Town of Milton Looking to Establish Design Guidelines for Tall, mid-rise buildings

In recognition of the Province’s emphasis on urban intensification, and increasing developer interest in pursuing mid-rise and tall buildings in Milton, the Town is proactively developing design guidelines to aid the integration of these developments into the community.

The Town has been named of the province’s Places to Grow, with a projected population of 230,000 by the year 2031.  .  Milton’s Official Plan has identified strategic locations most appropriate for intensification and higher density development. These locations include the Urban Growth Centre (which extends along both sides of Main Street between Martin Street and Thompson Road), as well as Secondary Mixed Use Nodes along intensification corridors. As a key component of the long term vision for the Town’s growth, these locations have been identified based on their access to transit, community services and other nearby amenities.

“We recognize that to meet Provincial intensification targets, the community will see more tall and mid-rise buildings in appropriate transit-supported areas through our next phase of growth,” said Barb Koopmans, Commissioner of Planning and Development. Milton is projected to grow to 230,000 people by the year 2031. “We chose to bring design guidelines forward now, to proactively acknowledge community concerns, establish best practices for design excellence, and provide clear direction for future development proposals.”

Milton’s design guidelines reflect the Town’s expectations for how developments can best assimilate to Milton’s established and specific community context. There are plans to share these draft guidelines with the local chapter of BILD and developers for comment, as well as opportunities for the community to contribute input in advance of finalizing the guidelines for publication. Once finalized, these guidelines will act as a user-friendly tool to convey key design principles to the wider community.

In addition to these guidelines, the Town recently released an interactive map sharing a vision for Milton’s Future Urban Structure, which highlights key areas for possible intensification and growth. For more information and to view this map, visit www.milton.ca/BuildingPossibility.  There are four applications for 25 storey buildings in the process of being reviewed.