Every week, Bramptonist rounds up the interesting items on upcoming city council and committee meetings, so you don’t have to page through huge (and, if we’re being honest, tedious) PDFs and to make it easier for you to be a well-informed resident.

All meetings are open to the public (aside from items which are specifically marked as closed). Due to council chamber renovations, meetings are mostly occurring in Boardroom WT-2C/D in the West Tower.

Committee of Adjustment



June 19, 9:00 a.m.

Boardroom WT-2C/D, West Tower

CoA is a committee comprising staff members and residents, not elected officials. This committee handles minor zoning adjustments for new developments, as well as new businesses in existing developments. Minor adjustments may include: adjusting the zoning to allows for compatible but not allowed uses, reducing parking minimums, and minor height and setback adjustments.

Major Proposed Adjustments

Units on Tullamore Court are proposing an easement to allow their units and the apartment building at 165 Kennedy Road South to share access to Kennedy Road.

Sunkom Properties at 5 Cherrycrest Drive are requesting a zoning change to allow for a private school to operate from two units in the plaza.

A condo developer at 180 Veterans Drive (northeast corner of Veterans Drive and Sandalwood Parkway) is requesting several changes for its building. The building would be set back three more metres from Veterans Drive (9 m instead of 6 m), which would lead the balconies to be set back further from the road as well. This would reduce the interior and rear yard set backs from 25.9 m to just 3.4-4.0 m. They are also requesting a reduction in resident parking spots (104 down to 89), and guest spots from 19 to 15.

Read the Agenda here.

Brampton Community Safety Advisory Committee



June 19, 7:00 p.m.

Boardroom WT-2C/D, West Tower

The BCSA committee comprises five councillors, representatives from the two major school boards, the Downtown Brampton BIA, and residents to discuss issues involving safety in the city.

Presentation on GIS use for Fire Prevention

Fire services will be doing a presentation on how the fire department is using GIS (geographic information system) data to target fire hot spots in the city (page 10). Brampton West, Ambro Heights, and [Bramalea] City Centre are the areas with higher than average incidents. In particular with City Centre, the most amount of fires start in kitchens, from an unattended stove, primarily in apartments with more than 12 units.

Read the Agenda here.

Brampton Heritage Board



June 19, 7:00 p.m.

Boardroom CH-3C, City Hall



The BHB is a committee made of citizens and one councillor, and is advised by heritage planning staff, to make decisions on heritage and would-be-heritage projects in the city.

Demolitions Notices

24A Alexander Street is a side building to the main city facility Central Public School (page 17). A heritage report in February determined that aside from stained glass pieces, the building can be demolished and the materials salvaged for other heritage projects. This report confirms the demolition and the removal of the building from the Municipal Heritage Register.

Heritage Permit Applications

8596 Creditview Road contains Camp Navell, an early example of a seasonal Jewish camp with multiple cottages which is formally designated. In 2015 one of the cottages burnt down and the owner of the cottage is requesting to build a replacement (page 31). Staff are allowing the replacement with a number of conditions: the exterior cladding must be representative of the area and approved by heritage staff, two sash windows in the front need to be made of wood, the building must be approved by zoning, and that heritage staff need to see the final plans.

8280 Heritage Road is formally designated. Due to stability concerns, the owner is proposing to remove an addition and keep the original structure intact (page 60). There are significant measures that the owner must do in order to be able to demolish the addition.

85 Victoria Street is located within the Village of Churchville Heritage Conservation area, and thus any alterations require a permit (page 212). A new house was built on the property, and the owner wishes to build two accessory structures, that would be concealed by the house from view. One would be a two-car garage, another a smaller structure. They would be made of modern materials.

Read the Agenda here.

Committee of Council



June 20, 9:30 a.m.

Boardroom WT-2C/D, West Tower

CoC is attended by all members of council, except the mayor (though the mayor is permitted to be a member at this committee). This committee hears new reports from all areas of the city, as well as issues from the advisory committees. This is the confirming step before final council meeting approval.

Villages of Rosedale

A retirement community of Trinity Common is claiming that they are paying too much property tax (page 14). Villages of Rosedale claim because the condo corporation fees cover many of the internal services of their community, and no direct municipal services maintain the community (private waste collection, private road and street maintenance, etc), they shouldn’t pay as much property tax. They request a lower taxation zone be prepared for their area.

It’s unknown whether VOR residents use many of the indirect city services that property taxes pay for, including the public roads surrounding the community, libraries, recreation centres, the fire department, police services, EMS, etc, that is the general reason why everyone in the city pays taxes.

LRT Extension Alternatives Study

The first formal open house/public consultation session for the Kennedy or McLaughlin routing for the Hurontario extension to Downtown Brampton occurs on June 25 (page 30). The short list of routes will be presented then. The complete study should be finished by fall 2020.

