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Housing

Burlington's waterfront: a canyon of towers, or the housing?

Council approved a 25-storey hotel and condo on Old Lakeshore Road this year over the mayor's objection, 5 to 2. It followed a 27-storey and a 23-storey tower on the same stretch. The tribunal has both upheld the town and overruled it.

Asked September 41,603 votesOpen for 29 more days

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What the GTA says so far

  • The mayor is right. Downtown is becoming a canyon beside the water.32%
  • Build them. A downtown with a GO line and a lake is exactly where height belongs.32%
  • Fifteen storeys was the compromise and council should have taken it.26%
  • Burlington is Hamilton's problem. Ask them.10%

Results update after you vote.

Why we’re asking

Burlington’s downtown is a few blocks between Lakeshore Road and the water, and for a decade every proposal for it has been a fight about the same thing: whether a small-town main street can carry big-city height.

The latest went 5 to 2. Council approved a 25-storey mixed-use building at 2076 Old Lakeshore Road, 50 homes and 154 hotel suites, with the mayor and the ward councillor voting against and an amendment to cap it at fifteen storeys failing. The mayor’s objection was cumulative: this is not a bad building, it is one more building in a downtown being designed one tower at a time into a canyon beside the water. It followed a split vote on a 27-storey tower on Lakeshore and a 23-storey approval downtown over her opposition, while the tribunal upheld council’s refusal of two much bigger Lakeshore towers.

Halton needs homes and Burlington is the most built-out municipality in it. Where the height goes is not an abstract question here. It is a specific view of the lake.

Sources: The Trillium, the 25-storey approval · BurlingtonToday, council split on the 27-storey tower · BurlingtonToday, the 23-storey approval · BurlingtonToday, the tribunal upholds a refusal

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