place and we do have the common ground and common goal that we need to add the muchneeded retail and service commercial to North Oakville East. And we are committed to making uh revisions that are, you know, striking the right balance of ensuring we are seeing commercial and retail come online and that policies help enable that as opposed to create further barriers. Uh okay. Um I I I I like our normiveness. We're committed to building commercial. I just I think where what the disconnect from what I'm reading is that's just not the reality from what they're saying. I guess did the did the consultant talk with the metros and the forinos and the soies and they say we could I mean the one node I think it's 350,000 square feet were requiring at turfalgar and dundas um with an NHS and a storm water and already where do you put 350,000 square feet at that corner and and and how does that even come to fruition? And I mean I I'm that that to me is is almost mind-numbing that that what we're demanding out of a mixeduse building and that how what does that even look like? Is it four stories of a grocery store? Like I don't understand how that works. Uh through you mayor Burton to the counselor. So the um the growth projections in the uh study that have informed the policy work before you this evening were based on the joint best planning estimates which we know are a um a long long long-term uh high forecast of of growth coming to Oakville. And so that's reflected in these square foot allocations by these commercial nodes. Uh part of the consideration coming before council ultimately will be how the southern half of that node at Dundas and Trafalger will contribute to achieving some of those targets in terms of minimum square footage of retail service commercial. So you're familiar with the uptown core work uh that will complement the work here which as you point out is highly constrained. Uh so we will be achieving those numbers uh collectively through through development applications in those locations. Uh the four corners. Okay. Yeah. I mean, we we might be circling back on what best planning estimates and numbers are, seeing how it's the first time last year we've declined since 1867 in our population. So, I think, you know, trying to plan out um numbers that are moving at a pace that I I I don't know if we have the flexibility we're building into our plans to allow that. And I my my worry is we are going to continue to constrain the people in North Oakville who want more commercial, who need more commercial, and we are putting handcuffs on the sites um because we're not giving flexibility enough to deliver the commercial that everyone in North Oakville deserves to have as much as everybody down in the south has plazas in corners and metros and grocery stores all over the place. um that that we're limiting that and and I guess my my request would be for the recommendation um sort of when it comes back and no matter what it looks like it's it's just that you know people deserve a grocery store and whatever the OPA comes back you know it it's got to show how the policies will actually get it built rather than this is what we hope gets built in god knows how many years. Um, and I guess I just leave maybe if you can point to another area that has done what we're doing where the mixeduse is per building, not per community. Is there a place that we can point to in in our somewhat size comparative where they that policy went in place over there and it worked and they built it and and it came to fruition? If you can maybe include that in the the recommendation report, I'd like to see some proof of life before we we go out on a limb here. Thank you, worship. Thank you, counselor. Um, uh, Miss Petrus and, uh, Mr. Bigger, uh, perhaps this is a time for the sake of the public to explain. Did slide nine indicate a, uh, interim measure that you were contemplating that I know it drew some criticism from this side of the room? uh that can you explain how that fit into this if or if I even understand correctly that that that was supposed to uh give some incentive to the retail uses that we're looking for um to the mayor. So I think you're specifically referring to the policies for intramus uses and phase development right just to clarify. Thank you. So we are um intending that to allow development to happen in a more traditional that standalone single-use format that the development community has echoed is you know from their perspective what is realistic and achievable in North Oakville. So those interim uh use policies allow that to happen, but we also want to be mindful that we don't want that to just go in and be there as the permanent, you know, long-term type of development. We would still like to see the intensification of those lands. So that those policies are intended to capture sort of the market realities of today and help strike that balance of how the development community would like to see some of that happen. Um, and I don't know if that helps answer the question, if there's anything else to add, but I think that's really the core piece is to not preclude it from happening unless it's a mixeduse context and to allow for that standalone to happen today. Um, should the developers, you know, come forward with with a, you know, specific proposal on a specific site, it can happen through these interim policies. I I think it's a very good answer and uh I'm looking forward to the discussion and the recommendation report of uh the timelines and the and the possibilities of success from this interim measure uh along with some uh commentary on the uh the submissions by knockby. So uh thank