Location. Location. Location.
When it comes to highrise student housing, Adamas Group of London couldn’t be closer to its target customers.
In a real estate coup, the developer wants to plunk a 15-storey, 126-unit apartment building on the south side of Oxford St. opposite the front entrance to Fanshawe College.
The tower would dwarf and cast its shadow over the college that rises two and three storeys.
The plan comes to the planning and environment committee of city council Tuesday to deal with outstanding design issues before it gets final approval.
“For the college, it’s a good thing,” said Glen Matthews, off-campus housing mediator for both Fanshawe and Western.
The apartment “will take the stress off neighbourhoods, potentially,” Matthews said.
He predicted the venture will help the college with student recruitment, and the college is hoping for similar apartments to the west on the former London Psychiatric Hospital lands.
At the same meeting, a public meeting will be held into another highrise intended for students near the entrance to Western University.
The 19-storey building proposed by Ancaster developer Rise Real Estate would be fully furnished and adjacent to other highrises on Richmond St.
The project has been welcomed by Western, Matthews said.
Coun. Bud Polhill, chair of planning committee, said he thinks the building opposite Fanshawe would limit misbehaviour by students near the college because on-site security is promised.
“It will be easier to control when you have everyone on the same site,” he said. Certainly, he said, it’s a better situation than the dispersed single-family homes along Fleming Dr. where students rioted last St. Patrick’s Day.
“We shouldn’t have problems with bonfires in driveways.”
The project may be among the last to get under the wire of a city plan to limit to three the number of bedrooms in properties near the campuses of Fanshawe and Western University.
The proposal, known as Fanshawe Gate or Fanshawe Collegiate Manor, calls for a mix of three-, four- and five-bedroom units.
A city bylaw governing apartment properties in the “great near-campus neighbourhood” has a limit of three bedrooms. But that law has been appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board by four parties, including the proponent of Fanshawe Gate.
Mike Tomazincic, a city planner, said it could be the better part of two years before the fate of the bylaw is known and in the meantime the city campus neighbourhood bylaw cannot be enforced.
Polhill said the new development might put pressure on the surrounding single-family neighbourhood for more apartment buildings.
But he noted to date most of the opposition came from landlords who rent homes to students, suggesting they were more about competition than land use issues.
In 2008, city council approved plans for a similar building proposed for the site by York Management Inc. A resident opposed the zoning change and the matter was pursued to the OMB that rejected the appeal. The developer opted not to proceed and the new owner is back with a similar plan.
In a bid to blend in with the neighbourhood, the developer is using exterior finishes that complement the design of the college. And the number of west-facing windows will be minimized to reduce the impact on residents of single-family homes located there.
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I went to Western in the mid-80s and once saw a big bed-sheet being hung from the roof of the building with the words 'Saugeen Mateland' spray-painted on it, giving much credence to all the legends about the residence being 'party central' at Western, besides being a venue for, uh, *other* kinds of activities.
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