London city council is deferring a decision on the Southwest Area Plan (SWAP) by sending the matter back to staff for further consideration.
The land, along Wonderland Road south of Southdale, had a previous cap of 100,000 square metres for retail development. It was put in place by the previous council.
Staff recommended in a report that the cap be lifted, arguing it led to “leap frog” developments, not clustered, or contiguous, retail space.
Speaking during Tuesday’s meeting, Mayor Matt Brown said he felt the previous decision on the cap was wrong.
“I have to say that as a member of the past council, and there’s a few of us here, this was an error by the past council,” he said. “Staff came forward with a recommendation for a reasonable amount of growth in this area and the doors were blown right off of that.”
Coun. Harold Usher, who was part of the previous council along with Brown, defended the cap.
“It was not an error, it was done taking everything into consideration, it was well debated, we made the decision as a council, it was sent to the OMB (Ontario Municipal Board), the OMB agreed that that was the appropriate thing to do, and all the players around here, yes, there were a few people who wanted to extend it, but in the end we decided at that time in 2012 that 100,000 square metres was the appropriate size to go to,” said Usher.
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Brown put forward a motion to lift the cap to 140,000 square metres as a way of appeasing those concerned about lifting the cap entirely, as well as those worried about business being stifled, but it failed in a 10-4 vote.
Council voted instead to send the cap issue is back to staff for more study.
It should return to the committee level in late fall or winter.