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The former London Psychiatric Hospital site is poised to become the single largest housing project in the city’s history, with Old Oak’s latest proposal for the lands adding enough units to house a small town.
It’s a massive project one city councillor described as “transformative” for east London and the city, which is in the midst of a housing affordability crisis.
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In a proposal headed next week to council’s planning committee, Old Oak is asking politicians to increase the heights for some of the towers it plans to build on the 57-hectare piece of land at the southeast corner of Oxford Street and Highbury, going to 32 storeys from 22.
The company, which bought the lands for $17 million in 2019, also wants higher density to be allowed in other parts of the property, where it plans to build smaller buildings and other multi-unit structures.
If approved, the changes could bring the total number of units being built on the site to about 8,400, or 2,650 more than initially envisioned for the site.
“I’m exceedingly happy with it,” Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis, who sits on the planning committee, said of the proposal. “This is badly needed housing in an area of the city that badly needs more housing.”
As part of the project, the tallest proposed building would be built at the corner of Oxford and Highbury Avenue. The height of other towers would decrease to 30 and 20 storeys going south on Highbury while leaving the eastern and southern parts of the lands to be filled with mid-rise buildings – some with commercial space – townhouses and stacked townhouses.
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The entire development located at 850 Highbury Avenue, which would take more than a decade to build, would require the creation of seven new streets. It also includes parks, bike lanes and a “village core” that incorporates the four heritage buildings that remain from the hospital, which shut down in 2014.
Though on Tuesday council moved to amend the city’s master planning document to allow for higher density across London, Old Oak still needs approval from council while the province signs off on the changes to the London Plan, which include allowing 45-storey apartment towers downtown and four-storey stacked townhouses on neighbourhood “connector” streets to be built as of right.
Lewis said Old Oak’s proposal fits perfectly with the type of project the changes are meant to promote.
“I think it’s going to be transformative,” he said. “The city has never had an opportunity like this. For as much as we talk about the great project that is at the old South Street hospital, that is tiny in comparison to what’s going to happen here.
“It’s a whole new neighbourhood coming into an area of the city that is already in existence.”
jjuha@postmedia.com
LONDON PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL
- Opened in 1870 as the London Insane Asylum
- Later known as Ontario Hospital London, London Psychiatric Hospital and Regional Mental Health Care London
- The facility closed in 2014, with about 150 patients sent to Parkwood Institute
- The site sold for $17 million to Old Oak Properties in January 2019
- The chapel, infirmary, assembly hall, and horse stable are protected heritage buildings
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