you for that. I I was afraid that the slide nine interim uses was uh might might be getting lost here. So, uh, thanks very much for that. And the I have Oh, councelor Null is next. Thank you, worship, and thank you to staff for this presentation and the report. Um, very aspirational uh numbers here very clearly. Uh, certainly hearing uh some of the things I've been talking about and wanting to make sure that there's appropriate commercial and retail space uh allotted in particularly mixeduse buildings. But I do have a question about that. I see the 14,800 number which Novi is saying is difficult and impossible but I like the number. Uh my question is that is there any are there any policies that can be put in place to make sure that that number is allocated or that that square footage is allocated in such a way that the space is actually usable um and not uh subdivided into spaces that become um uh basically impossible to use for the retail that that we desire and our communities desire such as uh groceries etc. 14,800 will get you a a couple grocery stores. But um if it's not allocated in in a in a in a uh a floor plate that will support those that kind of use then um it almost becomes unleashable or will again end up being offices and um you know professional offices and not the retail services that our community seems to desire. Thank you counselor and through you mayor Burton. One of the things that we're working on currently is actually some design guidance that is going to help specifically to address uh the mixed use because what we tend to see is a residential building and the leftover space at grade they will allocate to retail. What we're trying to do now is we're trying to reverse that design for the retail the service commercial first and then you can put the residential above. The challenges that we have where do you put your loading? How do we make sure we have the right access hallways and stairways etc. If there's underground parking where people coming out how are we dealing with events etc. Uh it's also the depth that we're looking at for the retail to make sure that the depth of the bays is sufficient that it can actually have functional retail in there. Not getting too specific in terms of demising walls and things like that, but looking more towards the minimum amount of GFA that might be needed for a retail unit to be successful. And then working with the architects on the other side to make sure that it's actually going to be a viable product. So we're working through that right now so that as these projects come on stream, we have something a little bit more informed that we can share them with the other side. That makes perfect sense and I appreciate that answer very much. I I do recognize that the demising walls and the location of them are not as important as things like depth, spans, etc. So, uh, well done on thinking that through and I look forward to seeing that plan. I want to turn to another issue that I've raised a few times and I know it came up when we were talking about one of the developments in Bronty and that is this notion of a public realm access to um um retail and service places, service businesses. We've seen it in Uptown Core where great plans are put in place to ensure that there is uh street frontage um and street animation of our businesses, our retail stores, etc. along the streets and it's designed that way. But when it comes down to the execution um they end up turning the front what's supposed to be the front doors into the back doors and it becomes a traditional style uh you know plaza or it becomes something that only provides internal circulation within that particular community. Are there policies, sorry, are there policies or design guide elements that can be applied so that we can ensure that we can um uh uh enforce the street animation that again the community so so badly wants through the mayor to the counselor. Thank you for your question. It's definitely something we have been um thinking about as well, how to make it actually happen on the ground. Um part of the approach on the draft OPA is a bit of a shift in you know the orientation of retail and commercial to front specifically like trfalar and Dundas and to allow for you know the building entrances of retail spaces to be on these smaller narrower streets. So, namely Avenue and Connectors. And that can allow for that retail to happen, say, in a more, you know, kind of calmer, smaller street area that can be just more naturally conducive to a pedestrian environment. And that can help facilitate that, you know, the front door doesn't turn into a back door unexpectedly as part of the design. Um, and and I will turn it over to um Kirk if he would like to add any remarks related to that. Uh thank you Ann Hannah and through Mayor Burton to the counselor. So uh in response counselor as well to an earlier question, we're seeing examples locally uh in in nearby jurisdictions where these sorts of features are being incorporated into commercial development. Uh and so there's winds around uh nearby. uh our team has experience with some of th those examples and we've been demonstrating some of those uh through our work as as u case studies that we could build upon. Uh so a lot of it comes down to as Anna was mentioning uh the location, the street orientations uh sight specific details, but we we work to try and provide that that activation and that animation at the street edge for for pedestrian access at every opportunity. Uh you win some, you lose some. We we all know the ones that aren't working so well. Uh but we're always going to be challenging our our development