Burlington Sustainable Development Advisory Committee Meeting
Minutes
Meeting #:
Date:
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Time:
7:00 P.m. - 8:00 P.m.
Location:
Room 247, Level 2, City Hall
426 Brant Street, Burlington, Ontario

Visited1.Members Present:

Tim Park (chair), Jim Feilders (vice-chair), Carolyn Barnes, Guy Sheppard, Katherine Miller, Katie Rauscher, Herb Sinnock, Steven Horwood, Farzaneh Farahani, Herb Lewington, Colleen Lowe, Kelly Cook, and Councillor Sharman

Visited2.Others Present:

Dmitry Kats (Alt), Susan Mattine (Alt), Tania Barlow (Alt), Bob Burchett (Alt), Gareth Williams (volunteer), Emma Defields (volunteer – arr 7:45), Lynn Robichaud (Clerk) and Lisa Palermo (staff)

Visited3.Member Regrets:

Ramsha Ahmed, Henry Onah, and Chris Maynard

Visited5.1Approve minutes from meeting held November 23, 2016

Motion by Katie. November 23, 2016 minutes were approved.

Action: Lynn to follow up with Denise Beard, Parks and Recreation for an update on the Healthy Kids Challenge report and obtain a copy of the presentation. Lynn to contact Jim Cotton, McMaster University, to request a presentation to the SDC on his work with his students related to what it would take to make Burlington a carbon neutral community.
Visited7.1Welcome and Introductions
Tim welcomed new members.  Roundtable introductions were made.
Visited7.2Citizen committee orientation - role of advisory committees

Presentation made by Lisa Palermo, Committee Clerk and packages of information were provided to the new members, as well as name badges.

Action: New members to read Code of Conduct policy and Accessibility guide and sign applicable forms; provide to Lynn at the next meeting.
Visited7.5Council updates

Council voted against the staff recommendation supporting the Adi development in Alton on Appleby Line. Adi has appealed council’s decision to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). Adi is the same developer of the Martha Street condominium at Lakeshore; a 26 storey building (the OP allows 8 storeys), which council also denied; it was also appealed to the OMB.

OP review – SDC was very involved in helping to achieve a hold on the OP last year until the economic strategy and strategic plan were approved. The OP is subordinate to these plans. Burlington is the only community to do this.

The New Street Road diet: Councillor Sharman advised that he was the only councillor who voted against it. The pilot project is meant to show that the new configuration can improve safety for all users. There are a couple of petitions circulating against the project in the community.

Fuel pump climate change disclosure labels – Gareth (previous SDC chair) provided background to the staff report. A discussion followed about the merits of letting the report proceed given the apparent lack of support on staff and council to approve the recommendations. Options were considered – defer the report; split the recommendations so council only considers support for a resolution asking the province to regulate it; or allow the report to proceed as written.

Motion was made by Tim to ask the Clerk’s department to defer the report and pull it from the January 30th Committee of the Whole agenda.

Action: Lynn to inform the Clerk’s Department and the City Manager about the Committee’s decision; and to inform Our Horizon about the change.
Visiteda.2016 year end reports and 2017 objectives

Lynn reminded everyone to complete the 2016 year end reports and 2017 objectives. Gareth will prepare the year end report for the Committee of the Whole and Tim will prepare a draft of the 2017 objectives for the COW. Lynn will compile all the reports into one comprehensive document and circulate prior to the next meeting for review and discussion, including the reports from the sub-committees.

Visitedb.Updates on reports

The report on the revised Principles and Objectives of Sustainable Development will not be going to the January 30th COW meeting. The City Manager has directed that we can proceed directly to community engagement on the P&O’s and then report back later with the final version.

Action: Lynn to circulate the staff report to the committee.
Visitedc.Hamilton Burlington Mohawk climate change partnership

Last year Council endorsed a resolution from the Mayor to look at pursuing a climate change partnership with the city of Hamilton. Discussions were underway last year and then Mohawk College showed interest in participating. There should be a report to council in March on the issue.

