Members of the Executive of the Neighbourhood Association met with Councillor Trosow, the planning consultants for the proponent, and the finance person for the proponent. This is a summary of what was discussed at the meeting.
The design shown in the Planning and Design Report is what the proponent wants to build.
All the buildings will have the same look. As a reference, there is a four story stacked townhouse with a similar design on the north side of Fanshawe Park Road (albeit with a deeper setback) east of Richmond adjacent to the Shell station. See below.
There will be a community information session held by the planning consultants in September – date and location to be determined by the planning consultant.
The meeting at which City Council’s Planning and Environment Committee will consider the City File Planner’s recommendations won’t happen until after the community information session – no date has been set yet for this meeting.
Letters to the City’s File Planner will be considered before she writes her report to the Planning and Environment Cte. Her original deadline of this week was based on the application being heard before September. This means if you have something to say about the proposal, you still have some time. However, it is advisable to go ahead and submit comments to the City’s File Planner, cmaton@london.ca as soon as possible.
It was pointed out at the meeting that what the proponent has asked for in terms of height, number of units and reduced set back from Sarnia Road may not be what the City’s Planner recommends.
The proponent intends to continue to rent out the existing houses until all approvals are obtained and they are ready to proceed with construction.
There was agreement that before any construction starts, there will be a meeting at the City’s Planning and Environment Cte to show residents what will be built. This is called site plan approval. This takes place some time after a zoning change is approved by City Council.
The finance person for the proponent indicated they are still going ahead with the plan as presented, but construction may not take place immediately after City approvals are received due to current unfavourable financial conditions.
The finance person indicated that the proponent has already reduced the number of units in the proposal from what they originally wanted and is not willing to consider downsizing it.
It was pointed out that City policy allows heights of 4 stories along both sides of Sarnia Road. There will likely be other applications for increased density in future.
The finance person indicated that currently, the goal is to market the units as “high end”.
He also indicated they will try to save as many hardwood trees as possible during construction.
The proponent is not local but owns other properties locally.
City Council will ultimately makes the decision. Note that under new rules by the Province, the Mayor may use “strong mayor power” to approve the rezoning with the support of only one third of Council.
Orchard Park / Sherwood Forest Neighborhood Association 