Stacked townhouses, higher buildings in, single-family homes out: Mayor

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London’s skyline could see dramatic changes both in the city’s busiest districts and its neighbourhoods as city councillors approved sweeping changes to the city’s master planning document.

The 13-1 vote at Tuesday’s city council meeting opens the door to 45-storey apartment towers downtown and four-storey stacked townhouses on neighbourhood “connector” streets, a designation the city has given to dozens of streets that connect residents to schools and shopping areas.

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“We’re voting to help alleviate dangerous and overcrowded conditions in multiple neighbourhoods across the city . . . We need to provide more intense options across the city,” Mayor Josh Morgan said.

“We need to provide options for people not to have to go out and have single-family homes spread out in the suburbs, or worse, in Lucan, or Kilworth, Komoka or Ilderton.”

The vote on the raft of changes ranging from the addition of a new “transit village” at 100 Kellogg Lane to increasing maximum building heights on different types of roads across the site completed a process that critics said was rushed and didn’t provide Londoners an opportunity to comment on proposed changes that could alter the fabric of the neighbourhoods.

Morgan put in motion the most controversial change, allowing four-storey stacked townhouses on connector streets, on Sept. 6, days before a public meeting on the proposed updates to the London Plan on Sept. 10.

Widely seen as the new starter home, the one- or two-storey units are stacked atop each other in multi-unit developments. The current limit is three storeys, and they are allowed along major roads and at connector street corners.

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Coun. Corrine Rahman sought to limit stacked townhouses to central London, a land area in the London Plan bound by Oxford and Adelaide streets and the branches of the Thames River, and to hold a public meeting about allowing them on connector streets across the city.

“The amendment that was proposed . . . was done so with very little opportunity to consult with the public,” she said. “This isn’t a ‘Hey, we don’t want stacked townhouses.’”

She said residents who live in her northwest London ward are worried stacked townhouses will increase the density of their neighbourhoods that don’t have transit service.

The depth of the housing crisis versus the weight of neighbourhood feedback was the crux of the argument among politicians.

“People really weren’t clear on what neighbourhood connector streets were,” Trosow said. “For a change of this magnitude, we owe it to the public to take another cycle and generate some more information that’s detailed.”

Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis said stacked townhouses are already allowed in certain areas, and the only difference is adding a storey.

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“I know that colleagues want to say this is about public consultation . . . but you’ve all seen the correspondence,” he said, referring to letters and emails councillors received. “It is about residents who want this killed on their street.”

Morgan said stacked townhouses provide a cheaper option for both buyers and builders, and the change doesn’t mean the townhouses will dominate all neighbourhoods.

“What I see in the public correspondence on this and what I see in the posters that are going up in different wards, is a lot of information that is about anxiety and worry, and not based on the facts and the economics of how these things would actually work across the city,” he said.

Rahman’s motion to take more time to study stacked townhouses failed in an 8-6 vote. She, Trosow, Anna Hopkins, Elizabeth Peloza, Paul Van Meerbergen and David Ferreira voted in favour while all others voted against.

The remainder of the London Plan changes at the meeting were barely addressed. All changes will be subject to final approval from the provincial government.

jmoulton@postmedia.com

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