Statutory Public Meeting for Proposed Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendments Town-wide. Town Hall 1225 Trafalgar Road, Oakville L6H 0H3 | 905-845-6601 |
You may want to pay attention since some of the proposed changes could affect you and your neigbourhood, especially if you live in a single detached residential neighbourhood.
To register as a delegate, email TownClerk@Oakville.ca or call 905-815-6015 by noon on Friday, March 1, 2024. The public meeting will also be live streamed on the Town of Oakville’s YouTube channel.
On Jan 22 2024, Council passed a motion to consider allowing 4 “as-of-right” dwelling units on ALL SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES THROUGHOUT OAKVILLE!
The Zones that could be affected by these as of right amendments throughout Oakville are Single Family Residential Zones that fit the categories in the chart below.
If your property fits into one of the categories below, I suggest you read on to learn more about what could change in your neighbourhood.
table 6.3 provides current Regulation (RL1, RL2, RL3, RL4, RL5, RL6, RL7, RL8)) see below).
To help determine your personal zoning and to find out if you could possibly be affected by potential future changes, please go to this link Zoning By-Laws (arcgis.com)
Background Information
On January 22, 2024, the majority of Town Council passed the following motion:
“In support of the Housing Accelerator Fund Application, as advised by Minister Fraser with due regard for heritage conservation and infrastructure capacity and servicing, that staff be directed to bring forward a zoning by-law amendment to permit four units per property, as-of-right for Council’s consideration within 90 days of the passing of this resolution.”I personally believe that NONE of the current Zoning Regulations for any of the RL Zones (in the chart above) should be modified with the only exception being the Sheridan College area. My concern is that even if we do not change any of the zoning regulations it would still be possible for an applicant to go to the Committee of Adjustment and ask for relief since Council has already approved 4 as-of-right dwelling units.
The proposed changes are open for public feedback through an online survey available until March 8, 2024.
All feedback received will help refine changes to the town’s Official Plan and Zoning By-law for Council’s approval by the end of April 2024.
If potential changes to your neighbourhood concern you, please remember to send your comments to membersofcouncil@oakville.ca and plan to attend the meeting on March 4th at Town Hall.
Some Oakville residents have been following this issue and have made some insightful comments. I have included a sampling below.
Example 1
Dear Mayor Burton and Councillors,
I completed the fourplex survey as requested and would like to pass on comment to you all that I thought the survey was very badly worded and biased towards approval of the idea. Asking for opinion on the options of how the four units might look was, in my opinion, rather futile without giving dimensions, costs, open space, driveways, sight lines etc etc. The first question was hugely biased towards producing favourable comments that can be used for promoting and marketing the idea to the public. The survey did not give my relevant details yet asked residents to provide opinions.
I expect better from the Town.
Best wishes,
Oakville Resident
Example 2
Mayor, Councilors:
I watched the video of the Planning and Development Council Meeting discussing their response to the Federal Government’s Accelerator Fund offer.
Council abandoned its aspirational core value to make Oakville the most livable town in Canada when it accepted “four as-of-right”. Council gives the impression of putting gelt before principle without looking 5 to 10 years down the line.
Firstly, to my knowledge, no one has defined what the Government’s “as-of-right” means. It was not clearly expressed at the meeting. Why has this lack of clarity not been challenged with the Minister? Nor did we get a legal opinion as to how a court might interpret “as-of-right”. Oakville Council has assumed anyone building a fourplex of any sort will be subject to all the various codes and bylaws, but this has not been clarified, and comprehensively stated, making it a grey area. One assumes at one’s peril. You are running on a hope and a prayer as Councilor Edger succinctly expressed it.
When height and building setbacks in the bylaws/codes are applied a minimum sized lot can be established that will accommodate a four unit development. Therefore, anyone with a lot less than these dimensions does not qualify for the as-of-right designation. They are excluded contrary to the Minister’s requirement and owner’s expectations from his as-of-right decleration. I hope the staff work will make this clear. Also it is important that the staff look at irregular shaped lots as well. My house sits on a trapezium shaped lot with the front at 40 feet and the back 80 feet. Further, and surprisingly, it is possible for a town house on a freehold titled lot to be subject as-of-right designation by gutting and creating four apartments, or even demolished and rebuilt. Take a look at YouTube for multitudes of examples of small homes/houses.
I found it surprising there is a thought in Council that because the uptake of the Provincially- dictated, limited-scope three-unit approach has been low, the same is will apply to fourplexes. Developers are patient. Why go for a proscribed three unit approach when it will be possible for four units of any configuration is just around the corner? That would be nuts. To think otherwise is extremely naïve. If I was thirty once more and in the building industry I would be licking my chops at the prospects. This would involve demolition and total rebuilds, not the building tweaks the Council seems to be considering. I’ve seen such redevelopments occurring in Switzerland and England. It’s coming. The economics of creating a three unit (with two units in an existing house and a third detached) offers no real financial incentive. I suggest that a fourplex is well beyond the tipping point of good breakeven returns.
The 800 meters from Sheridan College is vague. Is this a radius from a central point on the Sheridan campus or is projection of parallel lines to the boundaries of Sheridan, which would add about another 100meters in all directions. Once more, there is a paucity of definitions that have to be filled in by staff.
I thought the remarks about a change of the Federal Government was brushed off too lightly in the meeting. Does the legal department wish to take on the Federal Government?
The last minute rush to get a reply to the Minister and the lack of public consultation smacks of a sloppy administration. Hopefully, the staff report will be a lot more rigorous and the embedded judgement will be exercised with the view to improve the life of Oakvillians. The cavalier attitude imputing a “symbolic” stance to the Minister (I hope he does not watch the demeaning comments about him in the video) suggest to me the whole matter was never taken as seriously as it should and this may account for the rushed ending to this part of the process.
When the Staff report is in, good luck with giving a highly qualified response to the Government that is dependent on their acceptance of the application of bylaws and codes to the as-of-right freedoms. I look forward to seeing the staff report.
I thought that Councilor Elgar was closest to having to have a realistic grasp of what Oakville is getting into.
Oakville Resident
Residents have requested the link to the Meeting of Jan 22, 2024
Pls fast forward to the 1 hour and 55 minute mark
pub-oakville.escribemeetings.com/Players/ISIStandAlonePlayer.aspx?Id=8c7049e8-070c-40e4-b162-ed865fefe866