The Ontario Land Tribunal …

The Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) has on it’s website the following Mandate and Mission:

Mandate
In accordance with the Ontario Land Tribunal Act, 2021, the Ontario Land Tribunal will fairly, effectively and efficiently resolve disputes related to land use planning, environmental and natural features and heritage protection, land valuation, land compensation, municipal finance, and related other matters as authorized by statute and regulation.

Mission
We deliver modern, fair, responsive, accessible, effective and efficient dispute resolution services that support strong, healthy communities and the public interest.

Nowhere do I see the words DEMOCRACY or DEMOCRATIC in the above statements.

The following points should be noted and considered:
• The members of the OLT have not been freely elected by the public. Do they not follow democratic principles? If they did, the affected public community, in this case Millcroft , should be able to vote on any proposed change to land use in the neighborhood. This modern and fair process would be the democratic thing to do, otherwise they would appear to be a dictatorial organization the does not take into consideration the public interest.

• Effective and efficient dispute resolution can easily be done by a community vote. This would save time and money. The needs of the many exceed the needs of the few. The elected members of the City of Burlington have already indicated that the Millcroft Greens development should not be allowed. The next step should be a Millcroft community vote organized by the OLT.

• To support strong and healthy communities the OLT needs to consider the following:
o Any loss of green space in an established community is tragic, Currently about 30% of Millcroft is green space. With the development currently being proposed, this could result in about 12% of Millcroft being green space. How does this development protect our heritage?
o A loss of green space will reduce the value of the homes in Millcroft. Of course, the developer is offering some minimal compensation to people that back onto the green space but with a drastic reduction of green space ALL homes in Millcroft will reduce in value. The general community of Millcroft home owners will lose and the developer gains.
o The loss of green space will likely create larger environmental hazards in Millcroft. This will result in higher home insurance costs to the current home owners.
o More homes lead to more traffic here in Millcroft and overall Burlington. This will not lead to a safer community.

• The Millcroft community has already done it’s fair share of allowing infill home building:
o Property that was originally slated for a community church is now a townhouse complex.
o Property that was originally slated for a separate school is now been built for single family homes.

• The Millcroft community, in the scheme of things, is small and in the surrounding area has thousand of hectares of open space available for new well planned communities. Why is Millcroft being picked on to give up its little of piece of green space for more homes? An offer has already been made by the City of Burlington to purchase and preserve much of the green space. This is inline with the wishes of the Millcroft community and public interest. The developer knows the wishes of the Millcroft community but insists on destroying the original concept and heritage that Millcroft was built on.

IS THE ONTARIO LAND TRIBUNAL A DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATION?
THE WORLD NEEDS MORE DEMOCRACY!
STOP BAD DEVELOPMENT IN MILLCROFT!