A $200 million proposal to build a shopping plaza, on Wellington Road near Highway 401, is back before London’s planning and development committee next week.
Meantime, developer PenEquity Realty Corporation, based in Toronto, has outlined its position in a report.
PenEquity requires the removal of a 4.2 hectare woodlot and that stalled the proposal as council wanted more information about the environmental significance of the property and the impact it would have on the local job market.
Opponents of the proposal questioned whether it would create 1,200 jobs, or just relocate them from other locations in the city.
PenEquity has fired back – in the report and also by hiring a forester.
The forester determined 79 per cent of the trees in the woodlot are either ash or elm and likely doomed by the emerald ash borer and Dutch elm disease.
PenEquity is clear in its report that “They will not proceed with the development of the subject site if the significant woodland is retained."
Councillor Bud Pohill expressed concern about losing the development.
“I would hate to see a project like that disappear,” he says.
In a letter, PenEquity also suggests the 1,200 jobs figure is realistic and that any stores that move in from elsewhere in London would create new opportunities in the previous location.
The proposed site also has a wetland, but a consultant deemed it is not environmentally significant. City planners believe the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority should be consulted about the wetland as well.
And none of PenEquity’s claims have been verified by city staff.
