Residential rezoning approved for Confederation Line
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It’s better to have more affordable housing than another commercial plaza, says Mike Stark.
“There are affordable housing issues that need to be addressed and, quite honestly, single-family developments that are being proposed do not address what is clearly an affordability issue,” the city councillor said as he and most others on council voted this week to rezone two commercial blocks on Confederation Line to allow multiple attached, low-rise housing instead.
The move pre-empted an update to where remaining roads, parks and services will go in what’s called development area two, a mostly undeveloped five-square-kilometre zone between Modeland Road, Blackwell Sideroad, London and Confederation lines, and went against a staff recommendation to reject the Heritage Park Estates Inc. rezoning proposal.
The blocks account for 23 per cent of the vacant designated commercial lands in development area two, a city report noted, adding “there is no justification provided at this time to remove the planned commercial blocks.”
A 44-unit build, though, would help address the lack of affordable housing in the city, Stark said.
“As such, I will support it.”
Other reasons included neighbourhood opposition to commercial development amid concerns about lights and traffic, and a lack of available land in the city for building, said Rob Panzer, acting as agent for Heritage Park Estates’ Frank Iacobelli.
“Hopefully with the update of development area two(‘s secondary plan), that will change, and hopefully it will change in a hurry,” he said about the availability of land for development, “because the city needs it.”
He suggested a commercial hub would be better suited along where Wellington Street would be extended, with the planned build out of area two, noting denser residential could be created there as well.
Coun. Brian White called that idea “spot on,” and echoed Stark’s call for more multiple attached residential in the city as “something that’s desperately missing for our community.”
Coun. Terry Burrell argued against, siding with city staff that commercial makes a better buffer between residential and light commercial on the south side of Confederation Line.
He noted a planned Procor expansion in the area was recently revamped after neighbourhood opposition.
The south side of Confederation Line is zoned for light industrial and some commercial uses, Panzer said.
“That’s why they have these buffering areas, so that you can kind of separate some uses from other uses,” Burrell said. “What this is proposing is, we’re going to put residential right there, (causing) those people who purchase those properties to wonder what they got themselves into when they see there are developments.”
That’s a fair comment, Panzer said, but noted the condominium-style builds planned for the parcels will face inwards, towards the subdivision, back onto Confederation Drive, and a wall will be constructed as well.
That will also create an effective buffer, he said.
“It would certainly act as a buffer for those existing residents that back now onto those two vacant blocks,” he said.
Council a year ago pushed pause on the land conversion request, requiring Heritage Park Estates first obtain a commercial needs assessment.
One study backing the application was submitted last November, Panzer said.
A third-party peer review recommended holding off until the secondary plan for development area two was complete, he said.
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