MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, Sept. 19, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Many outstanding companies and landowners alongside the Dundas Street hall in Mississauga are expressing alarm on the City of Mississauga’s August 10, 2022 choice to approve a number of Official Plan Amendments (OPAs) that reinforce the established order and severely restrict the creation of latest walkable, local weather pleasant, transit oriented communities and housing.
“It is really disappointing and frankly concerning that a Council, which is supposed to represent the interests of all of its constituents, is prioritizing the unfounded concerns of a single business over a large number of long-standing small businesses and landowners that have served the City for decades. Even more disappointing is that the City is taking a position that these OPAs are unappealable,” mentioned Mr. Stephen Sparling, President, Dundas Landowners’ Association (DLA).
Mississauga City Council voted to transition almost all lands on Dundas Street between the borders of Oakville and Toronto to Mixed Use but voted to maintain the lands on the stretch of Dundas Street between Haines and Blundell Roads, the location of two upcoming BRT stations, zoned for Employment Area solely. This choice comes after a close-by manufacturing facility pressured the City Council to freeze the power of their neighbouring land and business homeowners to redevelop their properties for residential mixed-use functions, citing land use compatibility issues. This is regardless of a number of examples of properties throughout Ontario the place meals business operations neighbour residential makes use of with out points.
“Members of the DLA see this stretch of the Dundas corridor as more than just employment land. The City’s inherent favouritism of a single business over the requests of many landowners of 57.5 acres of prime mixed use lands facing Dundas Street is frankly disappointing. We have and remain ready to come to the table to make sure our properties are part of a meaningful solution,” mentioned Mr. Moe Ahmed, President and CEO, Ahmed Group. “It is especially concerning to us considering the City is taking a position that is contrary to both Regional and Provincial guidelines and policies.”
In April 2022, following a Municipal Comprehensive Review (MCR) required below Ontario’s A Place to Grow Growth Plan, the Region of Peel adopted a new Regional Official Plan in assist of the province’s aims. The Region of Peel’s plan aligns with the provincial plan to reclassify all the size of Dundas avenue for blended use growth, enabling main enhancements to transportation, sustainable transit-supportive growth, and intensification. This reclassification from employment to blended use is important to assist the anticipated inhabitants and job progress alongside the hall that may outcome from the upcoming Dundas Bus Rapid System (Dundas BRT) and Hurontario Light Rail Transit (Hurontario LRT).
Despite endorsing the Dundas Connects Master Plan and supporting each the upcoming Dundas BRT and Hurontario LRT, the City of Mississauga has determined to contradict each the Government of Ontario’s A Place to Grow Growth Plan and the Region of Peel’s Official Plan by refusing to take away the lands from its personal designated Employment Area. This choice has been made with out regard for the a number of business homeowners within the space who urged for the removing of the Employment Area designation quite a few occasions at varied Mississauga Council and Committee conferences in July and August. Moreover, the City’s refusal creates an alarming battle between the Region’s new Official Plan on blended land use allowances on Dundas.
“I have been a member of this community for close to 40 years, and I was excited to finally see the City planning for significant investments for the area, including the two massive BRT stations nearby,” mentioned Mr. Bob Rabbito, President, TruTone Electronics. “The BRT has the potential to grow the number of people who can live, work, shop, and eat along this stretch of Dundas. But the actions of the City to exclude a huge portion of land on Dundas Street, including our property, from mixed use zoning and keeping it essentially just industrial effectively limits our ability to grow as a business within an active and thriving community.”
In July, the Region of Peel Council unanimously reaffirmed its choice that they’d proceed to assist the varied land and small business homeowners, members of the Dundas Landowners’ Association, towards the objections of the only manufacturing facility’s calls for that the 57.5 acres of lands in query stay as Employment Areas.
“The City of Mississauga’s August 10th decision means the Region of Peel will have to step up and do the right thing again,” mentioned Mr. Paul Tavora, President, Tavora Foods. “We hope that they will overturn Mississauga’s short-sighted OPAs and remove our lands from the Employment Areas to allow for residential mixed use developments, despite the one business’s continual attempts to roll back planned land-use changes and maintain the lands’ designation as Employment Areas.”
In addition to a change in land use designations, DLA members requested the City of Mississauga enable for taller constructing heights alongside the hall for elevated density to raised leverage the upcoming Dundas BRT. However, the City’s in the end accepted OPAs embody low and restrictive top limits throughout the native Major Transit Station Area (MTSA) plans. MTSAs are lands typically inside a 500-800 metre radius, a few 10-minute-walk, of a transit station or cease, primarily situated alongside present or deliberate transit corridors (e.g., GO Train, Light Rail Transit, BRT). The City imposed unreasonable top limitations within the MTSAs are opposite to each Regional and Provincial pointers.
“Nowhere in Ontario has a municipality included height caps or restricted land use in their MTSA OPAs. Why is the City of Mississauga doing this to us here? As a proud home builder, I’ve never seen this amount of red tape by any municipality I’ve worked with before, and I’ve worked with many,” mentioned Mr. Drago Vuckovic, President, Ashley Group.
The City of Mississauga is the primary municipality within the Region of Peel to finish its MTSA OPA and plenty of DLA members have expressed concern that City employees have rushed their suggestions to current at City Council’s final assembly of the 12 months earlier than the municipal elections. Some members of City Council acknowledged this and the contentiousness of the report and sought to defer the vote to after the elections, giving time for City employees to rethink landowners’ issues. However, the movement to defer was in the end unsuccessful, dropping by a slim vote of 5 to 6, ensuing within the OPAs being adopted on August 10, 2022. Mississauga was the primary City within the Region of Peel to move its OPAs, and the one municipality within the Province to have included most top limitations of their MTSA OPA.
“We own one of the largest parcels on Dundas Street in Mississauga. Unfortunately, the amount of bureaucracy in the City when it comes to redevelopment is exemplified by these recently approved OPAs, and coupled with rising costs and inflation, greatly disincentivizes us from investing in the redevelopment of our property for housing,” mentioned Mr. Wen Qing He, President, Mississauga Chinese Centre.
“We know how committed the Province and Region of Peel are to addressing the housing crisis and to supporting transit-oriented development,” mentioned Mr. Sparling. “We look to Peel again to reaffirm its decision to remove the lands along Dundas between Haines Road and Blundell Road from Employment Areas and remove the unreasonably restrictive height limits being imposed across Dundas Street. DLA members want to be a part of Mississauga’s progress and contribute to a future where the need for housing is addressed and businesses, homes, and recreation spaces can all co-exist.”
Mississauga City Council’s vote on the deferral of the contentious MTSA OPA on August 8, 2022 (Five to Six). Not proven: Councillor Sue McFadden voted ‘Yes’ verbally in favour of the deferral and Mayor Bonnie Crombie voted ‘No’ verbally towards the deferral
Mississauga City Council’s last vote to approve the contentious MTSA OPA on August 10, 2022 (Nine to Three)
About the Dundas Landowners’ Association
The Dundas Landowners’ Association (the DLA) is an included not-for-profit affiliation representing the pursuits of its members, primarily family-owned small business landowners alongside the Dundas Street hall in Mississauga. The hall is about to bear a major transition within the coming years and the DLA will battle for crucial stakeholders of that transition, its members, every step of the way in which. Business homeowners alongside the Dundas East hall who want to elevate their issues and be part of the DLA in its efforts are inspired to contact the DLA.
For media inquiries:
Stephen Sparling
Dundas Landowners’ Association
[email protected]
Photos accompanying this announcement can be found at
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