Early concept art of Legacy Village by Old Oak Properties. (credit: Old Oak)
A massive mixed residential development project has been approved by London City Council, and it will be the largest development in the city’s history.
The upcoming project will be built by local developer, Old Oak, and will fill in the vacant 143 acres of land at Oxford Street and Highbury Avenue—once the site of the London Psychiatric Hospital.
Old Oak has a webpage dedicated to the project, which they named Legacy Village. This is what they say about it:
“Legacy Village is envisioned as a vibrant new home for more than 10,000 Londoners seeking a green and enjoyable way of life. This development is still in its planning stages but it’s already gaining recognition for its unique design and amenities. The location will have communal gardens, walking trails and paths, acres of park land and long winding roads.”
Plans for Legacy Village. (credit: oldoakproperties.com)
The council vote on Tuesday was quick and unanimous.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime project,” says Councillor Peter Cuddy. “Even the first part of the project, the first couple of towers…we’re gonna have such capacity for residential living, and it’s gonna be great for Fanshawe students.”
Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis says he’s also thrilled to see the plans approved.
“This is going to be a transformational development for East London,” he says. “Yes, it is going to be a 10, 15 year project…but it’s new housing, it’s new commercial spaces for new businesses, it’s new park space. This project has it all, and this is a wonderful reuse of lands that have been sitting vacant for far too long in our city.”
Lewis says the new construction will help the city reach its housing goals of 47,000 new units. While the initial plan for the project’s largest towers was 22 storeys, council is now allowing them to build 32.
“This is exactly the reason for some of the decisions around planning permissions that we are making, so to see someone grab the bull by the horns right out of the gate and say ‘okay, you’re gonna allow us to go higher, we’ll go even higher and we’re gonna add somewhere in the neighbourhood of 400 extra units because of the higher height permissions‘…that’s really encouraging for our ability to meet the housing needs in our city.”
Lewis says whether or not the Legacy Village development will include any designated affordable units will hinge on negotiation between Old Oak and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Either way, he believes that the new units will help to alleviate the current housing crisis.
“Everything we can do to add inventory to the market, if it doesn’t lower, it’ll at least decrease the pressure on ever-escalating rent values and flatline those things, so that people can have a chance to catch up. Really, at the end of the day, the first, second and third most important thing we can do is get the permissions in place for this inventory.”
Now that the project has been greenlit by the city, construction of Legacy Village is expected to begin sometime next summer.
