Council will soon consider a consultant’s report that recommends a long list of actions to strengthen and revitalize Downtown London over the next 10 years. Next week, the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee (SPPC) will receive a presentation from the Canadian Urban Institute about its report, “Downtown Reimagined: City of London Downtown Plan” that includes 18 objectives and 58 phased actions that are estimated to cost $48 million over the next decade. “The old days of destination retail (with) major corporations having significant headquarters here is not going to return in the same way that it once did,” admits Mayor Josh Morgan. “But that doesn’t mean the downtown can’t be a vibrant neighborhood.” “What we’re trying to do, and what this plan speaks to, is using the downtown as a mixed-use community. It’s not just an office space or a working space. It’s also a neighborhood,” explains Downtown Coun. David Ferreira. In April 2025, Council approved spending $415,000 to have the Canadian Urban Institute prepare the new Downtown Master Plan. According to a staff report the goal of the action plan is to, “guide future investment, public realm improvements, housing growth, economic development, programming, and downtown activation.” The report recommends four “big moves” that will be the focus of the 58 part action plan: “One of the big moves is the creation of the downtown office,” explains Ferreira. “That’s the creation of a new service area in the city that is responsible for everything that has to do with downtown, not just one specific stretch of street here and there. It’s everything to do with the downtown.” Many actions identified in the Downtown Plan would tap into existing budgets, but actions requiring additional investment would require approval in the 2028-2031 Multi-Year Budget. Morgan recently led a political push by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Big City Mayors Caucus calling for greater federal investment in downtowns because of their role in economic development and nation building. “We’re going to need a really bold vision to actually allow our downtown to achieve its potential and match the ambition that the mayors across this country have for our downtowns as economic drivers, as centers of culture, (and) as places where it’s our calling card to the world,” the mayor adds. One of the biggest unanswered questions for Downtown London over the next decade is the location of a new city hall building. The current building is 55-years-old and requires costly maintenance and repairs. Last year, a proposal to build a new city hall and high rise residential units on the existing property at 300 Dufferin St. failed to garner interest from the development community. Morgan acknowledges a decision about where to locate a new city hall is on the horizon. “We know there’s great potential both on this site (300 Dufferin St.) and in our downtown core to find something that works. I can’t tell you what that is today, because I think we’ve got to think about this holistically in combination with our entire strategy on the downtown,” he explains. Ferreira hints at supporting a location closer to the Forks of the Thames, “a well-placed city hall in a very well-placed area, maybe even leveraging some natural heritage aspects of downtown. In some historically appropriate place that it can really ground us in our identity.” The committee will consider the new Downtown Master Plan on June 16.
