Contributed Image
Taken from the City of London's City of Opportunity presentation, this view of the Forks of the Thames represents a glimpse into the possible future of the Forest City.
A new city hall, a stronger connection to the Thames River and even an urban beach have all been unveiled as part of London’s possible future.
The city’s planning department provided members of the Finance and Administration Committee with a vision of what the city could do to truly re-imagine the downtown during its meeting on Wednesday (Sept. 28). The presentation, spearheaded by John Fleming, the city’s director of planning, also suggested redevelopment of lands surrounding South Street hospital and London Hydro, redesigned parking and traffic measures, new transit hubs, a revitalized Dundas and Richmond streets and a re-imagining of the area around the Forks of the Thames.
Using 3D maps in a PowerPoint presentation to the committee, Fleming took council through nearly a dozen sites throughout the city, starting with the South of Horton (SoHo) area, along the London Hydro lands, up to the John Labatt Centre, the Market Lane area, through a rebuilt Dundas Street, the city hall and Victoria Park areas, along Richmond Street and down to the Forks of the Thames.
“We are very excited by this project. You can see from the title, Imagine: City of Opportunity, this has come out from a council’s strategic planning work,” Fleming said. “I think his project really captures that sense of opportunity. We see a number of huge opportunities throughout these areas.”
Jim Yanchula, manager community planning and urban design, preceded the Fleming’s presentation, calling the vision of downtown snapshots of the future.
“It is not what is, it is what if. It allows us to test things. For example, imagine a blank parking lot; imagine what it would look like full of buildings. What if is where we are going with this,” Yanchula said. “We are looking at the big picture. This means there are many options that could happen in the future. Think of this over the long-term. This is not a static moment in time. It is an evolution.”
The presentation represents an amalgamation of concepts and proposals, including the Downtown Summit, Downtown Master Plan, Transportation Master Plan, council discussions and other public consultation. The presentation to members of the committee can be found on the City of London website at http://www.london.ca/d.aspx?s=/Planning_and_Development/Land_Use_Planning/Urban_Design/default.htm.
Following the presentation, Jeff Fielding, London’s chief administrative officer, spoke briefly on what pieces of city-held properties were used to create the report. Fielding said the sites Fleming talked about are currently in public hands, either directly by the city, another agency of the city, or a municipal partner like Middlesex County. Buildings utilized throughout the presentation include the South Street hospital, London Hydro building, Middlesex County building, Museum London, Eldon House, Covent Garden Market, Centennial Hall, Queen’s Avenue parking lot and Central High School.
“When you think about the public facilities that we have available, what we asked our people was to look at these sites, see what we could do to further our long-term plans for downtown,” Fielding said. “We asked them to connect some other important sites and see what they could come up with. This is a huge opportunity. It isn’t just what if; it is what is potentially possible if the right investment strategy was found.”
Later in the meeting, members of council agreed the vision is one to be embraced and explored further with timelines and costs being chief among their concerns.
Mayor Joe Fontana said this vision continues in the tradition of previous councils who made it a priority to invest in the downtown.
“I think I named it the whole enchilada. And that is what this is. This is visionary,” Fontana said. “It answers the question of what if. I believe this is a long-awaited plan. What we see today is absolutely extraordinary.”
Good Bye Fontana. Had you visited the area at the forks you would see there already is a new park, with bike paths connecting the whole city, a water park, benches and lovely gardens all within a few minutes walk of City Hall. Now walk the same distance east along Dundas. You will see poverty conditions, old, run-down buildings, closed businesses, a methadone clinic (across the street from a high school) and the results of decades of urban decay.
I agree… the Old East Village as they call it now… is very run down and poorly planned. I grew up there for 18 years through all the raids by police on gleebe street (now known as Hewit) for one block. The drive by shooting at the fry booth that use to be on the cornner there. Oh yes let us not forget Top Pick Pizza that was right beside the T & C Tavern. I have seen London go from Good to bad, to worse in just over a decade. My wife and I are moving because now London is a place of anxietiy and panic for us and many more. The Downtown is now the new East End with people selling drugs, and shooting up on the cornners and back alleys. We cant even walk a block downtown these days without someone trying to fight someone else or getting hit up for change or a spare ciggarette. Its gross downtown we hate it, Our kids wont go down there because we dont bring them its dirty down there and full of germs and nasty people that dont give to cents about how they talk or what they smoke or sell in front of them, its disgusting to see a once great city turn into this. I am glad we are moving from here London is no longer the place to raise young children and thats really sad. I guess people like to bring down others and really trash where the live with urban decay and social decay. One word comes to mind Pathetic.
As a fellow SoHo Home Owner. I have mixed feelings about the proposal for South Street. I have a vision of increased population density, large amounts of vehicular traffic, and increased property taxes. I really hope that the scheme for new residential buildings is NOT for rentals.
I like how the forks of the Thames would look, however wouldnt that mean relocationg the london midlesex health unit, getting rid of the peace garden aka ivy park…? Oh and also what about the Thames river itself… with the dam both in fanshawe and springbank the river is to low to really focus on it as an attraction. The river is slowly drying up, unfortunetly the Thames use to be a thing of beauty downtown… now its more of a shallow stream because of all our changes and construction. We need to put more water back into the thames river if we are going to use it as our focus point for downtown.
There is a story that carny’s call London ‘Rubber City’, because the only thing that does well at the Fair is selling balloons. But then, they really haven’t considered all the people with pellet guns.