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CTV News
3 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
City taps brakes on parking lot to housing plan in OEV— but full speed ahead in SoHo
Municipal parking lot at 199 Ridout St. in London as seen on June 17, 2025. (Daryl Newcombe/CTV News London) Three municipal parking lots remain candidates for redevelopment into housing, but the next steps will occur at two different paces. On Tuesday, the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee (SPPC) heard from stakeholders in the Old East Village (OEV) who want public consultation and further discussion with key stakeholders before deciding if most of the lot at 641 Queens Ave. should be redeveloped into a mix of low and medium-density housing. Kevin Morrison of the OEV Business Improvement Area told the committee, 'The BIA supports more affordable housing, that's not the question. However, how we get there is what really matters. If we're going to do this, we need to do it right.' Morrison asked the committee to defer any substantial decisions about 641 Queens Ave. until after public consultation this summer. However, Coun. Sam Trosow said he was satisfied with proceeding to next steps before completing the first round of public consultation, 'Build into this process, which is going to take a long time, many different decision points with consultation.' Morrison expressed other concerns including if the remaining parking lot would be large enough to accommodate tour buses visiting the Banting House National Historic Site, and that the lot was deemed 'underutilized' because daily usage of spots has recently been about 51 per cent. He argued that as revitalization of the business district continues, commercial vacancies will decline and the drive up the demand for parking. Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis agreed that more time is needed to assess the future parking requirements, 'A 50 per cent more or less parking utilization doesn't seem like a very high amount, but I also appreciate the comment that there's a 40 per cent commercial vacancy right now.' The assessment of municipal parking lots for developability into housing was launched by Mayor Josh Morgan in early 2024 by utilizing his Strong-Mayor Powers. LONDON - QUEENS AVE - PLAN - JUNE 2025 Preliminary development plan for parking lot at 641 Queens Ave. 'It's actually quite a complicated site, as you can see with the land assembly, and it's probably relatively restricted in the amount of density that you could put in there,' Morgan told council colleagues. The next steps to make the parking lot shovel ready for developers would include an archeological investigation, land assembly, traffic impact study and geotechnical work. Staff estimate that work would cost $555,000 to complete. SPPC members voted to defer a decision to make the parking lot shovel ready until the end of this year, to allow time for more consultation and to determines if there is even going to be interest from developers. 'Let's slow this down,' the mayor told CTV News after the meeting. 'Let's take some time to consult with the community more and let's do a Request for Expressions of Interest to see if there's even an interest in developing that lot.' However, it remains full speed ahead for the two municipal lots in the SoHo neighbourhood just north of the Thames River (84 Horton St. and 199 Ridout St.). Morgan expressed excitement about advancing the lots directly to a Request for Proposals for 'as-is' offers from developers by the end of 2025. Three submissions have already been made, ranging between 450 units and 600 units, with between 10 per cent and 20 per cent being affordable housing. Each proposal also includes between 300 and 330 public parking spaces. The city will seek as-is offers because soils in the area are contaminated with coal tar left behind by the London Coal Gasification Site that operated from 1850 until 1930. The mayor explained his excitement to proceed to the next step, 'We got a little more work to do because it's a contaminated site, (but) if we were able to change that into residential development, that would be phenomenal for the area.'
CTV News
28-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
No Quick Fix: $110M gap to bring LMCH public housing up to ‘good' condition
A recently completed Asset Management Plan (AMP) has determined that bringing public housing operated by London Middlesex Community Housing (LMCH) up to a 'good' condition would require up to $110 million over the next decade. A condition assessment of 31 residential properties generated an overall grade of 'poor', with none evaluated as being in 'good' or 'very good' condition. According to the report, seven were in 'fair' condition, 18 in 'poor' condition, and six in 'very poor' condition. 'These assets are a different type of asset because there's a human factor here-- people live in these units,' Councillor Sam Trosow told colleagues on the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee. Councillor Hadleigh McAlister, who also sits on the LMCH Board, explained, 'Many of these properties were built in the 1960s and 1970s. So, all of these properties are falling into the same trap, which is aging infrastructure.' Escaping that financial trap will be costly. The AMP determined it will cost $6.4 million to simply maintain the overall 'poor' condition and not slip into 'very poor' over the next 10 years. Making improvements to achieve an overall 'fair' condition would boost the 10-year cost to $34.6 million. An estimated $110.3 million would need to be spent over the next decade to improve to an overall 'good' condition. 'These are discussions that have to happen through the multi-year budget, because they have ramifications in terms of the financial impacts,' said McAlister. Mayor Josh Morgan suggested there is no quick fix. 'There is not going to be a plan that is going to bring that gap to zero in a short period of time,' Morgan told colleagues on SPPC. 'It would require significant investment from other levels of government, and those other levels of government know that this is a challenge many municipalities have.' The mayor cited financial investments made in the 2020-2023 budget as an indication that there's a commitment to address the problem. 'Work through 2025 will have over $60 million in capital repair investments into our community—so that work has begun,' said Paul Chisholm, CEO of LMCH after the meeting. 'The data tells us there's more work (and) that we need to up the level of maintenance and capital work we do.' City staff will provide LMCH with support, assisting LMCH in developing action plans to implement recommendations in the short, medium, and long-term. The committee voted to receive the report.
