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Approaches to Challenging this Development

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1 / Celebrate the Petition

Don Barker, a member of the Opposition Group,  organized a petition that was filed with City Hall on June 15. The petition has 242 pages, with 2876 names. Thank you to all who took the time to sign and show their support for our cause. The petition includes signatures from all 11 wards. Don made a deputation at the Wednesday June 28, 10:00 am Council Meeting, where he presented and explained our petition.  Click here to learn more and watch the video replay.

 

The Mississauga News has described the petition with such a large number of signatures as "historic". Although the Mississauga News described the petition as electronic, in fact there were 242 paper pages filed, of pen and ink signatures by 2876 Mississauga adult residents.

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Insauga.com has also published a story about our petition. They state "residents are ramping up opposition".

2 / Watch the Replay of the May 29 Meeting at City Hall

Monday, May 29, 2023 at 6:00 p.m.

Planning and Development Committee.

We filled the Council chamber and made detailed reasoned submissions. The Developer indicated during his representative's submissions that he may be making a new proposal for higher towers, including one which will be 15 storeys, rather than  the original 10 or 11. The Developer's "plan" is a moving target.

Click Here to Watch the Video Replay

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We expect that the Developer may make a revised submission to the City. If so the revisions will be published at the City web site for Ward 8 applications under the heading 4099 Erin Mills Parkway. The Applicant can expect that we will fill City Council Chamber to protest again if the Application is another unreasonable attack on good planning. Any redevelopment of 4099 Erin Mills Parkway must preserve the existing retail and services, fit the original Erin Mills Plan of diversified and affordable housing, and encourage/improve the walkable, livable, family, and environmentally-friendly community that we already have.

3 / Join the Opposition Group Attempting to Stop this Development

Click here to send an e-mail to Join the Opposition Group E-Mailing List

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Click here to Join the Opposition Group Facebook List

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We need help from the residents of all 4000 homes in our neighbourhoods.

5 / Become an active member of our new Residents Association for Erin Mills South, including Pheasant Run, Arbour Green,  Olde Burnhamthorpe / Sawmill Valley, Promontory / Bridlepath, South Millway, and Burnhamthorpe Mississauga Road.

Join the Erin Mills South Residents Association (EMSRA)

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Please see the flyer now being distributed  respecting formation of  EMSRA. Can you help distribute copies of the flyer on your street?

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If we are going to litigate against the Developer's Application at the Ontario Land Tribunal we will need a formal organization that can retain legal counsel and expert witnesses. Cash contributions will be requested from residents to raise funds for retainers. The community  needs your help if you have previously been involved with a Ratepayers group or have experience in setting up and maintaining a non-profit organization. Contact the 4099 Opposition Group for more information or to volunteer your services.

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We hope to join the MIRANET association of Mississauga Residents Associations.

6 / Send a Delegation of Taxpaying Residents to Meet With MPP Sabawy

There are many angry Conservative voters in our neighbourhood. People who have lived in their homes for many years, are horrified to discover that our neighbourhood shopping centre will be eliminated and a major high-density Development will be built at 4099 Erin Mills Parkway. Many people generally support building homes and other development in Ontario but refuse to accept the poor planning of this Development Application. MPP Sabawy has not been responding to our letters and e-mails on these issues. Perhaps he or his party office need to be confronted by a delegation. Do you have any contacts within the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario? Be sure to tell MPP Sabawy about the great video documentary we prepared for the May 29, 2023 meeting at Mississauga City Hall.

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7 / Learn About the History of Erin Mills as “one of the most imaginative planned communities on the continent.”

The Developer's Application does not fit the surrounding neighbourhoods of Erin Mills South. This web site contains a number of resources to study the unique history of the planning that was carefully employed to build Erin Mills. Read below or click on the Menu at the top of this page to view more.

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  1. About Arbour Green and Olde Burnhamthorpe Neighbourhoods in Erin Mills South

  2. Why We Live in Erin Mills

  3. Erin Mills: Already a Planned Community

  4. Technical References re "Age-Friendly Communities" and "Walkability"

  5. Parking Plan at 4099 Erin Mills Parkway

  6. Erin Mills in 1969 and History

  7. Modified Pinwheel Finder Streets Like Folkway

  8. Creative Techniques of Grouping Housing

  9. Pedestrian Traffic

8 / Learn About the Indigenous History of Erin Mills South

Struggles by people fighting takeovers of these lands  have happened before. Awful things happened to people. Our struggle is a pale reflection of theirs. People who lived here two hundred years ago lost their homes, fishing areas, and farms to wealthy settlers who wanted the reserve lands one-mile on either side of the Credit River for sawmills and settlements. We can learn a great deal from the awful displacement of residents 200 years ago.