Visiteda.City Hall 101 training update

Lynn advised that the Clerk’s department is working on a ‘City Hall 101’ training session where all members of advisory committees will be invited. It will go beyond the role of advisory committees and will focus more on how city hall works as an organization.

Visited7.8Awareness subcommittee update

The 2016 Awareness year end report is completed. The 2017 objectives will be reviewed and finalized at the next meeting.

Visiteda.Take Action Burlington - Let's Live Green - May 27

This is a community event being planned by the SDC at Tansley Woods Community Centre where there will be community groups, municipal entities and some private sector businesses hosting displays. The theme is how can people reduce their impact on climate change. Plug’n Drive will be there with EVs for people to test drive. Planning activities for kids. Lots of volunteers will be needed to help set up for the event. It starts at 1:00 p.m. but the venue will be available at 10:00 for set up.

The event is posted on the city’s calendar. Fleur & Carolyn are meeting with communications staff next week to discuss promotions for the event.

Event budget: Some money was spent out of last year’s budget to cover the downpayment for Plug’n Drive and buy some reusable bags to hand out to participants.

Motion: Carolyn made a motion to the committee to approve spending up to $3,500 for the event to cover costs for Plug’n Drive (the remainder); the Raptor birds of prey; printing and advertising. Budget was approved.

Action: Members to book the date in their calendar to ensure they are available to volunteer at the event.
Visitedb.Library event - Fall

A fall library event is also being planned. It is expected that the May event will help narrow down the topic for the fall library event.

Action: Carolyn to book the date with the library and set up a time to discuss the partnership between the library and the SDC for future events.
Visitedc.BurlingtonGreen Clean-up Green-up event - April 22

SDC may plan a clean-up that morning again for members to participate in and host a table at the Eco Fair. Jim clarified that the Green-up event takes place a month later (removing invasive species).

Visited7.9Policy and Development subcommittee update

Training is planned for the next two meetings; one on Planning and the other on the Principles and Objectives of Sustainable Development, which members use to help guide their comments on development applications.

The SDC provided comments on the Rural and Natural Heritage System policies. A response has been received from Planning staff.

Employment conversion policy comments – reviewed by Jim & Chris; no concerns.

Tall building guidelines. Guy advised that there will be a tour and lunch on Sat Jan 28th with an afternoon session on the guidelines at City Hall. A subsequent meeting is planned with the development community on Jan 30th at City Hall from 6:30 – 8:30. The SDC provided comments on the guidelines.

2025 Guelph Line planning application – Kelly is working on comments.

The 2017 Objectives for the P&D sub committee are almost final.

Visiteda.Halton Environment Network (haltonenvironment.net)

Ramsha advised that she would miss tonight’s meeting due to a ‘green drinks’ event with HEN.

Visitedb.Community Energy Plan (burlington.ca/CEP)

Lynn advised that they are just waiting for the district energy report from the consultant. Staff will be sending a report to the COW on Feb. 27th.

Visitedc.BurlingtonGreen (burlingtongreen.org)

Jim provided an update that BG is planning a special event to celebrate their 10th anniversary and Canada’s 150th anniversary. Details to come.

Visited8.1Greenbelt Announcement

Lynn had circulated a link to the EBR posting for the Greenbelt review. The province has announced 11 areas across the GTA where lands are either being added or subtracted from the Greenbelt. There were over 150 requests for changes; 11 were granted, including a small parcel of land being taken out of the Greenbelt by Harrison Court, off of Appleby Line, behind Lowes.

Action: If Lynn finds more information about the reasoning behind the removal of this parcel from the Greenbelt, she will share it with Guy for the P&D sub-committee to discuss.
Visited9.Adjournment: 8:55 p.m.

Upcoming meeting dates:

Policy and Development subcommittee - Wednesday, February 1, Room 307 (7:00 p.m.)
Awareness subcommittee - Wednesday, February 8 (7:00 p.m.)
Committee of the Whole - Wednesday, February 15 (7:00 p.m.)
No Item Selected