42 Lakeshore Road West: Council refused it 15 to 0 in 2024, and the land tribunal approved 11 storeys

What Council decided

On January 22, 2024, Oakville's Planning and Development Council refused an official plan amendment and zoning by-law amendment for 42 Lakeshore Road West, at the southwest corner of Lakeshore Road West and Chisholm Street in Ward 2. The applicant was Format Lakeshore Inc. and the files are OPA 1715.25 and Z.1715.25.

Planning staff had not recommended the application as filed. Their report, dated January 9, 2024, recommended approving a modified building, described in the minutes as eight storeys, and came with By-laws 2024-020 and 2024-021 ready to pass. Six people spoke, including the applicant's planner. Council then went into closed session for legal advice from 7:47 to 8:25 p.m. When it returned, a single motion refused staff's recommendations and refused the application "for a 10 storey building". It carried on a recorded vote, 15 to 0.

The Town's notice of refusal, dated February 6, 2024, gave February 26, 2024 as the last day to appeal.

The site and the proposal

The Town's application page describes a 10-storey, 38.25-metre mixed-use building with 152 units and 630 square metres of commercial and retail space. The Ontario Land Tribunal, which counts the rooftop mechanical and amenity level as a storey, describes the same plan as 11 storeys and 40.86 metres, with 152 apartments, 152 parking spaces on four underground levels reached from Chisholm Street, and 41 per cent of the units having two or three bedrooms. By the same count, the Tribunal describes staff's version as nine storeys.

The property is the site of the McCraney-Robertson House, designated under the Ontario Heritage Act by By-law 2009-074. On June 10, 2024, Council approved the owner's application to demolish the house, on conditions: a commemorative structure rebuilt on the property using salvaged material, designed with heritage staff and the Heritage Oakville Advisory Committee, and a heritage easement agreement registered on title. The Tribunal's decision notes earlier approvals on the site since 2009 for low-rise mixed-use buildings of up to five storeys, none of which was built.

The appeal

Format Lakeshore appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal. On May 6, 2024, Council authorized staff to oppose the appeal and to negotiate a settlement if the applicant was interested. The appeal went to a full hearing. The Tribunal heard the case by video from May 20 to 27, 2025, with the company and the Town as the only parties taking part; Halton Region's issues had been resolved. A group of neighbours and the owner of the adjacent funeral home filed statements as participants, raising height, density, shadow and transition to the low-rise homes to the south.

In a decision issued December 17, 2025, the Tribunal found for the applicant. It described the lot as one of the largest remaining on Lakeshore Road West in Lower Kerr Village, about 170 metres from the nearest bus station, and found that 11 storeys stays well below the heights existing and planned in the Town's primary growth areas while providing an appropriate transition to the townhouses to the south. It allowed the appeals in part, approved the amendments in principle and told the parties to finalize the zoning by-law, with a schedule fixing setbacks, projections and heights and a requirement for ground-floor commercial space.

Where it stands now

On July 13, 2026, the Tribunal issued its final order. It amends the Livable Oakville Plan with a site-specific exception permitting a maximum of 11 storeys at 42 Lakeshore Road West and amends Zoning By-law 2014-014 to match, and authorizes the Town Clerk to assign by-law numbers. As of November 9, 2026, the Tribunal's case status shows the file as closed, while the Town's development data still lists both applications as appealed. The decision leaves Halton Region's remaining concerns to the site plan approval stage that still lies ahead.