LONDON, ONT. The long-simmering debate over highrise developments next to Victoria Park is about to heat up again. City Hall has sent notices to neighbours that Auburn Developments is applying to rezone 560-562 Wellington Street for a 17-storey, 173-unit residential building. “It is disappointing,” admits Mary Ann Hodge, who lives in the Historic Woodfield neighbourhood. “We are back in the same spot we were a couple years ago.” The pandemic has delayed City Hall’s completion of the Victoria Park Secondary Plan that would include maximum height guidelines for future developments around the park. In 2018, inconsistent zoning around the perimeter of the park, and the potential for highrise buildings to encircle it, triggered work at City Hall on a ‘secondary plan’ that would regulate future developments.
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A London builder wants to bring a 350-unit housing development to northwest London, but city hall is reviewing whether the 20-hectare site should stay green.
Auburn Developments has bought land at Sunningdale and Hyde Park roads, now a farm field, and wants to build a subdivision that would feature a mix of single-family and townhouses, said Auburn vice-president Stephen Stapleton.
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But city hall is reviewing the plan, saying the land was intended for development by a cemetery for burial plots and further study is needed to determine if it can be developed for homes.