Burlington Sustainable Development Advisory Committee Meeting

Minutes

Meeting #:
Date:
Time:
-
Location:
Room 247, Level 2, City Hall

1.
Members Present:
 

Tim Park (chair), Jim Feilders (vice-chair), Carolyn Barnes, Katie Rauscher, Herb Lewington, Bob Burchett, Mathew McAuley, Glenn Portch, Susan Mattine, Herb Sinnock, Chris Maynard, Hashem Hosseini-Mousavi, Virginia Linaja & Councillor Sharman

2.
Others Present:
 

Lynn Robichaud (staff), Guy Sheppard (vol), Jim Ilkay (Innovia Corporation) & colleague (observers)

3.
Regrets:
 

Jillian Gorbold & Farzaneh Farahani

4.
Declarations of Interest:
 

Katie R. – re: 53 Plains Road development.

5.
Presentation:
 

State of the Environment Report – Re-boot, Lynn Robichaud, Sr. Sustainability Coordinator

Lynn provided an overview of the SOER process, the history and purpose of the document, feedback received about the SOER from staff and council and a recommended path to go forward. The SOER will be shorter, more concise with visual graphics, but still maintain its purpose to provide an assessment of the state of the environment in Burlington and engage the community.

It is proposed that staff will take the lead in researching and writing the SOER while engaging the SDC throughout the process. It is recommended that Awareness will be used as a touchpoint during the process for feedback. Some thought that the COW would be better. There is consideration for a small advisory group to be formed from the SDC. This is still a possibility depending on how the engagement with the SDC proceeds. It was agreed that a Table of Contents would be shared with the SDC for review. It will be an iterative process since this is the first time for this approach.

There was a good discussion about how decisions would be made when necessary. Lynn noted that it wouldn’t be any good for staff to present the SOER to council if there was a lack of support for the final product from the SDC, so it is in staff’s best interest to work with the SDC. Carolyn suggested that it should be based on a consensus model between staff and the SDC.

Herb S. had an interesting suggestion based on work that was done in Brampton – to complete neighbourhood assessments to determine how complete they are. Apparently this work was done between staff, volunteers and consultants. Although this may not fit into the model for the SOER, it is something that could be considered as a separate exercise.

Staff will commence work on the SOER in the fall.

6.
Approval of Minutes:
 

6.1
Approve minutes from meeting held March 21, 2018 (Tim)
 

Minutes approved from meeting held March 21, 2018.

7.
Consent Agenda:
 

7.1
Items for approval
 

a.
Comments on 53 Plains Road
 

Approved.

b.
Downtown Mobility Hub Comments
 

Approved.

c.
Revised Official Plan Comments
 

The committee also decided that they will not delegate at the April 24th Committee meeting on the Official Plan but will submit the comments for consideration. A separate letter will be drafted at the next Policy & Development sub-committee meeting on additional items that the committee would like to see the city undertake, beyond the official plan policies.

8.
Regular Items:
 

8.1
Updates from previous events
 

a.
BurlingtonGreen Eco Film Festival – Central Library – Chasing Coral, Mar 21
 

b.
BurlingtonGreen AGM – Crossroads Centre, 1295 North Service Road – Mar 28
 

Jim advised that the AGM was a well attended event followed by an engagement session with BG volunteers.

8.2
Upcoming events/news (All)
 

8.3
Council updates (Councillor Sharman)
 

Councillor Sharman noted that the provincial natural heritage maps which were imposed upon the city late in the OP process by the province and are causing much contraversy in the rural community. Several people are upset with how the new maps impact their properties. There is a meeting on April 19th with residents to consider options available to address the situation.

He also spoke about the policies for existing low density neighbourhoods. In the original draft OP, there was to be no change to these neighbourhoods. Legal opinion changed this. Townhomes and semis will now be allowed. There was some consideration about walk-ups but this was removed in the latest edition. There was some discussion whether this would help to address affordability issues in the city but this was questioned given the cost of land in Burlington.

8.4
Staff Updates (Lynn)
 

Both the Community and Corporate Energy Plan annual reports have been signed off by senior management and will be at the COW Meeting in early May.

Action: Lynn to send the link to the SDC members

a.
Presentations – May, June
 

Planning is working with the Georgian Court developer to confirm that they can speak to the COW meeting in May.

8.5
Business arising from the minutes (All)
 

8.6
Awareness sub-committee update (Katie/Farzaneh)
 

Katie provided an overview of the Awareness sub-committee meeting. The clean up location on Saturday is located at the multi-use path on the east side of Appleby by the Dairy Queen. SDC members to meet there at 9:00 am. Garbage bags will be made available.

The May 3rd event at the library is on growing your own food. Four speakers are confirmed along with Michelle Bennett to moderate and provide some information about the city’s community gardens. Katie asked for up to $100 to be approved to cover gifts for speakers. Approved. Motioned by Bob; seconded by Chris.

The fall library event is scheduled for September 13th and the topic will be on tree health.

The carbon saving app is looking good. The members looked at another similar app but are of the opinion that their app will be better.

8.7
Policy and Development subcommittee update (Jillian/Glenn)
 

Glenn provided an overview of the P&D meeting. There is a meeting between Jim and Tim with city staff next week to discuss the committee’s comments on development applications. There is potential for a workshop with committee members.

Information regarding development applications under review can be found in the P&D minutes.

There was good discussion about sharing the work load for reviewing development applications by committee members. The lead reviewer in the group should consider acting as a project manager for the review and delegating when necessary to others in the group.  

8.8
Reports from external groups and conferences
 

a.
Community Energy Plan (burlington.ca/CEP) (Herb/Lynn)
 

As noted above, Lynn advised that the annual progress report on the CEP is scheduled to go to the Committee of the Whole (of Council) on Monday, May 7th.

b.
Bay Area Climate Change Office (Bacco) (Lynn)
 

Community engagement is underway by Lura Consulting to make contact with stakeholders and community members for feedback on the future structure of the Bay Area Climate Change Office under the Mohawk Centre for Climate Change Management. They will be interviewing 31 stakeholder groups in the Bay Area and participating in a number of pop-up events across the region. Glenn & Tim have had their interview; a copy of the draft interview will be circulated to the SDC to be discussed and approved at the next meeting in May. A pop up event will also occur the same evening as the SDC’s May 3rd event at the library, from 3:30 to 6:30 pm.

A consultant has been retained to complete a greenhouse gas emissions inventory and forecast for the Bay Area. This is good timing as it will support the update to the CEP.

 

There is also an Industry Partnership Office under the Centre for Climate Change Management that is reaching out to local businesses to help support them to reduce their carbon footprint and improve the sustainability of their operations. Sustainable Hamilton Burlington is also involved in this initiative.

 

c.
BurlingtonGreen (burlingtongreen.org) (Jim)
 

Jim advised that BG is applying for charitable status to assist with fundraising and providing the ability to give tax receipts where applicable.

d.
Halton Environmental Network (haltonenvironment.net)
 

9.
Other Business:
 

10.
Adjournment:
 

Chair adjourned the meeting at 8:45 p.m.

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