A change to the residential designation of a treed lot at 420 Fanshawe Park Road in London means plans for a 142-unit development in the city’s north end will move forward.
During a full council meeting Tuesday night, Ward 5 Councillor Maureen Cassidy urged colleagues to send the development application back to administration for more consultation, arguing the four-storey apartment building didn’t fall in line with intensification project requirements laid out in the 1989 Official Plan.
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“I recognize that it will not destroy this neighbourhood. This neighbourhood will go on,” said Cassidy. “But good planning policy says that an infill project should integrate with a neighbourhood. This takes a property that was formerly the heart of the neighbourhood, and sets it apart.”
The lot was previously owned by three prominent London families, including the Poole family. A single-family home on the property was torn down in 2015.
Although she said her constituents recognized a need to develop the land, Cassidy described the four-storey structure as an “interruption” to the community of single-family homes surrounding the property.
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“This has only been going on about a year. The application was originally filed about a year ago. We have more work to do.”
But Ward 4 Councillor Jesse Helmer argued a year was too long a time to spend on a development decision.
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“We’re supposed to make decisions within 120 days,” he said.
“I think there’s a hope that if we just keep talking about it, we’ll get to a better outcome. The way I look at this is to say, is this — that’s being proposed — appropriate for the area? I say it is.”
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Following roughly an hour-and-a-half debate, councillors rejected Cassidy’s motion to refer the matter back for more consultation with a vote of 9 to 6, with Matt Brown, Michael Van Holst, Cassidy, Phil Squire, Josh Morgan, and Virginia Ridley voting in favour.
In a less polarizing vote, council agreed to change the land’s designation for low-residential development to medium-residential 11 to 4 — paving way for the four-storey development — with just Brown, Cassidy, Squire, and Morgan voting against.
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