Design Guidelines
Design guidelines are a set of design statements to guide land development to achieve a desired level of design quality for the elements of the physical environment. They outline and illustrate how the city's urban design goals and objectives will be achieved.
Design guidelines may be developed for certain types of building forms, land uses, streetscapes, streets or specific areas in the city. Council-adopted design guidelines are utilized in the review and evaluation of development applications or projects initiated by the city.
The City of Burlington's urban design guidelines reflect our commitment to a high standard of design.
Mid-Rise Building Guidelines
As the city grows, Burlington will continue to receive applications for all sizes of developments, including mid-rise buildings. To help evaluate these applications, the City of Burlington has developed Mid-Rise Building Guidelines, approved by Burlington City Council at Committee of the Whole on March 5, 2019.
About Mid-Rise Buildings
| What are mid-rise buildings? |
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Mid-rise buildings are bigger in scale than houses but smaller than towers and have a good relationship to the street. This means that while the walls of a mid-rise are tall enough to provide lots of usable space inside the building, they are low enough to let the sun in and open the view to the sky from the street.
The height of mid-rise buildings varies. In Burlington, mid-rise buildings range between five and 11 storeys. Mid-rise buildings may contain a single use, like an office or residential apartment, but usually contain a mix of uses, which may include things like retail, office, community services, and residential all in the same building. |
| What are Mid-Rise Building Guidelines? |
| Burlington's Mid-Rise Building Guidelines will be used by city staff to evaluate development applications where mid-rise buildings between five and 11 storeys are proposed. The mid-rise building guidelines address things like:
The mid-rise building guidelines do not outline where mid-rise buildings can be located in the city. This is determined by the city's new Official Plan and the Zoning Bylaw. |
| Why are Mid-Rise Building Guidelines important? |
| As the Burlington’s population grows over the next 50 years, new business and residential growth will be accommodated in the areas around the city’s major transit stations (called mobility hubs) in the form of higher density developments, including tall and mid-rise buildings. These buildings will play an important role in how the city will feel and look.
When development applications for mid-rise buildings are submitted to the city, the design guidelines will be used to evaluate the applications and ensure the proposal meets the city’s urban design standards. |
| Public feedback that helped shape the Mid-Rise Building Guidelines |
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Thank you to those who have contributed their feedback to help shape the Mid-Rise Building Guidelines. Public engagement opportunities included:
Based on the feedback gathered, you told us you like the approach of the guidelines as it relates to:
Thank you to others who expressed concern related to growth and intensification, generally with respect to future development within the downtown. These concerns are related to land-use planning and will be addressed through ongoing work on the city's new Official Plan and the Mobility Hubs Area-Specific studies. All feedback provided will be shared with city staff working on these projects. |
A well-designed and placed mid-rise building should also support a comfortable pedestrian environment and make the street come alive by lining the sidewalk with doors and windows that house things like stores, restaurants, services and community uses.For more information, please email todd.evershed@burlington.ca
Completed Guidelines
| Tall Building Design Guidelines |
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In spring 2017, Burlington City Council approved tall building design guidelines for Burlington. The guidelines play an important part in how the city grows, helping to build communities with a high quality of life and place. Tall building guidelines provide design direction for the components of tall buildings: Building Base (Podium); Building Middle (Tower); Building Top, and promote urban design excellence and support vibrant streets. The tall building guidelines do not outline where tall buildings can be located in the city. This is determined by the city's Official Plan and the Zoning Bylaw. The city's tall building guidelines were created based on:
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View other existing Design Guidelines