London's largest ever residential development one step closer to reality

The largest residential development in London's history was hailed as a home run for the city moments before passing another hurdle toward approval on Wednesday.

Council's Planning and Environment Committee unanimously approved the development pitch from Old Oak Properties that laid out a 20-year plan to redevelop the land at London's former psychiatric hospital into a neighbourhood complete with 10 residential towers standing over 20 storeys tall.

"Deputy Mayor Lewis says this is the largest project of its kind in London, but this is the largest of its kind in Ontario. This is such a major change in the city, and we're not likely to see something like it in our lives again," said Ward 3 Coun. Peter Cuddy, whose ward encompasses the development.

The 20-year project will bring high-density towers along Highbury Avenue and Oxford Street. The tallest, which is set to be at the intersection, will be 32 storeys tall. The building heights will taper toward the eastern and southern edges of the property, which are bordered by Canadian Pacific Kansas City rail lines.

The buildings planned for the 141-acre site would be home to 8,400 residential units of varying sizes, enough to house about 15,000 residents.

"This checks all the boxes," said Cuddy, referring to the scope of the development and what it's expected to contain. 

The plan includes a mix of commercial space on the ground floors of the towers, the addition of parkland, and will be located next to the East London Link bus rapid transit line, which will run along Highbury at the western edge of the property.

Cuddy, who sat in on Wednesday's meeting despite not being part of the committee, shared sentiments that were widely agreed upon among the committee members.

"This is infill with a capital I," said Coun. Steve Lehman. "To hit our target of 47,000 homes, we need a few home runs and this is what this is. This is crucial for us to meet our housing challenge challenges."

The proposed project is significantly larger than London's second-biggest planned development, which will see 3,800 new units spring up across a handful of high and mid-rise buildings in the Cherryhill area.

Now that the much larger Highbury and Oxford development has been approved at the committee level, the project will go to the full council for final approval later this month.