Proposed Brant and Ghent project may be in a floodplain, council hears

The future of a major development proposed for the corners of Brant Street and Ghent Avenue is in question as it is unclear whether the site lies in a flood plain.

The developer, Molinaro Group, owns properties on three corners of the junction and submitted plans to the city for a multi-phase, mixed-use development which would ultimately see 847 residential units built over the three parcels of land.

But the application has been held up between city planning staff and Conservation Halton as they look at flood implications for the site and yesterday (Feb. 1) council members were told during a Committee of the Whole meeting that they had no timeline as to when the matter would be resolved to the point of putting the development before council.

The discussions arose after a delegate for the developer, Ed Fothergill of Fothergill Planning & Development, addressed council about concerns over delays to Brant and Ghent project.

Fothergill said the developer is hoping to avoid delays which were seen at another Molinaro development, the Paradigm project near the Burlington GO Station.

Fothergill said the application process for Brant and Ghent was started in 2020 and was the subject of three public consultations. 

While the developer could have made an appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal on the project, they instead chose to work with city staff to find agreeable ways forward, he said.

"There are no real planning issues here, really," Fothergill said. "The Official Plan amendment we are seeking is to implement the provisions of the North Brant precinct which are in the the approved Official Plan. We are asking for exactly what this council has approved for this site."

However, he said, delays have arisen while waiting on a report from Conservation Halton which was requested last February. He indicated the developer has not received a response to a "fairly significant submission responding to all outstanding comments" which was sent Nov. 16.

"We are in a holding process of not knowing when those comments are going to be, when we might have a staff report or when this application would get forwarded to the committee," he said. "The concern is two-fold. One is it is holding up an application for an Official Plan amendment and rezoning when the issue is related really to flooding and our engineers tell us that is a detail we will sort out at site plan. We have not yet made a site plan application.

"It doesn't really make sense for the conservation authority or even staff to be opposing our amendment because the policies we are asking for were already approved."

The delays are costly not only for the developer but also in lost revenue to the City, he added. A four-month delay around the Paradigm project, which is smaller, meant the City lost roughly $340,000 in unrecoverable taxes.

Fothergill said the tax bill on the Brant and Ghent development is expected to be $2.5 million in addition to $20 million in development charges. "So, there is an incentive to move this through quickly," he said. 

Fothergill suggested the necessary Official Plan and zoning approvals could be made before the missing flood report is received.

But later in yesterday's Committee of the Whole meeting, city staff said this was not an option. Manager of Development and Storm Water Engineering Cary Clark said the report in question has come back from Conservation Halton with comments that staff have not fully dealt with yet.

He could not give a clear answer when Mayor Marianne Meed Ward asked about the "mysterious" hold-up.

"This has been a huge eye opener, because I think we are all hearing for the first time there may have been development approvals on land that is in a floodplain and cannot be developed," Meed Ward said. 

She asked that staff come back to council with a clear timeline on when the study would be done, which was supported by Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns, who said it is important to be clear and transparent with the developers. 

"It's starting to look like we should have put in an interim control by-law to assess flooding on the downtown," she said.

Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman asked Fothergill what would happen with the development if the application process did not go Molinaro's way.

"I guess we all have to start over if we can't develop the site for the intended use," Fothergill said. "Again, the Official Plan policies are in place, so if the conservation authority comes back and says this site is undevelopable, the City will have to go back to their OP and change those policies. Otherwise there would be an inconsistency between the position of the conservation authority and the approved policy."