City of Mississauga rejects applications for 2 residential towers because proposed buildings are too tall
CBC
The City of Mississauga rejected applications for two residential towers in Port Credit steps from two major transit stations this month, saying the buildings proposed were too tall.
But the province of Ontario says the city can no longer make this type of decision due to municipal planning changes the province brought into play in late 2022.
In November, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing approved a Peel Region official plan, which a ministry spokesperson told CBC Toronto "removed the discretion of lower-tier municipalities to establish maximum heights within major transit station areas."
The minister also wrote a letter to the Peel Regional Council using similar language in February.
This hasn't stopped Mississauga — a lower-tier municipality — from going ahead with rejecting recent applications that don't conform to its own plan, including applications for several tall buildings on transit routes.
City planning staff recommended Mississauga's Planning and Development committee reject the Port Credit 40 and 42-storey development proposed for 88 Park St. East — a site which is next to a GO station and LRT station under construction — saying to conform to the city's plan the height in the area should top out at just over half of what is being proposed.
Resident Jonathan Giggs, asked during the March planning meeting if the city could still set their own height limits given new provincial rules around major transit areas.
Councillors and city staff now say they are currently seeking clarity from the province on the issue, with some councillors expressing concern about what losing the right to make height restrictions would mean for city planning.
Planning and Development Committee Chair Dipika Damerla calls the situation a "grey area."
She says while Mississauga has an official plan of its own, areas within Mississauga, such as Port Credit, also have plans which limit height.
Ward 1 councillor, Steven Dasko, says his ward is already hitting minimum density targets and the development "doesn't fit the neighborhood."
He says it doesn't fit into the local area plan and anything above what this plan indicates would be "reckless" and "highly inappropriate."
"There's prescribed heights and densities in place for a reason," he said.
Damerla says it would be difficult for the city to plan for schools and other infrastructure needs without having height limits near transit.
It's small things, like a cigarette or a pair of clean socks, Rachel Montour says, that can go a long way to make you feel more human when you’re out on the street.
Several dozen members of Windsor's Chaldean community and its supporters celebrated in the cold at the corner of Marentette Avenue and Wyandotte Street East Friday, as city officials gave a secondary name to the section of Marentette between Wyandotte and Tuscarora Street: Chaldean Way.
Allison Hill says she tries to make people’s experience at the Thunder Bay Food Bank “as pleasant as possible.”
Two years after a man went missing in Scarborough, Toronto police are renewing the investigation in hopes that the public will bring forward more information.
A musical instrument created in Guelph, Ont., has been thrust onto the international stage — or rather, screen.
More than 1,000 Maritime Electric customers are without power after high winds blew across the Island Friday night into Saturday.
The Supreme Court of Canada is deliberating a case that could shape the way sentences are handed down in cases where both the offender and victim are Indigenous, which some Nunavut lawyers say could have ramifications for the Inuit-majority territory.
A man barricaded in a former church in Welland, Ont., was taken into custody early Saturday, nearly 24 hours into a standoff that began over a fence dispute.
Peel police are investigating after a Friday night shooting in Mississauga left one person dead, police said.
Another busy construction season has come to an end in London, and the city is already looking ahead to next spring when a slew of new projects are expected to begin.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has begun to lay out publicly what he sees as boundaries when dealing with China, as his government wades into a new relationship with the economic giant.
Ferry crossings are cancelled and over a thousand households are left without power Saturday morning, due to high winds and severe weather conditions.
Tens of thousands of Nova Scotia Power customers are waking up without power on Saturday morning after high winds and rain hit the province on Friday night.