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, Guy Sheppard, Katie Rauscher, Herb Lewington, Chris Maynard, Bob Burchett, Herb Sinnock (7:45), and Councillor Sharman

2.
Others Present:

Susan Mattine (Alt), Tania Barlow (Alt), Gareth Williams (vol), Emma DeFields (vol - 7:30) and Lynn Robichaud (staff)

3.
Regrets:

Katherine Miller, Farzaneh Farahani, Steven Horwood, Ramsha Ahmed, Henry Onah & Colleen Lowe

4.
Declarations of Interest:

5.
Approval of Minutes:

6.
Delegation(s): none

7.
Regular Items:

7.1
Updates from previous events - none

7.2
Upcoming events/news (All)

a.
SDC’s Green Home Reno 101 – Oct. 25th (Central Library - 7:00 p.m.)

Three presenters at the event and staff from the Planning & Building Department to answer questions about building permits as well as regional staff to answer questions about flood prevention. Members are encouraged to bring a friend.  Registration is light now but expect it to be well attended.  Fleur has been overseeing promotions working with communications.  Advertised in the Post last week.   

b.
BurlingtonGreen’s Eco Film – Minimalism, Nov 15th (Central Libary)

c.
BG’s Connect the Dots – David Suzuki, Nov 21st (PAC) - event is sold out.

7.3
Council updates (Councillor Sharman)

Downtown mobility hubs workshop was recently held with council. There is some disagreement about proposed height restrictions along Brant street within council.  Staff are recommending greatest heights should be north on Brant closer to the Burlington GO mobility hub.  Others on council would like to see more height downtown.

Appleby Mobility Hub session with residents. Difficult for some to understand the high level plan; many residents would like to see more detail and specifics about land uses.

Official Plan - developers are questioning the lack of detail in the OP about development in the downtown.

Parking study recently presented by staff which relied on peer studies, planning journals and planning for Millenials.

7.4
Staff Updates (Lynn)

a.
Membership Update

Members were asked to remove specific names from their distribution lists – Dmitry; Kelly C & John T. There will be four positions available to fill. Positions being vacated by Guy, Katherine, Colleen and Henry. Tim and Carolyn will be conducting interviews with Lynn’s support. The application period has been extended until Oct 30th. Action: Lynn to bring applications to the fall event in case there are people interested in applying.

b.
Election for executive - November

Lynn reminded that there would be elections for the executive positions (chair & vice-chair) in November unless Tim and/or Jim wish to remain and there are no challengers; then they will be acclaimed.

c.
December Social Event

Lynn asked for suggestions to be submitted for locations for the December social so she can start looking at costs. It was decided to move the date of the Committee of the Whole for the December social to December 14th. There will be no meeting on December 20th.

7.5
Business arising from the minutes (All)

a.
Tickets for BurlingtonGreen David Suzuki event were distributed to members who will be attending.

b.
Halton Region Waste Management presentation – next meeting

Lynn advised that David Miles and another staff person will be coming to speak at the next meeting about waste management in the region, including the methane capture and energy generation system at the Halton Waste Management site. It was noted that the Region will start to collect plastic bags and wraps in the spring and will be dealing with a new recycling business in Toronto which has greater capacity than the company in Burlington.

c.
OMB Stats

Action: Lynn to contact planning and/or legal staff for OMB stats related to hearings.

7.6
Awareness sub-committee update (Carolyn)

There is good progress in the development of an App with Tim and his son Spencer. Members are collecting info on actions which will avoid carbon.

Steve submitted an application for the Mayor’s award to nominate Longo’s for the work that they have done in greening their stores.

Carolyn recently reviewed the Awareness 2017 objectives and noted that they have not organized a field trip yet. Action:  Carolyn to follow up with Herb about visiting a Sheridan College green building as well as Steve to see if there is a Longo’s green store that they could visit.

7.7
Policy and Development subcommittee update (Guy)

A meeting was held with Evergreen representatives. P&D was provided with two documents by staff for review and comment and more info will be coming.  Comments should be provided by next Wednesday, which are due Nov 1st to staff.  

Guy advised that staff have advised that they will not consider the recommendations made by the SDC to council about Evergreen as the number of units are restricted by the Region. Infrastructure is restricted in the area, including transportation and it is outside an area for intensification.  SDC is suggesting 1500 units whereas the developer is proposing 400 units.  SDC’s position is that it should be medium density.  Considering setting a meeting up with regional staff to discuss their position.  

A meeting was held with staff on the Sustainable Development Guidelines today which appear to be in good shape.

Developments:

  • 490 – 492 Brock. Discussions to be held with the planner.
  • 421 Brant – A staff report with a recommendation will be presented to the Committee of Council on November 1st.
  • Downtown and Burlington GO Mobility hubs study – submitting comments.
  • 2100 Brant street – new development. Interesting project with a lot of natural heritage surrounding it. Regular townhomes and back to backs proposed.  Lack of innovation.  Chris agreed to take the lead on reviewing and commenting on this project.

Lastly, P&D needs a new chair (or co-chairs) for the P&D sub-committee. Guy & Jim provided a hand out for members to consider if interested in chairing.   

7.8
Reports from external groups and conferences

a.
Halton Environmental Network (haltonenvironment.net) (Ramsha)

  • Eco-Movie Night: A Plastic Ocean - Nov 9, Film.Ca Cinemas in Oakville (Speers Road)
  • Sea Sick - October 28, Oakville, Centre for Performing Arts
  • October Networking Event: Harvests and Handshakes Oct 24th - Solasta, Oakville (free community networking event)

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

Lynn advised that there is a meeting for the Stakeholder Advisory Committee meeting next Friday and that a representative from The Atmospheric Fund will be coming to speak to the group about their work and how they are expanding their mandate from just Toronto to a larger area.

Staff are working on applications for the climate change funding at the province for City Hall, a couple arenas and electric zambonis; and electric buses for transit. Another application is under consideration.  As well, the city will be participating in an application with AMO to pilot electric pick-up trucks in municipal fleets.

Lynn will be working with communications to develop a strategy to engage the community, particularly on climate change.

c.
BurlingtonGreen (burlingtongreen.org) (Jim)

Consulted with 27 stakeholders about their strategic plan and received good feedback. BG’s approach is supported but most recognized that BG has over stretched their limited resources. Plan to attempt to fill in gaps that others aren’t doing. Focusing on green space, waste, and smart cities. BG is also looking for volunteers.

8.
Other Business:

8.1
SOER re-boot

Katie provided an update. The team had a good meeting on performance measures and indicators to attempt to develop a focused list. Lynn and Fleur are meeting with council and staff to question them about their use of the SOER and what they would like to see in the future. Will provide updates to the team during their next meeting.

8.2
Transit and the recent presentation to council

There was a discussion about the challenges with Transit and the recent presentation to council. Community consultation taking place as Jarrett Walker’s recommendations about coverage vs frequency are being considered.

8.3
Upcoming meeting dates

9.
Adjournment:

Chair adjourned the meeting at 8:05 p.m.

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