City politicians are deadlocked on how to cure the hangover of a “horrifying” planning decision made by the previous council led by then-mayor Joe Fontana.

At issue is the so-called enterprise corridor along Wonderland Road, a key part of the growth blueprint for the last major tract of undeveloped land in London — the Southwest Area Plan, or SWAP.

Last term, city staff recommended a cap of 30,000 square metres of commercial space along Wonderland, south of Southdale Road. But Fontana and Co. blew the doors off that, approving a cap of 100,000 sq. m.

The problem? That amount was snapped up by a few firms: roughly 20 per cent by pre-existing shops; about 60 per cent by York Developments; and the remainder gobbled up by two firms.

That leaves no more room for retail development along the corridor, cramping visions for a mixed-use community and creating all kinds of ugly urban-planning complications.

City staff has proposed lifting the 100,000 sq. m cap entirely, arguing it serves no useful planning purpose. But Tuesday, council’s planning committee wasn’t convinced.

“(The previous) council created the problem that this (staff) recommendation is trying to fix,” Mayor Matt Brown said. “We made a mess of this plan.”

Removing the cap allows the market to dictate the amount of retail growth on the southwest fringes of London, staff argue. The other option, Brown said in jest, “would be to have a time machine to go

back to 2012” when the staff-­proposed cap was tripled to 100,000 sq. m.

Tuesday, council’s planning committee split 3-3 on removing the commercial cap. Matt Brown, Jesse Helmer and Anna Hopkins want it removed; Maureen Cassidy, Stephen Turner and Tanya Park want it maintained.

It now goes to council for a decision next week.

Some on planning committee were blunt in their attack on the previous council’s decision to jack up retail space along Wonderland.

“I watched in horror,” Turner said in recollection. “This creation of the commercial enterprise corridor came out on the floor (of council), against the advice of staff.

“The cap (is) the one piece to totally stop this thing from totally getting out of hand.”

Said Helmer: “We’re trying to fix things that were mangled a couple of years ago.”

In a report, city staff say an unintended consequence of the 100,000 sq. m retail cap is that it’s stunted potential projects and broken up the preferred “contiguous” nature of commercial development.

“The cap forces inefficient, leap-frog development patterns that preclude development on desirable commercial sites,” staff say.

“Contiguous development is a principle of good planning.”

York Developments, owned by Ali Soufan, was represented at the Tuesday public meeting by Mimi Ward, a self-described land economist and planner. She offered dire warnings about lifting the cap.

“Uncontrolled retail development (along the Wonderland Road enterprise corridor) would put the city at significant risk of impact,” she said. “Stores will relocate and come to this area.

“This can’t be in the public interest . . . you have to protect commercial areas, including the downtown.”

pmaloney@postmedia.com

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