Welcome to the Mayor’s Mailbag – April 2023 roundup.
The Mayor’s Monday Mailbag is a weekly initiative Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward and the Mayor’s Office has launched to share answers to questions from the public we’ve received through our main email inbox at mayor@burlington.ca or the Mayor’s social media platforms.
At the end of the month, we publish a roundup of those most pressing questions we’ve received in the weeks prior.
Mayor’s Mailbag – April 2023 Roundup
- “Now that the online survey has closed, are there any updates on Burlington’s city-wide parking permit program?”
- “What is the City of Burlington doing in terms of spring cleanup around the city?”
- “I nominated an organization for the Burlington Chamber of Commerce Mayor’s Award — when will I know the selected recipient?”
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QUESTION:
“Now that the online survey has closed, are there any updates on Burlington’s city-wide parking permit program?”
ANSWER:
The City of Burlington is creating a new residential parking permit program for residential on-street parking. Parking in our city has seen a lot of changes over the years. Now, we need to offer you parking options to help you manage new ways of working, your changing family and the growth of our city through development. These changes look different for all of us and there are numerous factors to consider. For some, adult children and parents may be living at home, for others that live in tighter neighborhoods, parking may be an issue due to the design of the community.
Now that the online public survey has closed, City staff will be reviewing the results between April and August 2023 and developing a draft parking permit program that will be released to the public for consultation and feedback, expected sometime in September-October 2023.
Approaching November-December 2023, staff will then refine and finalize a proposed On-Street Parking Permit program and present a report to committee and Council.
If Council approves the draft program, implementation of on-street parking permits is expected to begin in January 2024.
To stay up-to-date on this process, please visit getinvolvedburlington.ca/parkingpermits and subscribe for email updates at the bottom of the page. There are also additional frequently-asked-questions (FAQs), staff contacts and key dates available on the City’s ‘Get Involved’ webpage.
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QUESTION:
“What is the City of Burlington doing in terms of spring cleanup around the city?”
ANSWER:
It’s that time of year again where the City of Burlington shifts focus from winter response to regular seasonal activities. Accordingly, the City’s formal spring cleanup program begins this week when staff end the winter shift schedules, and operational resources return to their regular service areas.
As weather permitted, staff have already started on many cleanup activities and will continue with all resources dedicated over the next six to eight weeks to the following:
- Boulevard litter cleanup along major roads and collectors, and known problem areas. Once this work is complete, staff move to litter cleanup in parks;
- Flushing of bridge decks, street medians and sweeping of major road sidewalks;
- Street sweeping starting with major and collector roads, then moving into residential roads;
- Sod repair from snow-clearing operations, starting with major and collector roads, then moving into residential roads;
- Cleanup and opening of outdoor sport courts and artificial fields (Artificial fields are already open for permits. Ball diamond permits begin in early May and soccer permits begin around the Victoria Day long weekend);
- Reactivation of seasonal washrooms and drinking fountains (The portable washrooms at Spencer Smith Park and Burloak Waterfront Park have been installed, and should now be operational. The port-o-lets at Beachway, LaSalle and Kerncliff parks will be installed soon);
- Pothole filling and roadside shoulder repairs are ongoing; and
- Inspection and clearing of drainage inlets are ongoing.
Concerning the amount of sod damage from winter operations, this year’s winter season was fairly mild with storm events occurring around the freezing temperatures, resulting in a mix of rain and snow numerous times throughout the season. As a result, ground conditions were very susceptible to damage and that led to a larger number of damage incidents, and more than what would be expected during a normal winter season.
In addition, adjacent ground elevations, sod overgrowth or customized boulevard treatments also contributed to the occurrence of damage, especially when grades were not even with the adjacent sidewalk.
The City continually strives to mitigate damage through training of operators, public education as well as holding our contractors accountable for repairs. We appreciate everyone’s understanding and thank those residents that have taken the time and effort to proactively repair some of the sod damage along their front yards.
In order to ensure staff does not miss repairing any damaged locations, we ask that residents submit a service request through Service Burlington at city@burlington.ca, so it can be logged and tracked. Please note, it is the City’s standard to repair minor damage with soil top dressing and seed. Sod will only be used where a large area has been disturbed as availability is limited to the late April or early May timeframe.
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QUESTION:
“I nominated an organization for the Burlington Chamber of Commerce Mayor’s Award — when will I know the selected recipient?”
ANSWER:
Thank you to all those who submitted a nomination for a non-profit or for-profit organization for the 2023 Mayor’s Award, part of the Burlington Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Business Excellence Awards. It was so wonderful to review all the nominations we received and to read about the amazing things our local businesses and organizations are doing in the area of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)!
We are so proud of all the work that Burlington-based businesses and organizations (for-profit and non-profit) are putting towards making EDI a priority.
In fact, there were so many incredible nominations, we have decided to continue the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion category for the rest of this term — that includes the 2024, 2025 and 2026 award seasons. This means if you nominated someone for the Mayor’s Award this year, and they were not selected as the 2023 recipient, they will still be considered in subsequent years this term (2024, 2025 and 2026) and you don’t have to nominate them again.
We will still do a call out each year for new nominations.
For the 2023 Award, a winner has been selected and the organization has been notified. The winner will be officially announced at the Burlington Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards Gala Awards on May 23 2023. More details will be shared as they are released.
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RELATED LINKS:
- Mayor’s Mailbag – March 2023 Roundup – Recognizing a Cause/Event, Burlington City Crest, & Windrows/Snow-Clearing
- Mayor’s Mailbag – February 2023 Roundup – City Winter Service Levels, Tax Support for Seniors on Fixed Incomes, & Support Accessing Recreation Programs
- Mayor’s Mailbag – January 2023 Roundup – Mental Health Resources, Arts & Culture Fund, & Homelessness Support
- Mayor’s Mailbag – December 2022 Roundup – Bill 23, Neighbourhood Community Matching Fund, & Winter Storm Updates
