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Fearing the loss of developable land in south London, the city is looking to scale back a massive section of real estate that will be added to the city’s flood plain.
Dingman Creek (File photo)
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Fearing the loss of developable land in south London, the city is looking to scale back a massive section of real estate that could be added to the city’s flood plain.
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The Upper Thames River Conservation Authority is updating its flood plain mapping and has proposed to add a large portion of the Dingman Creek watershed to the flood plain.
Much of the land in question is in areas targeted for major commercial and residential building. A floodplain designation will limit construction and any expansion of existing buildings.
Sections in that area include Wonderland Road between highways 401 and 402, Wellington Road from Bradley Avenue to the 401, much of Exeter Road and all of Dingman Drive.
“It will have a significant impact on our industry and in the growth and development for the City of London,” said Mike Wallace, director of the London Development Institute that represents builders.
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“It will impact every citizen.”
The city has entered the fray. It wants to ensure future homes and business are not flooded and also work with the development community to ensure there are new homes and commercial development in the south end, said Shawna Chambers, division manager for stormwater engineering for the city.
“It is about being as accurate as possible. We want to ensure the flood plain is not exaggerated because we don’t need to bring down land value where we don’t need to,” Chambers said.
“We are hoping it will be smaller than it is now.”
The land that includes White Oaks Mall would be considered flood plain under the proposal, but it will not be in the model to be proposed by the city, Chambers said.
“It is related to growth. It is about getting it right,” she said.
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It is too soon to say how much the city will scale back the proposed changes; that will be made clear when staff issues a report to city politicians in May, Chambers said.
“Our initial position was that this is not accurate. We were looking for the city to take leadership on flood plain mapping and we think that they have,” Wallace said.
“We are looking forward to the report. Our members have significant land holdings under review, a lot of short-term and long-term plans and expect to be able to develop those lands.”
Wallace said the housing shortage in the city could worsen if building is limited in the south end, where most of London’s land still available for building is located. London’s north and west areas have little undeveloped land remaining.
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“If you think there is a squeeze in housing now, it will be a lot worse,” if lands are added to the flood plain, Wallace said.
The city is working with the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority on its study, Chambers said. As part of its analysis, the city is looking to gauge the impact climate change will have on the flood plain. It is testing what impact increased rainfall of 10 and 20 per cent will have on the watershed.
“It is necessary to undertake a flood plain update, this is a necessary exercise. We will work with the conservation authority to finalize the flood plain. The current area is very expansive,” Chambers said.
The city has completed one environmental assessment study of the area and a second one is underway. The first looked at stormwater servicing for new development during the next 10 years. The second will look at options for flood mitigation measures to protect properties and lands designated for growth.
In 2018, when the Upper Thames first proposed the flood plain changes, the conservation authority said at the time the area has not been studied for flood plain mapping since the 1980s.
The area has changed, largely due to construction and building that alter water runoff and erosion, authority officials said at the time.
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