Did the refusal of this planning application signal an election year shift by London city council?

Pressure from unhappy residents has resulted in plans to build a four-storey long term care home being scrapped at a London city council meeting on Tuesday.

Council rejected a planning application to build a new long-term care facility in west London, but Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis questioned if neighbourhood opposition had too much influence on that decision.

On Tuesday, Council voted against (5-10) permitting a four-storey long-term care facility (224 beds) and a four-storey apartment building (54 units) at 945 Bluegrass Dr. despite a recommendation by city hall’s planning department to approve the rezoning.

According to city staff, the proposal would permit, “development at a scale and intensity that is appropriate for the site and surrounding context.”

However, neighbours argued that the project was too tall, would bring 24/7 operations close to homes, and require delivery trucks and ambulances to regularly traverse narrow residential streets to reach the facility from Sarnia Road.

In the public gallery of council chambers a couple dozen neighbours held signs opposing the development, and several councillors acknowledged receiving emails from opponents.

“It’s going up to four stories. It was already approved for three. This is just pushing it too far,” argued Coun. Steve Lehman who is Chair of the Planning and Environment Committee and whose ward includes the undeveloped property. “So for those reasons, I encourage my colleagues not to support this.”

Although often politically aligned with Lehman, Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis urged support for the development, “I think that we are getting into some territory where we are overreacting to some neighbourhood opposition.”

Lewis encouraged colleagues to consider the planning rationale behind the staff recommendation to approve the rezoning.

The deputy mayor then referenced the campaign period leading up to the municipal election in October.

“I think the consequences of going down this path for the next several months, which is what I am starting to see happen, going down this path that we are going to reject anything that the public objects to, is a very dangerous path. And a very expensive one when we start racking up legal bills at the OLT (Ontario Land Tribunal).

Anna Hopkins said, “I am very concerned that we are picking and choosing our applications. I want to support our policies, and I want to thank staff for the work that they’ve done on this.”

But Coun. Sam Trosow challenged the developer’s traffic study and referenced the existing zoning permissions on the site, “If the developer can’t do this properly within three stories, they’re trying to cram too much on this property.”

After the meeting, Mayor Josh Morgan was asked by CTV News whether public opposition during an election year influenced council’s decision.

“What I think happens during an election (period) is the level of public engagement tends to go up,” Morgan said. “But I certainly think public engagement has always been part of the decision making on planning files. And you can go back through the term and see that there’s many instances where sometimes the council has supported staff, sometimes they’ve not.”

Voting in favour of the planning application:

Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis

Budget Chair Elizabeth Peloza

Coun. David Ferreira

Coun. Skylar Franke

Coun. Anna Hopkins

Voting against the planning application:

Mayor Josh Morgan

Coun. Steve Lehman

Coun. Corrine Rahman

Coun. Peter Cuddy

Coun. Susan Stevenson

Coun. Hadleigh McAlister

Coun. Paul Van Meerbergen

Coun. Sam Trosow

Coun. Jerry Pribil

Coun. Steve Hillier