 

Our own Erin Mills community history began in 1969. We need to start by Acknowledging the amazing people who lived here before us. We can learn so much from their ongoing battle with "Development".

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Litigate or Negotiate? Which do you choose?

Which option should we take? What do you think are our next steps? Will you contribute $ towards a fund for litigation leading up to or at the Ontario Land Tribunal or the Ontario Superior Court of Justice? Will you play hardball with MPP Sabawy who seems to be missing-in-action on this issue? Will you challenge Pierre Pollievre and the federal Conservatives in Ottawa who are accusing us of NIMBYISM but don't know the facts.

I respectfully suggest it is important to recognize that opposition to this Development has nothing to do with NIMBYISM. The Development is poorly planned and destroys an essential, walkable "neighbourhood shopping centre" that is the soul of our community. The existing plaza includes at least 19 thriving, employing, taxpaying businesses. The Development doesn't fit the original design of Erin Mills. We expressed principled reasons at the March 1 meeting and the May 29 meeting as to why this Development Application should be withdrawn or opposed. Productive negotiation to build a better plan that recognizes the right to affordable housing in our neighbourhood, will only take place, if we play hardball with both the Developer and the future election chances of MPP Sabawy and the federal Conservatives.

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Thanks for submitting!

Although I am a lawyer, I do not represent any party to this Application and I have no intention of acting for any party to this Application. I am retired from private practice. I reside on Trellis Crescent. I will be happy to discuss with my neighbours the best approaches to retaining counsel to represent us and to retaining expert witnesses, to give evidence as to why the Developer's plan doesn't fit  the existing businesses and the existing planned community.

 

*  Your e-mail submission will go to Stephen Biss. This is not a retainer. I simply want to hear from and assist my neighbours in discussing the logistics of litigation or negotiation.

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This is a site about the Arbour Green and Old Burnhamthorpe Neighbourhoods of Erin Mills South and their Neighbourhood Shopping Centre

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Planned green spaces, as of about 1979, in Pheasant Run neighbourhood 107, Arbour Green 108, and Old Burnhamthorpe 108. Note the section of Old Burnhamthorpe Rd. W. had not yet been closed to traffic.

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Lot numbers in Olde Burnhamthorpe neighbourhood 109 in about 1980. Note the creative use of density with on-street townhouses north of Michaelangelo's and townhouses that look like semis south of Michaelangelo's.

These images are excepts from flyers provided to new home buyers by Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited at the Erin Mills Information Centre in the 1970's and early 1980's. Erin Mills South had 8 neighbourhoods:

101/106 Ivor Woodlands

102 Brookmede

103 King's Masting

104 Woodhurst

105 South Common

107 Pheasant Run

108 Arbour Green

109 Olde Burnhamthorpe

This image of Olde Burnhamthorpe, the last neighbourhood to be developed, shows a "Neighbourhood Shopping Centre" at the intersection of Erin Mills Parkway and Folkway Drive.

This one Neighbourhood Shopping Centre replaced the two Neighbourhood Shopping Centres, in Arbour Green/Pheasant Run and Olde Burnhamthorpe respectively, contemplated by the original April 1969 plan for Erin Mills South. See the image below.

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This image is an excerpt from p. 2.3 "Commercial Facilities" in Erin Mills New Town published as a proposal by Don Mills Developments Limited in April 1969. Erin Mills South was to have a "Community Shopping Centre" at its centre and 4 "Neighbourhood Shopping Centres" (e.g. Michaelangelo's Plaza) and 6 "Convenience Stores"centrally located in the neighbourhoods. The "neighbourhood shopping centres, occupying sites of five to seven acres, will be established to serve the immediate local shopping requirements of the residents."

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I have added the oval to the image to show the location of the Neighbourhood Shopping Centre at 4099 Erin Mills Parkway that replaced the two originally planned "neighbourhood shopping centre" locations (in pink) contemplated in the 1969 plan. Purple is the 25 acre "community shopping centre" at South Common. The red dots are planned "convenience stores" (e.g. Becker's).

