Posted Aug 28, 2013, 1:40 AM
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Sanity merchant
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 491
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A call to delay a major Hwy. 401 London retail development, until environmental approvals are in, was run over by city council Monday night.
But in the debate over the $300-million PenEquity proposal — described as a battle between trees and jobs — one politician said something else entirely hangs in the balance: The public’s trust in this council.
If, as expected at press time, council was to approve needed zoning changes for the project on 31 hectares of land at the 401 and Wellington Rd., they’d be sidestepping their own blueprint for growth and endangering Londoners’ faith in the process, Coun. Nancy Branscombe said.
“The public trusts us to follow the rules,” she said. But with an approval, “we’ve lost that trust.
“(We’d be saying) if you’re big enough and you have a whole lot of money, you can do what you want.”
At issue is the massive commercial project trumpeted by Mayor Joe Fontana as a “gateway” to London.
In a city hobbled by one of Canada’s highest metro jobless rates, the project has no shortage of supporters.
But it’s also become a lightning rod for another issue — politicians being seen to rush pro-growth development, before needed check-offs by other players with interests at stake, in a city where many want tighter rules on big-box growth and urban sprawl.
The land is zoned commercial, but an adjustment is needed to allow a planned movie theatre.
But the approval would arrive without potentially fatal environment information: The land includes a wetland within a woodland, and there are incomplete environmental assessments by the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority, which regulates wetlands, and Ontario’s Natural Resources Ministry, which oversees woodlands.
The development is fine, Branscombe said, but the question is which parts of the land are environmentally “significant” enough to be protected.
It’s the lack of that clear information that led Coun. Joni Baechler to suggest the issue be sent back to staff pending more work, including an environmental impact study on the woodland.
That lost by a 10-5 vote, with Baechler, Branscombe, Denise Brown, Harold Usher and Judy Bryant supporting it for naught.
There were indications Coun. Matt Brown was to introduce stipulations on the rezoning approval that would protect the environmentally significant parts of the land, but details were unclear at press time.
The two relevant environmental groups, the UTRCA and MNR, must OK the developments before any building permits can be issued.
For the UTRCA, council approval before their work is done has been deemed unfair — putting them in the position of potentially standing in the way of a huge development.
Mayor Joe Fontana was pointed in his remarks about approving the project.
“If we do say no to that, it will send a message around the world,” he said. “We’ve got to have our heads examined if we’re going to do that.”
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