Developers, mayor: Plan for taller buildings across London falls short

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London is looking to change its skyline by boosting maximum building heights across the city, but it’s not enough in some areas, the mayor and developers say.

A public participation meeting is set for Tuesday’s meeting of council’s planning committee, seeking input on a plan to increase minimum and maximum height limits by area or neighbourhood in a bid to spur more housing.

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The review also will cover other design items, such as lot setbacks and building stepbacks, and creating two new transit villages – areas with the loosest restrictions on height and density outside downtown.

The proposed height changes include:

• Downtown: 45-storey limit, up from 35 storeys
• Transit villages: 30 storeys, up from 22
• Rapid transit corridors:
  • 25 storeys, up from 16 within 150 metres of transit stations
  • 15 storeys, up from 12 elsewhere on corridors
• Urban corridors: 15 storeys, up from 10
• Shopping areas:
  • Major (new): 15 storeys
  • Community: Eight storeys, up from six
• Main Streets: Eight storeys, up from six
• Neighbourhoods:
  • Major streets: Eight storeys, up from six
  • Connectors: Four storeys, up from three

Though council and developers have lauded efforts to update the city’s master planning document amid the housing crisis, London-based Sifton Properties says the proposed new height limits, particularly in the city’s neighbourhoods, won’t make enough of a dent.

“The only notable change to the (neighbourhood) framework is an increase in maximum height to eight storeys from the standard maximum of four storeys (upper maximum of six storeys) at a major street intersection,” company officials said in a letter to politicians.

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“This change alone does not provide for increased flexibility in the heights framework nor contribute to a general increase in housing.”

Sifton argues the height limits on neighbourhood connectors – streets that connect residents to amenities such as parks – should be boosted to six storeys in the city’s primary transit area, roughly bordered by Wonderland Road, Bradley Avenue, Highbury Avenue and Fanshawe Park Road.

On major neighbourhood streets, such as Oxford Street, Adelaide Street and Commissioners Road, Sifton says height limits should be upped to 12 storeys in the transit area, and 10 storeys fronting intersections with other major streets.

That sentiment is shared by the rest of the development community, states a letter from Mike Wallace, the executive director of the London Development Institute (LDI), a local developer group.

“Our preference would have been that these recommended changes would have been incorporated into the staff report . . . they were not,” he wrote. “We were led to believe that this height review was to analyze and recommended changes . . . to reflect the reality of the heights staff have been recommending and council approving over the last two or more years.”

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Rapid transit corridors should have a height limit of 20 storeys, not 15, Wallace said.

Mayor Josh Morgan agrees to an extent, calling some of staff’s recommendations “conservative.”

In an interview, he committed to tabling an amendment Tuesday to allow 25 storeys across rapid transit corridors, and allowing stacked townhouses up to four storeys on neighbourhood connector streets.

“We need to be much more aggressive on things if we’re going to actually deal with the housing crisis adequately,” Morgan said. “I fully respect staff’s opinion . . . but as (the recommendations) exist, they still contain too much red tape.”

Morgan stopped short of supporting the developers’ requests on major neighbourhood streets, saying it would be better to be site-specific rather than set a blanket limit, to balance the interests of developers and residents.

The amendment also will suggest scrapping the proposal to designate the Oxford-Richmond intersection a transit village, with Morgan saying the city should wait for the recommendations of its 25-year transportation planning document.

jmoulton@postmedia.com

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