Sprawling community should be growing upwards not outwards
Forest City considers first master plan since 1989
By
Mark Schadenberg
LONDON
– It's transition time in London.
Industrial
development folks at city hall want the city to grow right up against
the 401 with commercial construction bringing in jobs.
New
residential areas also abound.
The
so-called SoHo district around the closed South Street hospital will
be transformed over the next 10 years, but what is the best way to
take advantage of the Thames River in this neighbourhood and all
areas of London?
If
you're involved in the entertainment scene in London, you're hoping
for a new performing arts centre just north of the Budweiser Gardens,
which would replace Centennial Hall.
London
has often discussed a ring road to assist transportation north around
the Veterans Memorial Parkway, then west somewhere past the Arva
area, and then moving southwest to Highway 402. The proposed official
plan covers planes, trains and automobiles, plus bicycles and
joggers.
After
about two years of public meetings, submissions and suggestions,
discussions, map drawings, and pondering zoning possibilities, the
plan is now written in ink, and it's called ReThink London. The ink
is not dry, however, as many changes could be edited in during the
next session of public consultation
The
ReThink master plan (www.thelondonplan.ca)
was officially unveiled on Thursday, May 22, and includes demographic
and growth projections, and a lot of concrete ideas about where
concrete
can be added. The London Free Press story (link below) calculates
that as many as 10,000 Londoners participated in the process through
surveys, social media (including Facebook), public meetings and
simply emailing comments.
Sub-titled:
Exciting, Exceptional, Connected, the document depicts a new London –
the first official plan for The Forest City since 1989.
“The
content is the content we heard from Londoners. We wrote it, but it
was very much informed by the past two years,” said Gregg Barrett,
manager of city planning in the LFP.
The
program starts with what is described as the 12 'big ideas'.
The
big ideas are diverse, including transportation (roads, but also
cycling trails), attracting employment (talent and investment),
regenerating urban main streets (their terminology), environment
protection (green city), planning new subdivisions, promoting a
community rich in both culture and diversity, and growing inward and
upward (less sprawling).
As
a Realtor this 'inward and upward' practice is promoted by the
province of Ontario as they encourage both intensification and
re-developing older builders into apartments or other residential
uses. (See attached jpeg).
Process
Progresses
Keep
in mind, London city council has not approved the 411-page plan, and
a further public meeting is set for June 23.
As
is noted on Page 5 of the essay 'Planning For Change and Our
Challenges Ahead' is another summary. Noting today's London
population as 381,000, the report projects the 2035 full-time
resident count to be 458,000.
From
Page 3 of the draft plan:
London
is on the cusp of a new chapter in its history where these and many
more questions are again being confronted by its citizens. For two
years, thousands of Londoners participated in the ReThink London
process - a widespread community discussion which, at its core,
focused on the fundamental question “what kind of city do we want
to live in 20 years from now?
ReThink London has arrived for
everyone's perusal.
In Woodstock, the community is
preparing to ink a new recreational needs assessment and it will be
penned and coordinated by the consulting group Monteith Brown. More
on that vision in a future writing.
Links:
Mark
Schadenberg, Sales
Representative
Senior
Real Estate Specialist (SRES designation)
Royal
LePage Triland Realty
757
Dundas St, Woodstock
www.wesellwoodstock.com
(519)
537-1553, cell or text
Email:
mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter:
markroyallepage
Facebook:
Mark Schadenberg, Royal LePage Triland
Discussion
. . . Direction . . . Determination . . . Destination
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