community to achieve better and and as I mentioned there's a there's good examples taking shape nearby. Thank you. My last uh question or point is um sort of piggybacks on something that councelor Sheay mentioned earlier in the terms of the parking. It seems to be that's the bane of the uh of the of the existence of a lot of these mixeduse residential or sorry mixeduse retail and serviceoriented properties where um the parking is almost seems to be an afterthought for the commercial aspects and I heard you and I see in this document there's some provision or there will be provisions for allowed shared access between residential potentially and um retail uses and I'm concerned about that and I'm wondering how you're going to address that to ensure that there is adequate parking it's not an afterthought for these retail spaces because a lot of these retail stores, particularly in a lot of these live work units and some of these these these mixed juice buildings, retail on on main floors of of residential buildings, they fail because the the customers, potential customers have no place to park. The spaces are filled up with visitors from the residential building or second per uh parking space that the condo has leased out to uh uh uh residents in the building who have multiple cars. So, how how can we address that to ensure the long-term viability of this retail space? Through the mayor to the counselor. Thank you for your question. Again, I just wanted to note that the new policy we're introducing under the community design strategy really just speaks to the opportunities for shared parking for the retail and service commercial development. It doesn't specifically address matters of um you know, access. So um to kind of build on my earlier comment, these are things that we would normally consider through the development application process. So we can definitely do a deeper dive on the parking and give more consideration to what are our current practices and maybe opportunities for refinement. I think that'd be a worthwhile exercise. I I do know that um uh I've seen stores come and go. I've in in in various communities, particularly around some of the live work units that just have no dedicated parking for retail. People open up these businesses with great intentions, great services, great businesses, good food, whatever the case is, but they fail because the customers can't park within a reasonable distance of the of the venue. And I think that that's something that we really need to make sure that we're establishing in policy. So, I appreciate that response. I look forward to more information. Thanks again. Thank you. Thank you, counselor. Any others? Perhaps the indicated motion could be moved and seconded which is to receive the comments and inform the future recommendation report. A mover and seconder please. Councelor Shia and councelor Adams. Thank you. Any objection? Madame clerk. There being no objection that's carried. U. So moving now to our discussion item, the downtown Oakville Heritage Conservation District Review. We have a delegation for this item. Uh, Madame Clerk, would you call the delegation? Thank you, Mayor Burton. Uh, delegation Sophia Huang. Miss Wang. Welcome. Council looks forward to your delegation. Uh, uh, good good evening, mayors and members of council. My name is Sophia Huang and I am a grade 11 student from Apple College. Um I have attend attended most of the planning and uh development council meetings in the past few months and I am very grateful for the opportunity to speak today regarding the downtown Oakville heritage conservation district review. Um listening to these uh discussion past discussions has helped me a lot to better understand the importance of preservation pres preserving the unique character and the history of the our town. However, I feel that um many residents, especially younger people, may not yet be fully aware of the efforts that have been ma being made by uh the councils and the um people who are protecting the Oakville's heritage district. For example, at the recent meeting on March the 2nd, I believe there was a discussion about Applebee College being recognized as part of the uh cultural heritage landscape strategy and moving from phase two into phase three. um from my understanding what that means like a shift from only research to having physical effort on preservations which I think I do consider this as a pretty significant decision but many students and even teachers and parents are not really aware of this happening since from what I've been observing it is not really an active topic so I show I think this shows that important heritage related decisions are not always reaching to the younger communities especially and that's why I believe that there is an opportunity to improve awareness within them. From me as a stu from a student perspective, I believe there is an opportunity to share these efforts more widely. Um, for example, the town could consider organizing per permanent or traveling ex exhibitions in public spaces such as libraries or community centers uh where residents of all ages can learn about the history and significance of the heritage district. Additionally, introducing like smaller educational programs or displays into schools could help students to understand the city they live in and why certain areas are protected and especially like what kind of architecture it's being protected too. Um, by making this information more accessible and visible, we are we not only preserve buildings but also strengthen the connection between people and their community, especially for the next generation. and