Affordable housing units bump up size of proposed apartment building

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An eight-storey apartment building may rise near Sarnia and Wonderland roads in northwest London after a city council committee approved the 129-unit development Tuesday.

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The recommendation by council’s planning and environment committee for the proposed mid-rise tower at 520 Sarnia Rd. will go to city council for final approval.

Horizen Developments plans to build the tower on the site of what is now a one-storey commercial plaza west of Wonderland Road. City staff agreed to let the developer add two storeys in exchange for adding two affordable housing units and enhancing the design, the committee heard.

“This is a good development. I always look at what is in the area and there is medium and high density behind it. It fits the area,” Ward 8 Coun. Steve Lehman said. “It is a good-looking structure.”

The project has 100 parking spaces, a reduction from the 162 the tower would normally need under city rules. Staff agreed to fewer parking spaces because of the availability of transit in the area, a staff report said.

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Staff recommended approval of the tower, saying it will add to the housing mix in the area.

“We are very excited to be bringing this development to the city. It has been three years in the making,” said Matt Campbell, senior planner with Zelinka Priamo, a private planning firm.

“There is an older commercial building on site that is just not viable anymore. This is a great development, a real asset.”

As for the bonusing, the development plans to add two bachelor apartments as affordable housing, not exceeding 80 per cent of average market rent, and won recognition for its building and site design, the staff report said.

That prompted Ward 11 Coun. Stephen Turner to ask whether an addition of two-storeys should require more than just two bachelor apartments.

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“Two units of affordable housing seem meagre,” he said.

But planning staff said the two units are in line with the increased density under city housing guidelines.

“It is well designed, it is well suited for the area and close to commercial and transit and the university,” Turner said of the development. “I am supportive of it, but to go from six to eight storeys is a jump in bonusing.”

No members of the public spoke in opposition to the proposed development, but the city did receive messages of concerns from area residents about the traffic that would be generated by the development, the staff report said, which added staff don’t share those concerns.

The Sarnia Road apartment was one of several development proposals before the committee. Others included:

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