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City Hall isn’t listening and citizen confidence in local democracy is declining. City Hall has “a communications deficit.” Those are just some of the findings of the Shape Burlington report on civic engagement released yesterday.

Those findings (full report below) are no surprise to followers of A Better Burlington community website, and the Save Our Waterfront initiative. A Better Burlington was launched a year ago to tell residents what City Hall is doing, and to solicit feedback and participation on a range of issues.

One of the biggest has been waterfront development. Residents were not broadly and meaningfully consulted before current city council approved high-rise towers for the Old Lakeshore Road area of our downtown waterfront. Save Our Waterfront was formed as an initiative of A Better Burlington to press for community input before decisions about our waterfront are made. An update on our progress and next steps is below.

But we are not alone in raising concerns about public input. They have been echoed by many other individuals and groups, cutting across a variety of issues. The common refrain: there’s a “need for improvement” in public involvement, to quote Shape Burlington.

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Members and supporters of Burlington Save Our Waterfront achieved a major victory for community engagement Monday, as city council unanimously passed the Burlington Waterfront Access and Protection Advisory Committee. As soon as we get information on how you can apply to serve on this committee, we’ll post it here.

Hold on development discussed Feb. 8, 6:30 pm

More than 20 Save Our Waterfront supporters attended Monday’s council meeting. Michelle Bennett, a dedicated member of our organizing team, stood beside me as I presented to council our support of the advisory committee (full text of my delegation is below). We also asked for a hold on development in the Old Lakeshore Road area while the advisory committee consults with residents on a better plan for this key area of our waterfront.

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You did it! As a member of the Save Our Waterfront movement, you’ve helped achieved a significant victory. We’ve just learned that Tim Hortons has withdrawn its appeal to exceed height limits of 15 storeys on the vacant waterfront lot east of Emma’s Back Porch in Burlington’s downtown. The Ontario Municipal Board hearing on this matter scheduled for Jan. 12-15 was cancelled after Tim Hortons unconditionally withdrew. That clears the way to set up the Citizens Advisory Committee on the Waterfront that we’ve been asking for.

Hearing cancelled – but no one told us

I found out about the cancellation just days ago by chance, from a journalist during an interview. The OMB should have contacted us, since we’re a participant in the hearing. City Hall was notified Dec. 21 – but no one told us. Our elected officials are well aware of our interest in this matter, and a courtesy call was in order.

You made it happen

But even that can’t dampen our spirits today. This is a true victory for people power – though you’re not likely to get any credit for it. This wouldn’t have happened without you speaking up and making waterfront development an issue. It wouldn’t have happened without you letting our elected officials know you’re closely watching the decisions they make on our city-wide asset, our waterfront.

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A small turnout greeted the downtown councilor and city staff for a public meeting this week to discuss waterfront development and traffic issues. We know residents care about these issues – more than a 100 people have attended each of our last 2 meetings – so what gives?

Two thoughts come to mind. First, the meeting was poorly publicized at the last minute – a recurring theme at City Hall. Most of us only learned days before about the meeting, held Wed. Nov. 25, and a number of people heard about it from an email we circulated. Turnout would have been even lower without our efforts to spread the word. The city needs to do a better job.

City Talks, But Doesn’t Listen

Second, and this is more likely, residents have heard this song and dance before. These public meetings are mostly about residents listening to city officials defend their plans, rather than an opportunity for city officials to listen to the views of residents. The format is mostly question and answer – we ask, they answer – and there’s virtually no opportunity for dialogue and debate.

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City council has quietly removed firm shoreline protections along our waterfront – despite telling us for months afterward that a 20- to 30-metre setback applied, inside of which no development was possible.

Not so. All a developer needs to do is convince Conservation Halton that the shoreline can be stabilized, and there is no protection from Burlington to stop high-rises along the lake.

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I was recently talking to a neighbor about the city’s willingness to allow highrises in the Old Lakeshore Road area on our waterfront, which would take out almost all the heritage buildings.

“Why didn’t I know about this?!” she said.

It’s a comment we receive a lot at this website. But if you’re looking for answers, you won’t find many from the city. Thanks to you raising concerns and speaking out, the city has posted a “Vision for Old Lakeshore Road” on its website. The city also issued a press release on design guidelines for the area – a full month after council passed them – largely because you’ve made this an issue.

But the documents leave out key information about what council has approved for the area (read them on our ‘media and resources’ page).

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Those of us raising concerns about development on Old Lakeshore Road on our waterfront that would add highrises and take out heritage buildings, have been told the public was already “extensively consulted” – and that no consensus emerged.

Consultation went “above and beyond” what the Planning Act requires, we have been told, although the Act sets the bar so low it’s hard not to exceed it.

But I wanted to learn more about what the city had done to ask residents their vision for this area of our waterfront. So last week, I spent almost two hours with Downtown Coordinator Jody Wellings, and Downtown Planner Marianna Iglesias. Both were extremely helpful in answering my questions and providing background information. I greatly appreciate the time they spent.

What I discovered, though, was shocking. Not only is there a consensus to preserve heritage and not put up tall buildings, the “extensive” public consultation consisted of two meetings.

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