505 Burnhamthorpe Road West: Argo's plan for employment land at Highway 407 approved in principle by the land tribunal

On April 24, 2026, the Ontario Land Tribunal approved in principle a revised plan for 505 Burnhamthorpe Road West, about 11 hectares of land that Oakville had planned for employment beside Highway 407: two 18-storey towers and 332 townhouses. In the same decision it approved the Town's Neyagawa Urban Core amendments with changes. Council never voted on the applications; the developer, Argo Neyagawa Corporation, took them to the Tribunal before a decision was made.

What was applied for in 2024

On May 21, 2024, Oakville's Planning and Development Council held the statutory public meeting on applications by Argo Neyagawa Corporation for 505 Burnhamthorpe Road West: the north side of Burnhamthorpe Road West and William Halton Parkway between Fourth Line and Neyagawa Boulevard, with Highway 407 along its northern edge, in Ward 7. The Town had deemed the applications complete and issued notice on April 16, 2024. The files are OPA 1220.02, Z.1220.02 and 24T-24001/1220.

Argo asked to redesignate the land in the North Oakville East Secondary Plan from Employment District to Neyagawa Urban Core Area, to allow a mix of uses in buildings of up to 16 storeys, and to rezone it from Future Development. The Town's notices describe a mixed-use community with housing, a stormwater pond and room for shops on the ground floor of a mixed-use block. The Town's development data describes the 2024 submission as about 1,365 condominium units: 1,000 apartments and 365 townhouses of three types.

At the public meeting the applicant's representative presented and no member of the public is recorded as speaking, though the agenda lists written correspondence from residents. Council asked staff to report back on employment areas and uses near the urban core, employment truck traffic through residential areas, and whether the townhouses would have basements and how large their garages would be.

The appeal

Council never voted on the applications. Argo appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal on the ground that the Town had not decided them within the Planning Act's timelines. At the first case management conference, on January 22, 2025, the Tribunal described the site as about 11.29 hectares of vacant land and the proposal as just under 1,000 homes.

While the appeal was pending, the Town finished its own plan for the area. On March 3, 2025, Council adopted Official Plan Amendments 45 and 326, which designate about 75 hectares on the four corners of Neyagawa Boulevard and Burnhamthorpe Road West as the Neyagawa Urban Core, including Argo's land. On April 7, 2025, it authorized staff to try to settle Argo's appeal in line with those amendments and otherwise to oppose it; it gave its lawyers further confidential directions on December 9, 2024 and November 17, 2025. Four landowners in the area appealed those amendments, and the Tribunal heard those appeals and Argo's together over 11 hearing days in February 2026. By then Argo and the Town had signed a partial settlement.

What the Tribunal decided

In a decision issued April 24, 2026, the Tribunal approved the Town's Neyagawa Urban Core amendments in principle with changes. It set an overall minimum density target of 160 residents and jobs per hectare, required buildings of at least five storeys within 30 metres of the north side of William Halton Parkway and along Neyagawa Boulevard north of it, and permitted up to 20 storeys north of the parkway. Two-storey townhouses are allowed on Argo's block for up to 20 per cent of the townhouses, away from the Fourth Line and Neyagawa frontages.

It also allowed Argo's site-specific appeals in part and approved its zoning by-law, subdivision concept and conditions in principle. The revised plan the Tribunal describes has two 18-storey towers on a five-storey podium at the corner of William Halton Parkway and Neyagawa Boulevard, 332 townhouses of two to four storeys, a stormwater pond in the southwest corner and a village square of about 0.3 hectares that is to be purchased by the Town. The Ministry of Transportation permits no road access from Neyagawa Boulevard. The Tribunal ordered Argo to merge three open space blocks along the 407 Transitway buffer into one so the Town can build a trail, and to return driveway widths to the Town's standards.

The decision records that the Ministry of Transportation told the Town in May 2025 that a transit station on the Highway 407 corridor at Neyagawa is not warranted; the transitway lands and buffer remain in the plan.

Where it stands now

The April 2026 order was interim: the Tribunal withheld its final order until it received final versions of the official plan amendment, zoning by-law, draft plan and conditions, with a status report due by June 17, 2026 if they had not been filed. As of November 9, 2026, the Tribunal's case status lists a further decision dated July 14, 2026 and shows the cases as closed. That document could not be retrieved from the Tribunal's website on that date, so its contents are not reported here. The Town's development data still lists all three applications as appealed and records 982 approved units, 643 apartments and 339 townhouses, against the official plan file.