Excellence vs. expediency
BLOG #582: As City Hall prepares plans for the future development of a huge chunk of southwest London should we blight our future for the benefit of the present? Or should we have a long-term view of how this city grows?
Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012 – London
Bud Polhill says the whole thing was the result of some bad crafting of a motion on the part of members of the planning and environment committee which he chairs. Others saw more sinister motives.
Whatever the reason – and in the context of the ensuing discussion I think probably the councillor for Ward 1 is right – it gave city council another chance last night to bash away at either other over the best way to grow this community. Do we plan for the future or capitalize on the present?
For example, in the larger scheme of things is a job a job a job? Or should London be shooting higher than $12 an hour retail employment with little security and few benefits?
At issue last night was the draft Southwest Area Plan, now known almost exclusively around City Hall as SWAP – although in truth the acronym doesn’t come even close to defining what it is. SWAP is a land use plan for a huge chunk of southwestern London, roughly everything south of Southdale in a wide swath on each side of Wonderland Road all the way to Highway 401.
The major controversy at the moment – there undoubtedly will be more – concerns how much commercial and retail development should be encouraged along the main street of this future home to thousands of families. City planners think it should be limited; large land owners want the opposite.
At the beginning of this project council decided property owners and citizens in the general area would be actively involved in determining how the area would look. So as plans are drawn up by the city’s planning department in concert with various developers in the area, they are taken to public meetings for discussion, debate and quite frequently revision.
Another meeting is coming up. The planning department has a new draft plan and routinely asked the planning and environment committee for approval to present it to the meeting. The new plan somewhat curtails the length of the retail-commercial development along Wonderland.
Instead, the committee passed this motion: “Notwithstanding the recommendation of the director of land use planning and city planner, the civic administration be asked to prepare a second concept of SWAP for public review, showing greater focus of retail and commercial uses on the Wonderland Road corridor.”
That’s what came to council last night to the final okay. And caused a ruckus.
“This motion throws three years of work out the window,” said Councillor Harold Usher, whose Ward 12 shares a portion of the SWAT area.
“We’re jumping over the public process by doing this,” said Councillor Judy Bryant (Ward 13), an architect by training and a strong advocate of community participation in land use planning. “This corridor will end up looking like Wellington Road, which is not a beautiful entrance to the city. Making another entrance like that is not good planning.”
On the other side was Councillor Dale Henderson who represents Ward 9, which includes the bulk of the area covered by SWAP. “If it looks like Wellington Street (sic) so what, there’s a lot of tax revenue there. The feedback from my area is they are happy with what they are seeing here.”
To which Councillor Paul Hubert (Ward 8) rejoined: “Every time we want to push something through we say it will create jobs. The jobs that will come there will be retail, $12 an hour. I think prosperity and economic planning has to have a higher goal here than that.”
In jumped Councillor Stephen Orser (Ward 4): “Someone stuck on welfare will be glad to get those jobs. So you can vote this forward right now and help some people in the future and create a draw off the 401 or we can drag this on for another two or three years. Any job is better than no job.”
He was followed by Councillor Paul Van Meerbergen (Ward 10): “The fact is we’ve been dragging our feet for years on this corridor. It’s perfectly made for substantial commercial development to the tune of millions in development charges, taxation, short time and long term jobs. This is exactly what we want – private sector-driven job creation and we’re standing in the way of it.
“Wonderland was never designed for sandal wearing, bicycle riding eco tourists.”
And while that statement by Mr. Van Meerbergen becomes the early candidate for quote of the year, it was left to Councillor Polhill to explain the motion was supposed to have read that in addition to the recommendation of the planning department a second option be presented to the meeting showing more commercial and retail along Wonderland.
Tempers cooled, the motion passed.
But once again that sharp divide within council between excellence vs. expediency raises its head. This group may well have passed a strategic plan but they still have not learned how to think strategically
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Are there any more outrages that this council can possibly foist on current taxpayers whose numbers and finances are dwindling quickly is more events like EMD occur.
And where will the physicians come from to attend to all these people? Those whose rights to use the health care services are already being shuffled off to newcomers and their parents and grandparents.
I'm lucky I've got U.S. coverage - but what of those who do not and paid for decades only to see their dividends paid out to those who never bought in or contributed.
The life boat is already over-filled.
Whats next Chrysler, Kelloggs, 3M?
Do we put up a sign "High Paying jobs only? The new reality is upon us and many people will be satisfied with such a job. We held out for so long to build up downtown "The horses have stampeded away to the suburbs". You want commercial in Hyde Park; Wellington Rd. south; Highbury Ave.(Oxford area). You should give all citizens a say. Start by freeing up downtown to level playing field no subsidies; full taxes and fill with private enterprize. Public bodies will forever cost us tax dollars. Past Councilors decided the type of city. We cant afford to go back! The public and private enterprize should decide even on Wonderland and downtown!
He has no idea what the people want in this ward because he neither lives here nor makes any kind of effort to represent the ward. Henderson was elected by people working for the CATO institute in the U.S. and they raised $22K to get him elected when he was already proven inept in his Music Hall losses at the Western Fair.
Henderson had better demonstrate who told him they're OK with this plan. Did he do a phone survey? Did he email his constituents, or did he ask his campaign donors or maybe the CATO institute people what he should say and how to vote.
The proposed development plan called for significant industrial land. There is a big commercial developer from Toronto pushing for more commercial space instead of industrial.
While there is lots of talk of tax revenue growth, there is no discussion of all the costs that come with it. Overall, costs to operate the new growth are covered by the new revenue. There is not a windfall. If there was, all the industrial development of the early part of 2000-2005 would have lowered the tax rate.
Just a little south of Southdale on the east side of Wharncliffe there used to be a family farm where they sold antiquities. I recall many years ago signing a petition to help save that families property from expropriation by the city of london who wanted their swath of land inorder to extend Bradley Avenue ... the land was taken and it sits there for decades, unused and argued over, meanwhile that family mayhave been able to actually do something purposeful and creative with it...doesn't seem right to me.
They have nothing to offer people except the dim prospect of landing a provincial government heavily subsidized green factory, that produces freeze dried grubs for the end of the world people, who share their vision of the apocalypse.
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