Text Doug Ford Campaign
We Love Oakville are encouraging residents to directly text Doug Ford to let him know the strength of feeling in Oakville on the Transit Oriented Community proposal.
At the CMGRA we would encourage you to do this prior to election day on February 27. Our suggested text is as below, but feel free to write as you see fit:
Text Doug Ford @ 647-612-3673
and tell him
“I oppose the TOC plan for Midtown and want Oakville to retain control of development to achieve the Provincial policy objectives faster and better”
A Recap on the Current State of Affairs
The Transit Oriented Community is a plan, supported by the province, for eleven tower blocks of up to 59 stories on just 5 hectares of land in Mid-town. The developable area of Mid-Town is 43 hectares, so this is just a fraction of the final development.
In December Oakville Planning staff wrote a report, sent to Infrastructure Ontario and the Ministry of Infrastructure severely criticizing the proposed TOC. You can read the report here.(be warned – its 88 pages long)
The conclusion is neatly summarised in the sentence below….
“Overall, the TOC proposal appears as a private development proposal with very little to no community benefit for either the Town or the Province. As noted above, it does not appear to achieve the Transit Oriented Community objectives identified by the Minister of Infrastructure and it does not implement current Official Plan policies nor draft policies for Midtown.”
Subsequently on January 27th, Oakville Town Council rejected the plans unanimously. Oakville has an OPA (Official Plan Amendment) for the whole of Mid-Town, that is in the final stages of approval that the TOC would over-ride and probably destroy. The most recent OPA details are here.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there. The Ministry will be coming back with a revised TOC and, in any case, has the authority to simply over-rule Oakville town council.
It is therefore essential to highlight the strength of local feeling in this election period.