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The Neighbourhood Shopping Centre built in Old Burnhamthorpe at the intersection of Erin Mills Parkway and Folkway Drive contains a medium-sized grocery store and shops that "serve the immediate local shopping requirements of the residents" as promised in the original plan for Erin Mills.

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A Developer, QUEENSCORP (ERIN MILLS) INC has proposed a change to eliminate this Neighbourhood Shopping Centre and replace it with much higher density housing and 2 small shops totalling 776 square metres of retail space. Signs have been posted on both Erin Mills Parkway and Folkway Drive.

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Would you be willing to place a sign on your lawn protesting this Development?

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E-mail us to arrange a lawn sign: save4099@outlook.com

Does the Developer's Proposal create or destroy a walkable community?


This excerpt (the satellite view below showing distances in metres) is from Figure 2: "Neighbourhood Services Context Map" in QUEENSCORP's "Planning Justification Report" p. 59 of 81
Retail, commercial, meeting places within 500 m of Erin Mills ParkwayFolkway intersection

This satellite view shows, if the Application is approved, the resulting absence of retail/commercial/meeting/employment places within 500 m of the mid-point between Arbour Green and Olde Burnhamthorpe neighbourhoods.

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My point is that presently, residents of Arbour Green and Olde Burnhamthorpe can  walk to the existing shops and stores. Currently, only one shop is empty. We have essential groceries, pharmacy, dentist, bakery, pasta, bank, vet, ice cream, pizza, photo shop, and other conveniences within an easy walk. In the past there was a walk-in medical clinic. That is the result good planning from the original Erin Mills development and the Official Plan.

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If the Application is approved, we will lose that commercial/services hub within walking distance. With respect, that is not good planning.

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Next time you visit, ask the shop owner or employee how they feel about this development.

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About the Author of this Site

My name is Stephen Biss. I reside on Trellis Crescent in the City of Mississauga. I am concerned that residents of Arbour Green and Olde Burnhamthorpe need information about the proposed development at 4099 Erin Mills Parkway. Although I am a lawyer, I do not represent any party to this Application and I have no intention of acting for any party to this Application.  I am retired from private practice.

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How Do You Feel About This Application?

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Write your letter or e-mail to application.info@mississauga.ca to express an opinion and be placed on the City's mailing list for:

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File: OZ/OPA 22-25 W8

Owner: Queenscorp (Erin Mills) Inc.

City Planner: Michael Franzolini, email: michael.franzolini@mississauga.ca

Proposed development: Five residential buildings with heights of 10, 8, 6, 6 and 6 storeys and seven blocks of 4 storey stacked townhouses containing a total of 703 units and 776 square metres of commercial space.

Documents filed at City of Mississauga web site

The list of documents below at first seems somewhat overwhelming. I suggest that you start with the "Planning Justification Report" and the "Retail Market Study". To get a quick view of the density of the project, I suggest "Floor 5 - November 2022". My first letter dated December 16, 2022 to the City Planning Department, respecting the importance of the existing stores as a walking-access hub for our community is further down this page under "Notices and Letters".

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Quick Links to Documents filed at the City

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Why Do We Live in Erin Mills?

I suggest that those of us who live in the Arbour Green and Old Burnhamthorpe neighbourhoods of Erin Mills and the surrounding community should tell our City Planning Department why we moved here and why we want to continue to live here.

My wife and I chose to buy our house here in 1979 because of the green space and the planned community that included walking trails, beautiful ravines, carefully planned streets and parks, and the ability to easily access conveniences. Those conveniences currently include a grocery store, bank, bakery, pizza, ice cream, vet, photo shop, pasta, and pharmacy.

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Don't we already live in a Planned Community? Shouldn't changes to Zoning and Official Plan be consistent with the Planned Community that is already in place?

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Above is an old ad for Erin Mills on YouTube. Notice the focus on young families and Seniors. Notice the focus on sidewalks and bicycle paths, creeks, trees, parks, activity, and sports.

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References and Resources Respecting Seniors and Walkability

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The trees of Olde Burhamthorpe's "Erin Mills Woods" with Erin Mills Parkway and its berm in the foreground in 1979.

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