Council rezoned the Rampen lands at 1086 Burnhamthorpe Road East for a 188-lot subdivision in July 2024

What Council decided

On Monday, July 8, 2024, Oakville's Planning and Development Council approved revised applications from Rampen Holdings Inc. for a zoning by-law amendment and a draft plan of subdivision at 1086 Burnhamthorpe Road East, on the south side of Burnhamthorpe Road East between Trafalgar Road and Ninth Line in Ward 6. Council passed By-law 2024-090, which amends the North Oakville Zoning By-law and rezones part of the property from Future Development to four zones: Natural Heritage System, Park, General Urban and Suburban.

The same motion authorized the Director of Planning and Development to grant draft approval to the plan of subdivision, a plan dated June 4, 2024, subject to conditions, and directed that the Town enter into a subdivision agreement once that approval was given. The minutes record the motion as carried. Staff had recommended approval in a report dated June 25, 2024.

How many homes

The Town's notices say the plan of subdivision would create 188 residential lots. The Town's planning applications layer describes the same file as 133 single detached houses and 52 street townhouses, a total of 185 units, and lists 185 as approved. Neither source explains the difference of three. The records show the applications were received in November 2022, about 20 months before the decision.

What has to happen before building

By-law 2024-090 put a holding provision, H62, on the new residential zones. While it is in place the land can only be used as it is today. The by-law says the hold comes off only when the owner has secured water and wastewater servicing allocation from Halton Region, signed the allocation agreement, made the required payments and received the Region's notice, and when the watermains and sanitary sewers needed to serve the property are built and operating or otherwise secured. One more condition ties the site to its neighbour: a street on the subdivision immediately to the east must be built and registered so that it connects to a street on the Rampen lands.

The farm and its heritage designation

The property is an old Trafalgar Township farm that was first designated under the Ontario Heritage Act in 1991. In October 2018 Council passed a new designation, By-law 2018-136, for a defined part of the property that it names the Joshua Creek Heritage Arts Centre/William Bowbeer Farm cultural heritage landscape. That by-law covers Joshua Creek and its valley, a farmhouse dating to 1827 with later additions, the remnant of an 1827 shed converted into a gallery, a bank barn, a concrete silo and a concrete bridge. In April 2021, on the owner's application, Council repealed the 1991 by-law, leaving the 2018 designation in force for the part of the property it describes. The repealing by-law describes the land the 1991 designation covered as about 50 acres, roughly 20 hectares.

The Town's notices on the subdivision do not say how the new lots sit in relation to the designated landscape. The zoning by-law applies to a portion of the property and includes Natural Heritage System and Park zones alongside the two residential zones.

Where it stands now

Checked on November 9, 2026: the Town's planning applications layer lists the zoning file as Council Approval and the subdivision as Draft Approved, with the draft plan approved on September 10, 2024. The Town's by-law library lists By-law 2024-090 as approved with no tribunal case recorded against it, and a search of the library for the address found no later by-law removing the H62 hold. The Town no longer has an application page for the file, and its records do not show whether the plan has been registered or whether construction has begun.