Mayor Ann Lawlor's February 2024 Message

Originally published in Halton Hills Today.

HALTON HILLS, ON – While federal and provincial issues tend to make the news, your local town council is where most government decisions are made that affect day-to-day community affairs.

In the February Halton Hills Council meeting, we covered items ranging from Ontario Land Tribunal decisions on a neighbourhood plan to designating more heritage buildings to purchasing arena equipment to approving a budget to design the rebuild of a bridge in the Glen.

As regards to the new neighbourhood, council received notice that negotiations with developers regarding a 1,000-acre Georgetown site had reached a milestone. The land between Trafalgar Road and Eighth Line and extending north and south between 10 and 15 Sideroads, will, when fully built, house over 20,000 people in a mix of single family, townhomes, mid-rise and high-rise construction styles. The new community will include:

• A community core anchored by key public facilities including a high school, community park, community centre and library branch. The core will also see medium and high-density residential properties.

• There will be two high schools, including one in the core; one combined on a campus with an elementary school and four additional elementary schools.

• There will be no need to leave town to shop, since the new neighbourhood will feature retail and service commercial floorspace - a major commercial area at 10 Sideroad and the Eighth Line, a core commercial mixed-use area at the intersection of Trafalgar Road and an east-west collector road and three local commercial mixed-use areas.

• Finally, a vital component of the plan is a linked system of parks and natural spaces that will flow through the whole community.

Expect to see shovels in the ground in 2025.

In another town council agenda item, it was noted that heritage building designations are speeding along, spurred by a provincial government decision to remove an apparent development roadblock – the local Heritage Registry. Council identified several buildings in downtown Georgetown for formal heritage designation status.

While designation doesn't mean the buildings cannot be altered, it does encourage maintenance of key heritage characteristics such as windows and doors, cladding, roof lines and exterior trim. Bonus for designated property owners - they get a tax rebate and are eligible for special grants to help maintain their buildings.

Taking care of ice in our recreation facilities is a top priority for winter staff. To maintain six full ice surfaces and one leisure pad, the Town operates five ice resurfacers. All the current units are powered by natural gas.

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in future we will purchase electric powered rink flooding machines. The electric model will also improve the air quality inside our arenas by eliminating the polluting exhaust from gas models. (In case you’re considering one for your backyard rink, an electric ice resurfacer will run you about $150,000.)

The need for a bridge replacement in Glen Williams also occupied some time on the council agenda. Engineering staff indicate that the existing bridge must be evaluated, replacement options assessed, new structure designed, followed by environmental investigations, permits, design of a temporary watermain to maintain water supply during construction, drawings and tender documents. This design work alone will cost close to $750K. Construction will be added to a future budget.

Obviously, bridge infrastructure is not cheap, but the alternative is closing the bridge and traffic through part of Glen Williams.

That’s what your municipal council does - we make decisions to invest in the community so our residents can play, can move around, can earn a living, can be housed, and thrive in Halton Hills.

Enjoy your Family Day weekend!