Hi everyone
The First Capital application was originally made during the previous council in 2006 (which I was not a part of) and approved by that Council contrary to Planning Department recommendations and the Town's Official Plan which state the area between Bronte and the CN rail line should be employment for office and light industrial uses (check milton.ca under official plan and zoning regulations). The official plan was also approved by the Province which the OMB has to take into account when making a decision.
This Council defeated the application in May 2007 by a 7-3 vote with all the urban councillors including the Mayor voting against the application.
First Capital appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board which may be holding a hearing the week of March 31 on depending on the lawyers of which there is the Town and FIVE other corporations including Mattamy,. Fieldgate and Manaman all of which had already approved retail centres in the Sherwood Survey plan. I understand from the Town planners that First Capital is under considerable pressure to keep the land as employment as there is a great need for a large office area with some minor restaurant and other uses (yes even a Starbucks, Tim Hortons etc.).
Milton Hospital through the Halton Health Care Services is currently planning a major expansion and may need to locate some of their office uses off the current Hospital location. As the Hospital will need to TRIPLE in size to handle Milton's current plans for 175,000 people by the year 2031 within the current Official Plan, and possibly the 350-400,000 people total that Milton may have under the Places to Grow Act which the Town and Region are raising serious concerns about the amount of growth and lack of funding for infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and transportation.
Part of the reasons for the denial which planning staff and I stated at the meeting are the currently approved retail centres such as:
35,000 square foot retail centre by Mattamy at Scott & Derry which will be heard at the next Planning & Administration meeting on March 21st.
35,000 s.f. retail centre on the north-west corner of Scott & Derry by Fieldgate homes where the Sales office is now located.
65,000 s.f. retail/office are by Mattamy at the south-east corner of Tremaine and Derry scheduled to be built after the Scott & Derry location is completed.
230,000 s.f. Manaman plaza to be built in 2009-10 at First Line & Louis St. Laurent (you can see the sign) similar to the A & P plaza on Thompson with a major anchor grocery store. Less than 1 km. south of the Derry and Bronte intersection.
35,000 s.f. retail centre by Penretail at the south-west corner of Derry and Santa Maria where the sales office is located.
60,000+ s.f. possible additions and retail areas within the Derry Road & Ontario Street commercial cluster including possible Food Port expansion etc.
40,000 s.f. already approved Sobey's store on Maple Ave. next to the Home Depot which was approved at the same meeting which has not been started yet.
35,000 s.f Walmart grocery store expansion at Steeles and James Snow Parkway which should be completed and open this summer.
190,000 s.f. First Gulf expansion on the former Regional Public Works yard on Steeles Ave. next to Canadian Tire which should be open by Christmas 2008.
40,000 s.f.+ retail centre on the north side of Maple Ave. at Fox which is on the March 25th meeting for approval.
Also several other downtown and small corner locations such as Derry & Thompson (also on the March 21st planning meeting) two live-work locations on Thompson & Derry and Derry and Holly as well as the 35,000 s.f. Mattamy retail centre at Holly and Derry which was approved but not built before the First Capital application.
If all of these and several others on Tremaine Road and Steeles Ave. are built, there will be about 1 MILLION SQUARE FEET OF RETAIL SPACE built in the next 5-10 years as well as some downtown redevelopments that I am aware of that are not public knowledge yet.
All this is greater that the retail space currently at the Heartland Centre at Mavis and Britannia which serves a far greater population than Milton.
Milton planning staff are very confident that based on the previously approved Official Plan and Retail Studies by previous councils and recent updates by staff and retail consultants the current plan Milton has is defensible at the OMB and a retail centre at Derry and Bronte would disrupt the plans of other builders and downtown merchants for any new or expansion construction. Some of these corporations lawyers publicly stated at the meeting, that they would be taking legal action against First Capital and the Town, if the Town approved the First Capital/Sobey's site which could have cost the Town MILLIONS in legal and planning costs.
Check milton.ca for more details on these and other projects, as at present there is FIVE retail centres planned on Derry road alone that were approved by previous councils as part of the Bristol and Sherwood surveys.
As stated by councillors and residents at the meeting, Milton needs to have more office space and employment areas so Milton residents can work in Milton and not have to commute out of the area to work.
Feel free to pm me or email me at
colin.best@milton.ca
Colin Best
Local & regional councillor
Wards 2 & 4
Vice Chair Milton Planning & Administration Committee
Co-Chair Milton Economic Development Advisory Committee
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