‘Does nothing for the aesthetic of the neighbourhood’: Council considering apartments on Cheapside, residents concerned

Residents in the Carling neighbourhood say they're concerned about a proposed apartment building on Cheapside. CTV London’s Bryan Bicknell explains.

Residents of London’s Carling neighbourhood are voicing concerns over an apartment building on Cheapside Street.

“I disagree with it, I think it’s ridiculous,” said homeowner Mike Carey, who has lived at the corner of Sterling and Cheapside for 30 years.

Located at 929 Cheapside, a collector street on a bus route, the property is a little less than an acre in size. It’s bordered by Sterling and Barker streets, which have single family homes. The lot is being proposed for a six-storey midrise apartment building.

“I mean, it does nothing for the aesthetic of the neighbourhood. There’s plenty of property there. You could put six houses to match the rest of the neighbourhood, and there would be no issues,” said Carey.

City staff say the building’s height and density are permitted along Cheapside. But despite that, Ward 4 Councillor Susan Stevenson says she’s fielded no shortage of opposition from her constituents.

“We don’t get to decide what a private landowner does with their property, right? They are allowed, as of right six storeys. But that’s something that I’m going to be looking into too,” said Stevenson.

“When did we put that in place? Because the neighbourhood here feels that six storeys is too high.”

Under the current proposal the building would have 46 parking spots for the 105 units. That’s below the city’s existing requirement of .5 spots per unit.

Reduced parking availability is one of a number of special provisions sought by Corley Developments that city staff recommended against. Earlier this month, city council’s Planning Committee voted down staff recommendations, 4-1. Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis cast the lone vote siding with staff.

“The staff recommendation was actually just to apply the base zoning that would allow an apartment building to be built here,” said Lewis.

“It wasn’t granting all the special requests that the builder had asked. It would have actually forced the builder to redesign their plan so that it would fit without those special requests. Quite honestly, I’m concerned that we are simply going to have this result in an appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal.”

Parking is also a key issue of concern for residents, according to Mike Carey.

“What’ll happen, there’ll be enough complaints about everybody parking on the street. Next thing you know they’ll be putting ‘no parking’ on the streets. It just screws over everybody else in the neighbourhood,” he predicted.

City council considers the proposal on Tuesday.