Appeal deadline on Council's Plains Road and Millcroft Greens decisions passed Oct. 28; City lists Millcroft Greens as appealed

The notices

On October 8, 2026, the City of Burlington posted eight statutory notices for the planning decisions Burlington City Council made on September 29: the refusal of an Official Plan amendment and a zoning by-law amendment for a 25-storey building at 1376 and 1382 Plains Rd. E.; the refusal of an Official Plan amendment and a draft plan of subdivision for Millcroft Greens; and the approval of Official Plan Amendments No. 166 and 167 and Zoning By-laws 2020.526 and 2020.527 for 517 Plains Rd. E. and for 235 Plains Rd. E. and 1022 Gallagher Rd. Every one of the notices sets the same last day to appeal: October 28, 2026.

Update, October 30: The deadline passed at 4:30 p.m. on October 28. The City's development page for Millcroft Greens Phase 2 now shows "Status - Appealed," and its entry in the City's development listing is dated October 29. The page does not say who appealed or which of the two Millcroft Greens decisions is under appeal. The City's pages for 517 Plains Rd. E., 235 Plains Rd. E. and 1022 Gallagher Rd., and 1376 and 1382 Plains Rd. E. still show the status Under Review and do not show whether those decisions have been appealed. The Ontario Land Tribunal says a newly filed appeal appears on its online case status service once it has been received and processed, which may take a number of weeks.

How to appeal, and the fee

Appeals go to the Ontario Land Tribunal but are filed with the City Clerk, either through the Tribunal's e-file service at olt.gov.on.ca/e-file-service, choosing "Burlington (City) – Clerk" as the approval authority, or by mail to the City Clerk, City of Burlington, 426 Brant St., P.O. Box 5013, Burlington, ON L7R 3Z6. The deadline is 4:30 p.m. on October 28; the notices say an appeal filed after 4:30 p.m., in person or electronically, is deemed received the next business day.

The appeal fee is $1,100, payable online through e-file or by certified cheque or money order to the Minister of Finance. Appeal forms and fee-reduction requests are available on the Tribunal's website, and the City says that if the e-file portal is down, appeals can be sent to clerks@burlington.ca. The Millcroft Greens subdivision notice adds that a notice of appeal must set out the reasons for the appeal.

Who can appeal each decision

Each notice also says that no person or public body can be added as a party to an appeal hearing unless they made oral submissions at a public meeting or written submissions to Council before the decision, or the Tribunal finds reasonable grounds to add them. The notices for the Official Plan decisions and the Millcroft Greens subdivision say the decision is final if no notice of appeal is received by the last day of appeal.

What else the notices add

• 517 Plains Rd. E.: Official Plan Amendment No. 166 permits an 11-storey mixed-use building with ground-floor non-residential uses and 179 residential units above. Zoning By-law 2020.526 describes it as 12 storeys including the mechanical penthouse and rooftop amenity, with a maximum of 179 units. The City received 31 comments, and there were four delegations at the September 15 statutory public meeting.
• 235 Plains Rd. E. and 1022 Gallagher Rd.: Official Plan Amendment No. 167 permits an eight-storey mixed-use building with ground-floor non-residential uses and 140 residential units above. Zoning By-law 2020.527 describes it as nine storeys including the mechanical penthouse and rooftop amenity, with a maximum of 140 units. The City received three comments and one delegation.
• 1376 and 1382 Plains Rd. E.: the refused Official Plan amendment would have raised the permitted height from six storeys to 25 (plus mechanical penthouse) and the floor area ratio from 1.5:1 to 8.1:1. Council's stated reasons include an intensity and scale beyond what is appropriate for the site, not meeting the Tall Building Design Guidelines, and inconsistency with the Provincial Planning Statement on built-form transition, land-use compatibility and servicing. The City received four public comments and one delegation.
• Millcroft Greens (2155 Country Club Dr., 4135 Millcroft Park Dr. and 4291 Couples Cr.): Council's stated reasons are that the proposals are not consistent with the Provincial Planning Statement (2024), and, for the subdivision, that it does not have regard for matters under sections 2.1 and 51(24) of the Planning Act and does not comply with Zoning By-law 2020. The City received 160 public comments, and there were eight delegations at the statutory public meeting.

Two provincial zoning order requests on Millcroft

The Millcroft Greens subdivision notice says the lands are also the subject of two requests for Minister's Zoning Orders, posted on Ontario's Environmental Registry as 026-0550 and 026-0551. The second is the landowner's request for residential uses. The first, posted June 22, 2026, is a request from the City of Burlington for an order covering golf course lands at 2155 Country Club Dr., about 41 hectares in all. It would apply to the portion outside areas the Ontario Land Tribunal previously approved for development, and limit it to the uses now allowed in the Open Space (O1) zone. As retrieved on October 9, both registry notices were still at the proposal stage, with no decision posted.

Update, October 30: On October 23 the City said the Province had made zoning orders on the Millcroft lands that permit approximately 138 single-detached homes and townhouses across six areas of the golf course lands, and that City staff were reviewing them. The orders are covered in a separate story.