Tag: London Ontario

August Neighbourhood Newsletter‏

Sherwood Forest School Site

City staff will be mailing a notice of the next City-led community meeting on the proposed re-zoning of the school site. Keep an eye out for it. The goal continues to be for staff to have a recommendation in front of the City’s Planning Committee this fall.

London Plan

The London Plan is the city’s new land use plan. It is to be presented for approval to the new council in late winter or early spring 2015. There are many changes to land use planning which have the potential to have an impact on all neighbourhoods including ours. More about these changes in future e-mails, but here are just two:

Continue reading “August Neighbourhood Newsletter‏” →

Letter to City Planner

Following the June 16 meeting and the vote on the School Site, this letter was sent from the Orchard Park/Sherwood Forest Ratepayers to the City Planner who is handling the City’s rezoning application for the site. The letter expresses support for the re-zoning application of the Sherwood Forest Public School site,

Handouts from June 16 AGM

The slides from the AGM and meeting on the Sherwood Forest School site are available. If you have questions want more information please do not hesitate to contact Sandy or any member of the Executive. Please also contact the City Planner on the file, Brian Turcotte.

The city has agreed that apartments will not be one of the permitted uses in the re-zoning change they will present to City Council. The city staff have also agreed to hold another city lead community meeting sometime later in the summer before they make their formal report to the City Council’s Planning and Environment Committee.

The minutes from the June 16, 2014 meeting are also available.

City makes offer on Sherwood Forest School site

The city of London has made an offer to purchase the Sherwood Forest School site. The offer is conditional on the site being rezoned within 120 days for parkland and for housing.

120 days is a short timeline for a rezoning process. As part of the process, there will be a community workshop held in April (date, time and location to be determined). All households in Orchard Park/Sherwood Forest will receive a notice in the mail from the city with the particulars.

The workshop will provide some background but focus on getting us to tell city staff what we are looking for in park usage and housing on the site.

City staff will use the information gathered from the April workshop, and come back to the community with more detail at a second community meeting. The goal is to have a rezoning application ready to be presented at a public participation meeting before City Council’s Planning Committee before the 120 period expires. The city would then acquire the site and find a developer/builder to implement what comes out of the process.

This is an exciting pilot project for the city and for our community. Hopefully you can attend the workshops.

If you have questions, please contact Sandy Levin.

December News

Many items in the news —

COMMUNITY MEETING

A Community meeting will be held in late January to update you on the Sherwood Forest School Site and the Medway Valley Environmentally Significant Area Conservation Master Plan. Look for an e-mail and flyer in your mailbox early in January

SHERWOOD FOREST SCHOOL SITE UPDATE

The Executive and School Site Committee have continued working to see if there is a way to retain at least some park land at the Sherwood Forest School site. The deadline for the public bodies, including the City and the other school boards, to make an offer to the Thames Valley District School Board is December 22. If no offers are received, the TVDSB then has a process to solicit sealed bids for the site. This will occur early in the new year. Any new purchaser at that point would have to apply to the City for a rezoning to the property. However, there would be no requirement for them to retain any green space. There would be a public process for any change in land use. Stay tuned.

ADOPT an ESA (Environmentally Significant Area)

The city has asked for community groups like ours to sponsor an ESA. Naturally for us this would mean the Medway Valley Heritage Forest. The projects suggested would include buckthorn busting, litter clear up (thankfully not a big problem in our area), tree planting (which we have done successfully). The action item is if there is someone in the area who is willing to lead, particularly in ensuring we meet the requirements of the program. Have a look at the program guide.

After you have had a chance to look it over, please let Sandy know if you are interested in taking on the lead in organizing events and reporting back to the city or in helping to form a working group to take this on. The plan is to discuss this program at the upcoming January meeting.

DO YOU HAVE A COPY OF “ORCHARD PARK THROUGH THE AGES”?

“Orchard Park Through the Ages” was a publication prepared by Orchard Park Public School as a 25th anniversary project about 25 years ago. Dyanne Wheatley is looking for a copy. If you can help her, write her at (dywheatley1787@rogers.com)

RENTAL LICENSING – an easy way to look up if a house is licensed to have renters

Recently a rental look up became available through the City’s website. It actually includes more than rental information. Click here for the site, but if it does not work just go to the City’s website and key in rental units, then click on PROPERTY INQUIRY SYSTEM and go from there.

MEDWAY SENIORS’ EVENT

WHEN: Wednesday, December 11th from 2 to 3 p.m.
WHERE: Sherwood Library
WHAT: “Christmas Social and Celebration of Holiday Traditions”

Please join us to share. We plan to share some readings, holiday trivia, music and good cheer.

This event is free with no registration required. Bring a friend! For more information, call 519-473-9965.

GRANNY SUITES / SECONDARY DWELLING UNITS

The Planning Act, through changes made by Bill 140 Strong Communities through Affordable Housing Act, 2011, requires municipalities to update their Official Plan policies and regulations related to secondary dwelling units.

The City of London Official Plan currently provides for secondary dwelling units within single and semi-detached dwellings subject to conditions. Now with changes made by Strong Communities through Affordable Housing Act, 2011, the Official Plan must include polices for secondary dwelling units as-of-right within townhouse and accessory structures in addition to single and semi-detached dwellings.

City Staff proposed our area as one of the Great Near Campus Neighbourhoods, be excluded as it is contrary to the effort to halt the proliferation of rental properties. This is because there is no easy way to police if a granny suite is for a family member or just a rental unit. However, Council referred this matter back to staff for further consultation. Sandy has been in touch with the city’s planning staff to arrange a meeting for the Executive prior to staff reporting back to City Council.

You can find the staff report as item #14 at this link:
http://sire.london.ca/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=591&doctype=AGENDA

SARNIA ROAD WIDENING

In the recently tabled City 10-year capital plan, city staff are now estimating budget approval for this project in 2020.