Mayor pushing ahead to permit 4-storey stacked townhouses on neighbourhood connector streets

Despite calls for public consultation, Mayor Josh Morgan pressed the Planning and Environment Committee to support his proposal to get more aggressive removing barriers to residential density in London.

On Tuesday, Morgan and Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis brought forward a motion to beef up recommendations made by city staff to increase the local housing supply more quickly.

Among the five changes being suggested to the Official Plan, Morgan wants to permit developers to build stacked townhouses up to four-storeys in height along all streets classified as Neighbourhood Connectors.

The mayor believes it will immediately create new opportunities for denser and more affordable forms of housing citywide.

His motion suggests that stacked townhouses have become one of the most popular forms of housing in London, especially as a new form of “starter home”.

They are also, in many cases, faster to build than other types of housing.

“For us to create a permissive framework, it will allow for an a very affordable type of development to be built in our city — where appropriate,” Morgan committee members.

But the proposed amendment to the Official Plan was only posted on the public agenda Friday afternoon.

Former City Councillor Sandy Levin told the committee that most residents who live on the impacted streets don’t even know about the potential change yet, “No notice of the proposal went out to residents on the affected [neighbourhood] connectors. The public notice itself was baffle gab!”

The dozens of neighbourhood connectors in London are higher-order roads than typical residential streets, but still include stretches of single-family homes.

The category includes dozens of streets that pass through neighbourhoods, including Wortley Road, Cheapside Street, Aldersbrook Road, Millbank Drive, and Wavell Street.

“For the community to be engaged, I do think we're pre-empting a process by not allowing enough consultation for those that live on neighborhood connectors,” warned Coun. Corrine Rahman.

“I feel very uncomfortable that we would just go ahead and do something like this without even giving that notification to the community, and I think there's significant changes,” added Coun. Anna Hopkins.

However, the mayor suggested a delay could jeopardize housing funds from the senior levels of government.

“We're also up against some timelines, both federally and provincially, to make some of the density changes that we want, if we want to adhere to our Housing Accelerator Fund obligations,” Morgan said.

Lewis explained the change being proposed, “We’re going from three-storeys to four-storeys along the length of a road where we're already allowing (four-storeys) at intersections (with other neighbourhood connectors).

Morgan adding that property sizes and values will limit where developers can assemble a large enough site to build stacked townhouses within existing neighbourhoods, “These developments are going to happen where they make sense across the city. They will not be on every one of these neighborhood connector streets and not dotted all along them. There is an economics to this that makes sense.”

The planning committee voted to support the mayor’s motion.

Afterwards, CTV News asked Morgan about consulting with the public before making a final decision at council.

He replied, “I think there's tough decisions you have to make when you're trying to deal with the housing crisis. And so, we can move forward with a form of housing that is generally permitted in these neighborhoods in the city, maybe not on every single property along those neighborhood (connectors), but they're permitted at major intersections already.”

Londoners can provide feedback to council members about the proposed amendment to the Official Plan ahead of the council meeting on September 24.