Treasure or trash?
City columnist Ian Gillespie gets his stuff appraised when he
visits The Antiques Roadshow

Tuesday, 29 May, 2007

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Sifton agrees to look at
swap

Tue, May 29, 2007

The developer
may get land elsewhere instead of building at Riverside and
Wonderland.

By JONATHAN SHER, SUN
MEDIA

An hour before what was to be a battle over prime land along the Thames
River, London politicians and a developer agreed to lay down arms and pick
up calculators.

Rather than head for a likely showdown before the Ontario Municipal
Board over a proposed office tower at Riverside Drive and Wonderland Road,
Sifton Properties and the politicians agreed last night to try to make a
deal, with the city to offer money and land.

The move drew cheers from 100 Oakridge residents who packed the city
hall gallery, smiles around council chambers and a note of caution from
Coun. Nancy Brans-combe: "I don't want to create false expectations."

The standing-down came the same day a London controller who wants to
limit development along the Thames accused city staff of ignoring a
scientist who predicts unprecedented flooding brought on by global
warning.

Gina Barber was the most strident but not alone on a council committee
that directed staff and council to meet with Slobodan Simonovic, who
directs the University of Western Ontario's Institute for Catastrophic
Loss Reduction.

Further restrictions would please those who want to preserve natural
heritage and insulate the city against the risks of flooding, but at a
cost borne by those who plan to build there, including UWO.

Those who want less development along the river point to the Sifton
application as Exhibit 1, a proposed five-storey office building that drew
the opposition of virtually everyone in Oakridge.

"What you want is no development. I've heard you loud and clear,"
Controller Gord Hume said.

The night was a success for Coun. Roger Caranci, who's pushed for a
land swap or deal for a couple of months.

"The city should have purchased this land a long time ago," Caranci
said.

Whether it will do so now may depend on the price. Sifton bought the
0.8-hectare parcel two years ago for $400,000 and has since paid
consultants to prepare it for development.

But the same land, if it could not be developed, would be worth a tiny
fraction of the purchase price -- clearly not acceptable, Sifton
vice-president Phil Masschelein said following last night's planning
committee meeting.

Masschelein wouldn't say how much it would take to seal a deal, but did
suggest it may take land and cash.

The time to deal is short. The planning committee wants something firm
in place by its next meeting June 18.

Simonovic's research projects flooding along the Thames that would be
the worst in recorded history.

But city staff suggest modest changes to the way development is limited
along the river, writing in a report the risk of flooding brought on by
climate change "is not yet known" and in need of "further study."

Barber compared their position to cigarette makers denying smoking's
harmful effects because it wasn't "proven."

"This is the kind of thinking that was going on in the debate about
cigarette smoking," she said. "We shouldn't allow development until we
know that it's safe."

Also concerned was Branscombe, who met with Simonovic last week and
said his projections were too quickly dismissed by staff.

"I think we can't be flippant about this," she said.

Meantime, the committee didn't endorse the three options now before it:

- Keep the status quo with two zones along the Thames, with no
development allowed in the zone closest to the river and flood-proofed
building allowed in the farther zone.

- Allow no new development in either zone -- the so-called one-zone
approach.

- Keep two zones but make new private development take a back seat if
the land is needed for city public works, to protect existing private
development or to guard against flooding along the entire length of the
river.

A RISING CONTROVERSY

- London bars development on land that floods once a century, the
so-called flood plain, but allows flood-proofed buildings just beyond that
-- the flood fringe -- on land that floods once every 250 years.

- A UWO scientist warns the city's rules are based on past weather,
outdated in a global-warming era. He predicts future floods along the
Thames River will be more severe.

- Council must decide whether to further restrict river-area
development. Some want to bar all new buildings, but city staff have
proposed more modest measures.

- A city council committee yesterday directed staff to consult with the
scientist.

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