um thank you so much for your time and all the work you've done to enhain and enhance the heritage of Oakville. Thanks Miss Wang. Thank you very much for the trouble and the time you took to bring your comments to us and we appreciate your interest. Thanks. Thank you. I'd now like to call on Kristen McLaclin, our heritage planner, to provide a presentation on the item. Thank you, Mayor Burton, and members of council. Uh the purpose of tonight's report and presentation is to go over the uh two items up for approval as part of the downtown Oakville Heritage Conservation District review project. That is the updated inventory sheets for the properties in the district and the uh revised plan and guidelines in its final form. Uh this does come out of the data-driven uh review process of the heritage conservation district that staff have developed through section six of the current downtown Oakville HCD plan and guidelines which again is the guiding policy document for the district. This project was conducted in the second half of 2025 and uh has been previously presented at council and committee for feedback from January to March of this year. Council last saw this information about the project at the January 19th planning and development council meeting. Since then, engagement has continued and the final documents for approval have been refined where needed. So tonight, I'm just briefly giving the background, final changes, and the last steps of the project as it was somewhat recently that I was in front of you about this project. And just to start at the basics, as you may remember, an HCD is a geographically defined area area, sorry, protected by municipal bylaw under the Ontario Heritage Act. The study for downtown was done in 2012 with the original planning guidelines implemented in 2013. And those were the boundaries, the last slide. Oh, sorry, I went ahead too fast. The core purpose of the district is to help conserve the heritage character of an area while managing growth and change. And again, this is done through in Oakville through the heritage permit process, the heritage grant program, and the plan and guidelines document, which was the focus of this review. The plan and guidelines outlines objectives, policies, and guidelines on maintenance and repair of existing buildings, as well as guidance on new construction, sympathetic additions, landscape conservation, and so on. So again, starting with that downtown Oakville planning guidelines in 2013, a new section was introduced to plan for more regular datadriven reviews of how the district is operating. And as I mentioned last time in January, this is currently decided by municipality. There is no provincial legislation on reviews specifically. So often they are only done based on external pressures. So this leaves staff to use outdated policy for extended periods of time across the province, uh, often decades. So, Town of Oakville staff are being proactive uh by implementing more regular reviews of districts. This has been done through implementing a review section in all HCD planning guidelines as they have been updated uh which council has seen some of them in the past several years. So, this is to more regularly address gaps uh address changing needs and to more consistently connect with the community about the district. And through this process, staff will be able to more regularly confirm that the objectives of each planning guidelines for each district are being met, how so, and what we can do to improve if they are not currently being met. So, this project did have several components. Section six of the downtown guidelines did call for formal public engagement, an analysis of heritage permits and grants, development of an objective scorecard, which uh again is kind of grading each objective of the planning guidelines, and giving an overall mark on the planning guidelines as a whole. This go this score was then used to determine how the planning guidelines need to be changed as needed. As discussed in more detail in the report, staff have followed uh these recommendations and provided these deliverables. The project's public component again began in June of 2025. So, uh this was done with a online public survey. We had a public information meeting. Staff also made sure to mail property owners and tenants and visit the tenants with information on these elements as well. Uh public web page with frequent updates and comments have been coming did come in throughout the project from the public. In the fall, data analysis was conducted not only on heritage permit and grant activity, but other department data for relevant objectives, activi um site visits, streetscape analyses, and uh public responses to the survey and as comments were also analyzed. And again, that data was then used to score each of these objectives, the 15 objectives of the plan and guidelines. And again, that received an overall score, which you may remember, of kind of achieving 77% of its objectives. So that's on the higher end of the partially achieved category. This data was then used to revise the plan and guidelines and this data assessment from this analysis uh was once again included as an appendix appendix C for anyone's interest. And then just for this review specifically as an added element because of that changing provincial legislation through bill 23, the study inventory sheets for each property were also updated to include uh 906 heritage criteria for each property. And again, that did not change any property category and it did not change uh the district boundaries, but it does continue to keep everything aligned with provincial