Author: opsfr

Orchard Park Sherwood Forest Neighbourhood Association is a London, Ontario, Canada based neighbourhood organization serving the Orchard Park and Sherwood Forest areas of London. The area is approximately bounded on the west by Wonderland Road, Sarnia Road on the South, Gainsborough Road to the North, the University of Western Ontario and the Medway Valley.

Rezoning updates – Sarnia Road

REZONING AT 279 SARNIA ROAD FOR TWO – 3 STORY BUILDINGS

This application will be heard at a public participation meeting at City Hall this Tuesday, October 22, around 1:45 pm (the meeting is also on line.  If you wish to speak on line, write pec@london.ca prior to the meeting).  The two buildings will have a total of 20 units, each with 3 bedrooms.  The full report is available here.  Your Executive is supportive of this application because it will be managed by the builder who is a local builder, is not as tall as currently permitted and has fewer bedrooms than permitted. 

REZONING AT 299-307 SARNIA ROAD

There will be an information session on the revised proposal for development of these two properties.  The session will occur on November 13th starting at 6 pm at St. Ansgar Church, in the Church hall.  St. Ansgar is at the corner of Lawson and Wonderland (with lots of parking).  Members of your Executive are meeting with Councillor Trosow and the proponent’s consultants prior to the session.  After our meeting, there will be more information as to what is proposed.   

Ward boundary review for the 2026 city election

The city council is reviewing the ward boundaries due to London’s population growth. The four options prepared by the retained consultants and further information are available at: https://getinvolved.london.ca/ward-boundary-review There is an interactive map feature to show you the impact of the changes. For our neighborhood options 1 to 3 pretty much maintain the status quo. Option 4 divides the neighbourhood between two wards. There are a few opportunities for you to provide your opinion on the options. City Council will be making a decision on a new configuration by the end of the year.

Upcoming Engagement Events

October 16th (Hybrid/Virtual Event)

  • Time: 5:00 – 7:00 PM
  • Location: City Hall, Committee Room #1&2
  • Option: Attend in-person or virtually.

October 17th (In-person Events)

  • Time: 5:00 – 7:00 PM
  • Locations:
  • Medway Community Centre – Full multipurpose Room
  • East Lions Community Centre – Multipurpose Room 2
  • South London Community Centre – Full Gemmel Room

Public Online Survey

  • Open until: November 11th

Proposed changes to building heights and housing forms in our area (and the rest of the city too)

You may have heard that the City Council will be voting on Sept 24 on changes to permitted forms and heights of housing in existing neighbourhoods like ours.  A key change is to permit stacked townhouses and apartment buildings up to 4 storeys in height anywhere on Lawson Road and on Sleightholme/Wychwood from Sarnia to Lawson. 

At this point, and before any building takes place, a rezoning application is still required first.  Whether or not this will result in any building at all, or at what price points, is unknown at this time.  For more details, see this document that shows the old rules for type and height of housing (the first two colour pages) and the new version (the other two pages).  We are in the Primary Transit Area. 

The other change is to permitted building heights on Sarnia Road (a Civic Boulevard), from a maximum of 6 storeys to up to 8 storeys.  This may affect the proposed development at 299-307 Sarnia Road which is still in the works.  However, the stacked townhouse at 279 Sarnia Road is still being processed as 3 storeys and will be before City Council in October (click here). 

If you are either concerned or want to express your support about these changes, please write the Mayor and Deputy Mayor at mayor@london.ca and s.lewis@london.ca  as well as our Councillor, Sam Trosow at strosow@london.ca  

Please also consider a cc to opsfrp@gmail.com so that the Executive of the Neighbourhood Association has a sense of the opinion of residents.

Rezoning at 279 Sarnia Road

Rezoning of 279 Sarnia Road (the grey house behind the white fence) is moving ahead to permit two three story buildings.  It is proposed to have 20 dwelling units in total, each with three bedrooms.  Also, 14 parking spaces between the two buildings are proposed. 

There is no date set yet for when this matter will be reviewed by City Council, but we anticipate it will be passed. This form of development is now permitted along Sarnia and similar roads in London.  The owner had a community meeting earlier this year and indicated he will be both the builder and manage the buildings after they are built.  Units will be marketed as rentals. 

Further information and documents that explain the proposal in more detail are available on the City of London website. 

If you wish to submit comments to the city planner working on the file, you should submit comments by September 9th.  Contact Isaac De Ceuster, at ideceust@london.ca

We have no additional information at this point regarding the possible change in the zoning of 299-307 Sarnia Road (the old farm house and the adjacent property behind the metal fence).  However, we do expect that a redevelopment application will come forward at some point in the near term.