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London’s Towers of Spite may get company.
The developer who built four, three-storey rental units near Western University that have become urban legends for their lack of esthetic appeal wants to add more buildings to the development.
But this time, he has the blessing of city staff.
“I want to complete the project. When I put those towers up, it was just the beginning,” said Arnon Kaplansky, president of KAP Holdings in London.
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“I want to fill in what is missing. That was just the beginning.”
Kaplansky is proposing to add more buildings to the lot at 2-4 Audrey Ave. and 186-188 Huron St., where four buildings dubbed the Towers of Spite now stand. His application will be discussed at a meeting Tuesday of city council’s planning and environment committee meeting.
In Kaplansky’s latest proposal, three of the existing towers, offering 15 bedrooms for rent, will remain and 11 units will be built adding 55 more bedrooms, for a total of 70 bedrooms in 14 buildings, geared toward student rentals.
Kaplansky built the Towers of Spite in 2006 and 2007 after city politicians refused a larger development on the site that was opposed by a neighbourhood group worried about intensification. The four tall, narrow buildings were dubbed the Towers of Spite by neighbours who called them an eyesore.
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“There is a great need in the city for housing and people want to live within walking distance to the university,” he said.
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Kaplansky has been encouraged by the provincial government’s 2022 More Homes Built Faster Act that has reduced influence over building from groups, agencies and even municipal staff.
“The planning environment has changed. The province has taken control of the issues. Planning should be done by planners, not urban activists,” Kaplansky said.
The committee Tuesday will discuss whether to permit two, three-storey blocks of back-to-back cluster townhouses with 11 new residential units, five bedrooms in each. Kaplansky now rents each bedroom for about $900 a month.
There are four buildings on 0.17 hectares. If Kaplansky’s proposal is approved, the building at 2 Audrey Ave. would be torn down.
The city recently approved up to five-bedrooms in residences in near-campus neighbourhoods and this proposal is in line with that, city staff say in a report to the committee.
“The requested amendment aligns with council’s direction for residential intensification in near-campus neighbourhoods,” the report says.
Steve Lehman, chairperson of the city’s planning and environment committee, said Kaplansky’s proposal would address a pressing need for student housing.
“This is a blast from the past. It is infill, three-storey townhomes and a new build people can afford. It will help address housing needs,” he said.
Kaplansky initially wanted to build two duplexes and two triplexes on the site in the early 2000s. He took the matter to the Ontario Municipal Board and to the courts.
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