Burlington Said Yes to 8 and 11 Storeys on Plains Road, and No to 25

Written by Daniel Zareh, REALTOR® — licensed since 2006, serving Burlington, Hamilton, Stoney Creek and Grimsby.
Last reviewed October 9, 2026. Every decision below is taken from the City of Burlington's own council decision highlights for the September 29, 2026 meeting, published October 1, 2026, plus the City's development project and pre-application meeting pages.

Three buildings on the same road went to Burlington council on September 29. Two were approved. One was refused.

That's unusual enough to be worth a look. The three decisions together tell you something a single headline doesn't.

If you own a house on or near Plains Road East, this is the clearest read you'll get on what a builder can realistically get approved beside you. It's a lot lower than the numbers people worry about.

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What council actually decided

235 Plains Road East and 1022 Gallagher Road — approved, eight storeys. Council approved an eight-storey residential building plus a mechanical penthouse, as modified by staff. Official Plan Amendment 167 was deemed consistent with the Planning Act, and Zoning By-law 2020.527 rezones the land from "H-MXG" to "H-MXG-580."

517 Plains Road East — approved, eleven storeys. Council approved an eleven-storey mixed-use building plus a mechanical penthouse, again as modified by staff. That one came with Official Plan Amendment 166 and Zoning By-law 2020.526, rezoning from "MXG" to "H-MXG-579."

1376 and 1382 Plains Road East — refused, twenty-five storeys. A twenty-five-storey mixed-use building plus a mechanical penthouse, applied for by Bousfields Inc. on behalf of four owners. The proposal also folded in three unaddressed parcels to be conveyed from abutting Canadian National Railway land. Council refused it.

Same road. Same meeting. Eight and eleven went through. Twenty-five didn't.

The part that actually matters: what gets asked for isn't what gets approved

Here's the detail I'd want you to see, because it's the one nobody puts in a headline.

The 235 Plains Road East and 1022 Gallagher Road site went to its pre-application community meeting on October 6, 2025. What the neighbours were shown that night was an eleven-storey building with 119 units. What council approved almost a year later was eight storeys.

The 517 Plains Road East site had its own community meeting a week later, on October 14, 2025. The City's project page describes that one as eleven storeys, 179 residential units, eight ground-floor commercial units, and two levels of underground parking with 105 car spaces. That one got its eleven storeys.

Both sites belong to the same developer, BryDec Developments Inc. One asked for eleven and got eight. The other asked for eleven and got eleven. A third owner asked for twenty-five and got nothing.

So the lesson isn't "Burlington is going up." It's that the Plains Road corridor is being filled in at roughly eight to eleven storeys, site by site, with staff trimming as they go. When somebody tells you a tower is coming to your street, that's the band to measure the claim against.

Approved doesn't mean built, and here it doesn't even mean zoned yet

This is where I slow people down, and the City's own release makes the point for me.

On both approvals, the new zoning doesn't take effect until the matching Official Plan Amendment is adopted. That's stated outright in the decision highlights. So as of today, neither site is sitting on finished zoning.

Both new zones also carry that "H" prefix. In Ontario zoning, an H normally signals a holding provision — conditions a builder has to clear before the city will issue a permit. The City's release doesn't list what those conditions are at either site, so I'm not going to guess. It's a question worth asking, though, because a holding symbol is one of the quieter reasons an "approved" building sits as a fenced lot for years.

Then there's the refusal. A council refusal isn't the end of a file in this province. The applicant's next move, if they want one, is the Ontario Land Tribunal.

I've watched a tribunal land somewhere very different from a council vote before. It's the same dynamic I wrote about with Eastgate Square going to the tribunal. Nobody has said publicly whether 1376 and 1382 Plains Road East is being appealed. If you're making a decision partly on that refusal holding, that's the thing to watch.

What this does to your house, and what it doesn't

I'll be straight about both halves.

What it probably doesn't do: change what your house is worth this month. An approval down the street isn't a bid on your property.

I get calls from owners who want to hold off listing and wait for a builder to knock. For most of them the honest answer is no. It's the same conversation I had with Hamilton owners when mid-rise zoning came into force on their main roads. Land value shows up for assembled sites with frontage and depth a builder can actually use. One house on a 40-foot lot usually isn't that, however good the road looks on a zoning map.

