Downtown is still zoned
under the old rules

Burlington has been writing a new zoning bylaw. Most residents assume it is done. It is not.

The residential phase came into force on 2 March 2026. Council passed By-laws 09-2026 and 10-2026, the appeal window closed on 25 March with no appeals filed, and our low-rise and high-rise neighbourhood zones now have modern, current rules.

Downtown does not.

Our mixed-use corridors, our commercial lands, our employment lands and our entire downtown core are still governed by Zoning By-law 2020 — the old framework. The part of Burlington under the heaviest development pressure is the part still waiting for modern zoning. And the City has not published a date for when the rest will be finished.

Why this is not a technicality

When a developer appeals to the Ontario Land Tribunal, the Tribunal asks a narrow question: does this application conform to good planning and to the municipality's current, in-force planning framework?

A city arguing from a current, specific, legally tight bylaw is in a strong position. A city arguing from a framework written for a different plan, with flexible guidelines instead of binding caps, is negotiating from weakness.

That is not a political opinion. It is how the statute works, and it is why the outcomes downtown look the way they do.

What I will do

• Set a firm, published completion date — in my first 90 days I'll move for Council to set and publish a firm completion date for the non-residential phases of the zoning bylaw, with downtown Ward 2 sequenced first rather than last.
• Binding height and setback caps Defined numbers, defined before an application arrives, rather than flexible guidelines interpreted afterward. We define the height before the builder arrives, not after.
• Read the bylaws myself This is what I have done for a living for over a decade. I draft, review and litigate land documents. I'm not going to be handed a staff summary and asked to vote on faith, and I'm not going to ask you to either.

The honest part

I cannot promise you no more towers downtown. Any candidate who promises that is either not being straight with you or has not read an OLT decision. Growth is coming, provincial policy directs it, and some of it belongs here.

What I can promise is that we stop arriving at the Tribunal with a framework that was current in 2020, and start defining the rules before the builder arrives rather than after.

Sources: City of Burlington, Notice of Passing of Residential Zoning By-law 09-2026; City of Burlington Zoning page, confirming Zoning By-law 2020 remains in force for non-residential lands; getinvolvedburlington.ca/newzoningbylaw.