For Kennedy Road, it’s very simple in that it goes east on Steeles and then north on Kennedy. There are two options to go to Brampton GO: along the Kitchener GO Rail Corridor where it intersects Kennedy or up Kennedy to Queen, west along Queen to the rail corridor, and then alongside the rail corridor.

There is an alternate Kennedy alignment that would split from the Hurontario & 407 Station, run along the 407 to Kennedy Road and go north from there, allowing a stop at the CAA (formerly Powerade) Centre.

McLaughlin Road is a bit trickier. There are three options for how the extension could serve the area around Shoppers World, two options to service Sheridan College (including directly entering the campus before heading north on McLaughlin), and six options on how it should proceed to downtown via the Orangeville Rail Corridor.

10 Year Roads Construction Program

The city tracks road widening projects over a decade, in order to coordinate with the region and others on the timing of new construction and widening projects (page 50). In the next decade, there aren’t any city-led projects in Wards 4 and 5 (though there may be regional projects).

The six projects for 2018 that have started or starting are: Castlemore Road widening (to six lanes between Goreway Drive and McVean Road), the Downtown Reimagined rebuild, the bridge-over-rail of Goreway Drive on the south end of the city, Humberwest Parkway reconstruction (Goreway Drive to Williams Parkway), the long-awaited John-James Street realignment, and noise wall construction on Williams Parkway between North Park Drive and McLaughlin Road.

Automated Speed Enforcement

The city is working with Toronto and other municipalities in adding automated speed enforcement (ASE) to school areas and Community Safety Zones (page 66). Instead of having cops fine reckless drivers, cameras would automatically record the information and send a fine. Instead of several municipalities issuing their own Requests for Proposals, there is a joint project led by the City of Toronto to purchase ASE equipment, and for there to be a single processing centre shared between them.

Queen Street BRT Environmental Assessment

The second public consultation for the Queen Street rapid transit project (Downtown Brampton to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre) happens on June 25 (page 122). More details will be shared then, but the project team has decided that proper bus rapid transit (BRT) will be the best choice for the corridor, especially as York Region builds their BRT rapidway on Highway 7.

Bus Operator Shields

Brampton Transit is requesting a budget amendment and will issue an RFP to outfit existing and future buses with operator shields, to ensure the safety of transit operators (page 146). The project will cost $2.545 million and will be funded by the city’s gas tax reserve (which is meant for transit projects). A poll sent out by Brampton Transit was in favour of the project (83 per cent) by operators; over half of the city’s transit operators responded to the survey.

Culture Master Plan

The final city Culture Master Plan that will guide the future of the city’s cultural development and how existing and future groups, festivals, and events is being presented and approved at this meeting (page 205). There are 47 strategies and actions the city can take.

New Ridesharing By-Law

Council will approve or defer a new by-law that will finally legalize Uber and other private transportation companies after two years of consulting with the public, the taxi industry, and Uber, among others, on how the city should recognize the new service (page 352).

Issues in Brief

A cricket field was supposed to be built at Creditview-Sandalwood Park. Based on demand, it will instead be built at Gore Meadows East Community Park (page 35).

The tennis courts at Judith Nyman (formerly North Peel) Secondary School will be converted in a multi-sport court (basketball and ball hockey) that will have shared use and costs between the city and the school board (page 42).

Speed cushions, which aren’t the same as speed bumps, are going to be allowed to be used as a traffic calming measure in neighbourhoods, after passing approval from police, fire, EMS, and transit (page 71).

New Level 2 Pedestrian Crossovers (intersections that connect two pedestrian pathways/multi-use trails) are coming to the city this year, with an additional education campaign for all road users (page 89). They will first be added to two-lane roads with a 50 km/hr speed limit and less than 7,500 vehicles per day. 11 locations have been identified on the Don Doan and Chinguacousy trails.

Residents on Polonia Avenue requested a Züm station at Steeles and Polonia back in February. Brampton Transit will not consider a stop in this location at this time, but will install a shelter for eastbound local transit services (page 155).

New user fees are being added, and some existing fees are being raised, for the usage of Brampton theatres (page 197).

A breakdown of where the city spends its media advertising dollars can be found on page 342.

A new public nuisance by-law is being considered in order to crack down on loud and obnoxious parties, especially when the homeowners have rented the house for a wedding, etc (page 396).

Read the Agenda here.

Cycling Advisory Committee



June 21, 7:00 p.m.

Boardroom WT-2C/D, West Tower

The CAC is a citizen advisory committee that runs cycling events throughout the city and advises the planning committee on potential cycling and active transportation projects.

There will be a presentation by resident Lisa Stokes on the 2018 Ontario Bike Summit.

Read the Agenda here.

Comments

comments