legislation and make sure that we are staying up to date. So again, this project was presented to council January 19th for a public meeting. Since then, the project was also shared at the February 24th Heritage Oakville Advisory Committee meeting and the revised plan and guidelines document was further circulated with internal departments for feedback and there have been no further comments from the public received through this project. So in the report and the attached plan and guidelines uh you can see how comments uh from the last several months have been addressed from the statutory public meeting. We do met address in the report uh you know how the gateway feature will potentially be addressed in the future. We did manage to include comparison data for other heritage conservation districts contributing property percentages uh just not trfalar road because that's currently going through an update. Uh impacts from the bill 23 and what was previously needed by the Ontario Heritage Act. Uh updated urban forestry data and further information about financial considerations and public engagement as part of the project. In terms of internal department comments, we received mostly technical comments on elements for the right of way uh transportation traffic uh operations and urban design comments based on the 2019 streetscape project that took place downtown as well. And again, Heritage Oakville did not have comments to address. They recommended it to move forward and nothing from the no comments from the public since the statuto public meeting as well. So very briefly a summary of the deliverables from the project are on the slide here. Again based on data analysis, public engagement and experience uh staff experience working in the district since its implementation in 2013. For the inventory sheets, again no status changes to properties. Um it does include now the relevant criteria for each property and does give a bit more detail for users of the document, property owners and tenants as well. The planning guidelines again has only seen several technical edits since you last saw it from the statutory public meeting uh which I just summarized and then on top of that just from the last meeting. It does include updated terminology outline uh an updated outline of the heritage permit process and how to use the guide. Updated guidelines section to be consistent with building typologies incorporating details from other projects and plans that that have happened in the town since 2013 and updating legislation and bylaw references among other minor revisions. And kind of the another the last deliverable or the main component at this stage of the project is the amending bylaw. So that's bylaw 202647 and that is to amend uh the existing HCD bylaw to include this updated planning guidelines document. And once that's approved and passed, this document is then posted on our Heritage Conservation District website as well as the updated study sheets for user for the public to use, for owners to use, uh, for anybody who's interested. It will be available through there as well. So, in summary, staff have conducted our first kind of official uh, regular review of a heritage conservation district using this more datadriven kind of process. Um overall the project has got has went well. Uh it's given us helpful data not only on how the district is performing against its objectives you know quant giving us quantitative numbers like 77% but it's also showed staff you know more information about heritage permits and grants and how they're being utilized in the district and what operational adjustments can be made to make sure the district continues to operate well. And that includes uh as our delegate noted uh raising awareness being a key kind of um deliverable that came out of this study as well. So uh again it's also created those updated inventory sheets and the updated plan and guidelines document. So it is suggested therefore from this that similar datadriven reviews do continue for all of our districts based on their specific plan and guidelines policy. staff do aim to continue to create an efficient and consistent heritage conservation district review process that creates stability for the public and for staff for anyone interested in the heritage conservation district. And for downtown specifically, a window of about 5 to eight years is recommended at this stage just to kind of allow for data to accumulate and allow for more thorough analysis. So, at this point, the staff recommendation is that the revised inventory sheets attached as appendix A be adopted and that bylaw 202647 to amend bylaw 20134 uh to revise the downtown Oakville Heritage Conservation District planning guidelines be passed. Uh so, that's it for me tonight. I can happy to answer any questions. Well, you do have some. And I just want to lead off by saying it feels so great to know that the the youngest heritage conservation district for the oldest part of town is still passing the test. Uh councelor Dick, thank you through your worship. Um the one question I have um relates to 162 Lakeshore Road and that's the old Oakville in hotel. There's a sign a fixed to the roof of that building and I know it's contemporary in your uh assessment. My concern is that sign it should be captured in some respect to protect it because it is a well-known sign within uh the downtown core. Now, I don't know whether it would be the responsibility of the owner or um can you designate just a sign is what I'm asking. Just from the standpoint, I looked at the signage um on page 248 and it seemed to be more um directional and uh you know, sort of