What it does do: three things worth knowing.

Your buyer pool shifts. Construction on a corridor cuts the number of people who'll pay a premium for a quiet street, and raises the number who are buying for the transit access. Those two buyers don't bid the same way.
Your competition changes in a few years. 179 units in one building at 517 alone, if it gets built as applied for. Burlington's condo apartment average was around $637,000 in July — the figures are in my Burlington market guide, and I'm not going to rerun them here. New supply at that end of the market matters most if you own a condo or a townhouse nearby, less if you own detached.
Timing is yours to control. There's a difference between listing before a crane goes up on your block and listing during it. That's a conversation about months, not a reason to panic.

The bigger fight on this corridor hasn't been settled

One more item from the same meeting, and it's the one I'd keep an eye on.

Council received a staff update on the Aldershot GO Transit Oriented Community. Staff said Infrastructure Ontario's first submission does not align with council's vision for the area, and set out ten themes of feedback. That's the province and the city not agreeing on what gets built around Aldershot GO.

Those site-by-site eight and eleven storey decisions are council deciding. The Aldershot GO lands are a different process with a different decision-maker. If you own near the station, the second one probably matters more to you over ten years than the first.

And for anyone in north Burlington, there was a second refusal that day. Council turned down both Millcroft Greens applications — the Official Plan Amendment and the draft plan of subdivision. The sites are 2155 Country Club Drive, 4135 Millcroft Park Drive and 4291 Couples Crescent, and the plan was 73 detached homes plus 65 townhouses. Different story, different end of the city. I'll come back to it.

What I'd check if you own near Plains Road

What your own lot is zoned for now — not what the corridor is zoned for. Being on a busy road isn't the same as being in the zone.
Whether your frontage and depth work for an assembly. This is the question that decides whether land value is real at your address or just a headline.
Who's assembling near you. Two of these three files sit with the same developer. That pattern is usually visible before it's announced.
What's actually under construction, not approved. Those are different lists and they produce different numbers.

Common questions

Does an approval next door raise my property value?
Not on its own, and not on a timeline you can count on. It can matter a lot if your lot is part of a site a builder needs. For most single lots on the corridor, the honest answer is that it changes who buys your house more than what they pay.

Could the 25-storey still happen?
Council refused it. In Ontario, the applicant can take a refusal to the Ontario Land Tribunal, and tribunals have gone against councils before. Nothing public says whether this one is being appealed.

Are the two approved buildings going up soon?
Nothing says that. On both, the City's release says the zoning doesn't take effect until the Official Plan Amendment is adopted, and both new zones carry an H prefix. Approved, zoned and under construction are three different stages, often years apart.

How many units are in the approved eight-storey building?
The City's release doesn't say, and I won't fill that in. The version shown at the October 2025 community meeting had 119 units at eleven storeys, so the approved eight-storey version is smaller than that — but by how much isn't published yet.

Is Aldershot still good value?
It's been one of the better-value pockets in south Burlington for years, partly because people forget it's Burlington. More apartment supply on Plains Road doesn't change that for detached owners. It does mean a condo or townhouse buyer there will have more choice in a few years than they do now.

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Want to know what's actually approved near you?

Send me your address and I'll come back with three things. What your lot is zoned for today. Which applications and approvals sit within a few blocks of you. And what your house would realistically sell for on the open market right now — as a range, not a single number.

And if the honest answer is that none of this changes anything for you, I'll tell you that. Most of the time on a corridor like this, that's the answer — the land story is real for a handful of addresses and a distraction for everybody else. You're better off knowing which one you are.

Call or text 416-276-0052 Email: daniel@zarehhomes.com

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Daniel Zareh is a licensed REALTOR® with over 20 years of experience serving Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga, Hamilton, Stoney Creek and Grimsby. Council decisions cited are from the City of Burlington's decision highlights for September 29, 2026. Development applications change, and an approval is not a commitment to build — confirm the current status of any file with the City before relying on it. Burlington market figures referenced are for July 2026 and change monthly. This article is general information, not legal or planning advice.