All 15 members of London City Council took part in the meeting on Tuesday, January 20, with Councillor Susan Stevenson joining remotely.
Hello, everyone! With 57 actual human subscribers, I’m pleased to offer you a ‘ketchup’ of today’s Full Council meeting at London City Hall. (Uma Thurman does that pun in Pulp Fiction, you know. And do not buy Heinz - buy local.)
What you can expect
Here’s how I’ll do this every time. First, here are some basic factual reports, from what I heard. I’ll also take note of who else is in the room and tell you what to look out for later, for other local reporting. In this case, you can look forward to the work of Jack Moulton, London Free Press, and Daryl Newcombe of CTV; I saw Daryl interviewing Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis on camera today. I may add/update later to make sure you see what they do; at least, everything will be in my Friday roundup. And at some point you will see further reflection pieces from me. I’m looking to publish at least three times a week on this Substack.
That’s our three:
What Mike saw at the time
What other local reporters are saying
And a bit of context and perspective later
And remember you can always check the city website for the video recording of the meeting, plus council reports and agendas for total accuracy. But you shouldn’t need to do that, because there are journalists doing it for you, right?
Sound good? Off we go!
Protests at City Council - but homelessness is scheduled for discussion next week
What a tidy protest! About 15-20 people showed up to hold these placards. Too many exclams for this old hack.
It was a colourful meeting of City Council today, but only visually - people with a message about homelessness showed up with signs, but no discussion of the issue took place.
You can zoom in on the image for their messaging, which also focused on ‘transparency and accountability” for the next election. At various times, perhaps 20 folks were there to wave the placards and support each other.
Outside, it was between -17 and -11 today (and felt like -21 according to my iPhone).
And, over at the New York Times of London Ontario, you can read a full report on Councillors Sam Trosow and David Ferreira seeking to improve cold weather provision for the homeless. Watch this space, apparently.
It’s due at to come up at a meeting of the Community and Protective Services Committee on January 26.
Council rewrites the rules on school land, approving policy shift for new subdivisions
London City Council approved a policy change governing how land is set aside and acquired for future schools within new subdivisions.
The decision follows a School Block Status Update Report, which was first considered by the Planning and Environment Committee on January 6 and accepted by Council today.
The approved policy directs Civic Administration to changes draft plan conditions to give school boards 6.5 years from the date of registration of a subdivision to purchase designated school blocks. The timeframe includes the City’s 90-day review window if the full 6.5 years elapses. If a school board releases a block earlier, the City’s 90-day review period begins immediately after that release.
The policy change also requires:
School boards, when requesting a reserved school block, to demonstrate the need for the land through their accommodation plans
Annual meetings between the City, school boards, and the development industry to confirm the ongoing need for reserved school blocks
Civic Administration to explore and report back on potential property tax options for reserved school blocks while they are prohibited from development.
According to the report, the changes respond to concerns from school boards and developers that land was being held without sufficient time for approvals and funding to build schools. City staff developed the recommended approach following extensive consultation with local school boards and representatives of the development industry.
During the debate at Council, David Ferreira expressed concerns but did vote for the policy change. Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis had an impassionate reply in favour (and I’ll link to CTV reporting of that later).
The policy change, in the end, was passed unanimously, with Councillor Skylar Franke recused.
Important: I’ll always be happy to add comments from anyone mentioned in any of my posts. Just get in touch!
More parking for Callaway Road development
Council also approved a motion to increase parking requirements for a proposed development at 465 Callaway Road.
The project is an 87-unit, six-storey building with 77 parking spaces. The proposal already came through the Planning and Environment Committee and was at Council for approval.
Ahead of the meeting, Ward 7’s Councillor Corrine Rahman said her concern was that the proposed parking supply was inadequate and would lead to parking issues in the surrounding area. Rahman put forward a motion to increase parking, shifting the proposal toward a 1:1 parking ratio based on the number of units.
The motion was carried by Council.
Plans for the development, which I swiped - HOINK! - from Cllr Rahman’s Facebook.
Council approves amended Hamilton Road development, reducing height and unit count
London City Council has approved an amended zoning motion affecting 1040 Hamilton Road and 1050 and 1070 Hamilton Road, reducing the permitted height of the proposed development and lowering the number of housing units.
Council approved an amendment that reduces the building height from eight storeys to six storeys. As a result of the height reduction, 24 affordable housing units will be removed from the project.
The amendment was moved by Hadleigh McAlister and formed part of the final motion considered by council. The motion, as amended, was carried by a vote of 13–1–0. The vote against was cast by downtown councillor David Ferreira.
A separate proposal to require a public participation meeting for the project was considered but did not pass and is not included in the final decision.
Councillors vote in favour of BRT-related land expropriations for Wellington Gateway
Handy map with phases, nabbed from the city website.
London City Council has approved land expropriations related to the Wellington Gateway Project, a key component of the Bus Rapid Transit system in that part of the city.
According to a City Council report, the Wellington Gateway Project was identified as a priority due to increased road use, area development, and operational safety needs, with the goal of improving support for all travel modes. The project will revitalize approximately six kilometres of Wellington Road, stretching between Downtown London and Highway 401.
The project includes:
Widening Wellington Road to add continuous transit-only lanes
Improvements intended to increase traffic capacity and improve transit frequency and reliability
Associated underground infrastructure work, including replacement of aging sewers and underground services
The project has received Provincial Environmental Assessment approval, which identified the need for property acquisitions to proceed.
Council voted 13–2 to approve the expropriations. The votes against were cast by Susan Stevenson and Paul Van Meerbergen. All other members of Council voted in favour.
Issues that we approved but not discussed
Did you read the Roundup on Friday? It has more items that simply sailed through this meeting with approval, including BIA budgets, some important economic development planning, and more.
There was also no discussion of this - Mayor Josh Morgan’s unsuccessful attempt to have housing built on a city parking lot.
ENOUGH!
That’s the end of the reports for today. Phew! Thanks for following along, and please interact and say hi. LIKE AND SUB….SCRIBE! And look out for more.
“Journalism is literature in a hurry.”
Matthew Arnold
Note on A.I. use: I do not support use of generative A.I. to replace human creativity.
I make use of A.I. support only where it can make me better or faster at a task I would already have undertaken. These reports were produced with help from note-taking and fact-collating from an online assistant in ChatGPT, speeding the process while retaining editorial control in the hands of a human (me).
Please reach out to me anytime you’d like to discuss this, especially if it gives you the ick. I’m a real person and a straight dealer, and always open to feedback.
Five dollars for a milkshake?
Great recappage!
Thanks Mike