to do something, but it didn't capture the heritage component. uh through the mayor to the counselor. Um through yes, the signage section of the district planning guidelines is is more specifically about changing business modern business signs and how it can be in keeping with the character. Um in terms of a specific building, the district planning guidelines, the inventory sheet is only only needs to hit those criteria and doesn't need to list specific attributes for protection and for a part five designated property. If the building is a part four designated property, that would then be at that point any work being done that would be something looked at. Um I'm not I'm not a 100% sure if 162 Lakes Shore is part 4. There are quite a few buildings downtown that are part four and part five. Um I'm happy to look into that for you and reach out to you and and we can talk about that for sure. Be great. Like I say, it's just one of those things that's sort of a loose item that people identify with it, but they keep saying, "So, who's responsible for the upkeep?" So, thank you. I'd appreciate that. Yes, of course. Thank you, councelor Dick. Uh, any other questions? How about a mover and secondary? I look toward three just in case they want to have ownership of this. Councelor Hazard deal and councelor Giddings. Thank you very much. Any objection? There being no objection, the uh the youngest heritage conservation district of the oldest part of town uh renewal passes. Thank you everybody. Um, all right. There's one discussion item to go into close session for. And before I call for a motion to do that, I would ask uh if there are any will there be any new business to discuss or any requests for reports? I I ask now so that I can say so you know hopefully be able to say that after our in camera session there will be no further business in public so that people don't wait around any uh request for reports or new business. Thank you. Uh then I I would like the indicated motion. I'll just read it. Need a mover and secondary. I pardon I beg your pardon for that. Uh we need a motion to to move into a session closed for the public under the following grounds. This matter may be considered in the absence of the public under section 239 paragraph uh under 239 sub two of the municipal act because it deals with a a proposed or pending acquisition or disposition of land by the municipality or local board. B. Advice subject to solicister client privilege, including communications necessary for the purpose. C. Information explicitly supplied in confidence to the municipality or local board by Canada, a province, a territory, or a crown agency of any of them. Or D or and D a position, plan, procedure, criteria, or instruction to be applied to any negotiations carried on or be carried on by or on behalf of the municipality or local board. Who's the mover and who's the secondary here? Councelor Lchenna and councelor Dudk. Thank you very much. Any objection? There being none, that's carried. Um we will have a little technical break while the the technical uh people set us up for that session. And uh why don't we aim to reconvene in five or 10 minutes here. All right. Hello. Council is back in public session, having met in a session closed to the public for a matter that may be considered in the absence of the public under section 239 sub 2 of the municipal act because it deals with a the proposed or pending acquisition or disposition of land by the municipality or local board. B advice that is subject to solicitor client privilege including communications necessary for that purpose. C information explicitly supplied in confidence to the municipality or local board by Canada, a province or territory or a crown agency of any of them. D a position, plan, procedure, criteria or instruction to be applied to any negotiations carried on or to be carried on by or on behalf of the municipality or local board. And uh we now have a motion, a public motion which we're going to have a recorded vote on that the confidential direction provided in the report from the office of the mayor dated March 20th, 2026 be approved. Madam clerk, would you call the vote? Councelor Omira. Sad day. No. Councelor Mcise. Nope. Councelor Dedic. No. Councelor Chisum, yes. Councelor Hazel Theo, absolutely not. Councelor Giddings, no. Councelor Elgar, absolutely not. Councelor Longo, yes. Mayor Burton, yes. Councelor Null, yes. Councelor Grant, yes. Councelor Adams, yes. Councelor Lischa, yes. Councelor Xi, yes. Carries. And council, that carries. Um, we now need a mo councelor. Mayor Burton. Further to that motion, could you just confirm for us when information would be made public? Uh, in regards to what was decided, I don't know the answer to that question yet. Is it something you could report back to council on? Certainly. I mean, as soon as it can be made public, it will be. Thanks very much. Um, council, we need a mover and secondary for the passing of the bylaws listed in the agenda, including the bylaw to confirm the proceedings of a meeting of council. Councelor Longo and councelor Shia. Thank you, councelor. Any objection? Madame Clerk, there being no objection, the bylaws are considered read and passed. Thank you everybody. It's been terrific working with you and uh sometimes we have the really momentous decisions to make and uh tonight we've risen to that challenge. Uh it's been terrific to uh struggle with you over finding the right answer to uh the questions in front of us and uh I do look forward to a good result from our decision. Good night everybody. Recording.

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