Is downtown Burlington ready for an edgy, Toronto-style condo tower of 28 storeys, championed by a pair of bold young developers urging the city to shed its matronly image and modernize what they call its antiquated planning code?

It seems it isn’t, if a unanimous city council rejection of the project last April, recommended in no uncertain terms by city planning staff, is any indication.

The city and the developer, Burlington-based Adi Developments, are currently eyeing each other midway through the next stage of their standoff, with the parties preparing to renew their battle at the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). The hearings, set for March, will focus on the province’s Places to Grow intensification policy. Neither party has shown a willingness to compromise, meaning that at the end of the hearing, Adi could have approval for the full allotment of 226 units plus ground-floor retail — or it would be back to square one.

Adi referred its application to the OMB on the basis that Burlington City Council did not make a decision within 180 days of the application being made. The referral was made on March 26, 2015. At its April 20, 2015 meeting, City Council voted to endorse the city planning staff’s recommendation to refuse the proposed zoning bylaw and Official Plan amendments. City Council’s position with respect to the proposed amendments will be considered at an Ontario Municipal Board hearing in March 2016.

Marketed as the Nautique, "inspired by water," the contemporary translucent-glass tower designed by Toronto’s Raw Design is unremarkable in height by Toronto standards. It is proposed for a Lakeshore Road property at Martha Street located within 250 metres of existing buildings that are 15 and 17 storeys and a block from a site approved for a tower of 22 floors. Adi promises an "unparalleled lifestyle experience" with such amenities as a Sky Lounge, offering 360-degree views of Lake Ontario, a private lakeside club and a terrace with barbecue alcoves and fire pits, housed in a four-storey cladded platform rising from street level that would conceal a parking garage and topped by 24 storeys of condos. It would become the downtown’s tallest building. Prices will start in the high 200s.

The development is opposed by the home ward councillor Marianne Meed Ward and numerous area residents. The property is zoned to permit four storeys with a possible revision to eight floors envisaged in the city’s official plan. Meed Ward says she sees no reason to deviate from existing zoning passed in 2008, two years after the Places to Grow was implemented. Under that policy, Burlington is expected to prepare for an additional 20,000 residents by 2031, and the downtown is targeted as the city’s only urban growth centre.

The Nautique "is an icon, a symbol for change," says Adi CEO Tariq Adi, a 35-year-old with a track record of innovative, successful projects in his firm’s short history. He is partners with his brother Saud, 33, Adi’s COO. In an interview, Tariq Adi did not shy from provocation.

"You’ve really got to see this thing. This is really a show stopper," he said. "Nothing has ever been built like this in the 905, period."

Burlington has unrealistic requirements and terminology for density, parking and amenities compared to Toronto, Adi says, pointing to a planning document that recommends residential towers go in a "park" setting.

"That is post-World War II. Everyone is talking about Burlington now," he said, referring to daily newspaper coverage of Adi’s low-rise condo projects the Mod’rn and the Link. Adi also took the Link to the OMB and the city lost.

"It was always a silent sleepy town, nobody ever mentioned it and we created this design movement and now everyone is talking about it. Not everyone is drinking the Marianne Meed Ward Kool-Aid."

Meed Ward is keeping her constituents updated through an online newsletter that includes preparations for the OMB hearing.

"The reason we have planning is so that we can determine where height should go and why, and where it should not go and why," Meed Ward said. "Our planning in downtown is very sound," and should not proceed "piecemeal."

The staff planning report finds fault with the application on numerous levels, and asserts, "the overall proposal does not conform to the City’s Official Plan, does not achieve compatible intensification, represents overdevelopment of the site and does not represent good planning."

Planner Andrew Ferancik of WND Associates, advocating for Adi, says the eight-storey height limit for the property, amidst the taller existing and approved buildings, "does not pass the giggle test." He points out that prior to 2008, the lot had no height limit.

"When they did their confirming exercise in ’08, and you can look up the OMB decision, they down-zoned and down-designated their downtown, instead of up-zoning. It was unbelievable," Ferancik said.

The OMB will look at a hierarchy of planning legislation, starting with a 2014 provincial policy statement that urges a wise use of resources and development in existing areas, not in green spaces, Ferancik said.

With major new infrastructure spending now being undertaken by the province, it wants coherence in development, with transit linked to intensely developed areas, he said.

"We should put growth where it should go, in these tiny locations, which probably need to be increased, and protect other areas from massive growth. That is what planning is all about."

Meed Ward says there are 23 residential projects on the books that will help the downtown meet its intensification goals. Given that, the Nautique project, proposed for a lot specifically rejected as a site for major heights in 2008, is inappropriate.

"Intensification does not mean anything goes," said Meed Ward. "It has to meet other tests. The staff report is very thorough. The OMB has to determine what is good planning. And this is not."

Tariq Adi, meanwhile, says he and his brother are intent on bringing their new vision to Burlington.

"We’ve got enough land here for 15 years," he said, referring to Adi’s accumulated "land bank.

"I am the biggest advocate of Burlington. We are just getting warmed up."