City hall briefs: Adelaide Street underpass; housing; 'music city'

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A collection of news and notes from Tuesday night at city hall:

Deal with CP approved

A deal to have Canadian Pacific Rail pay $8.75 million toward the construction of an underpass on Adelaide Street — and hammer out the terms of the project — was endorsed by city politicians on Tuesday. The $58.3-million project is expected to start this year and take two to three years to complete. When done, the underpass will allow traffic and pedestrians to skirt blockages created by trains crossing for roughly 100 minutes per day.

Mayor looks for support on housing pledge

Mayor Ed Holder asked for his colleagues’ support on his pledge to essentially end chronic homelessness in London by 2026. The community and protective services committee voted 6-0 to task city staff with developing 3,000 units in the next five years. “From my heart, I tell you, we must do no less,” Holder said. “Status quo is just not good enough.”

But his former deputy warned it will be an uphill battle. “We’re going to have to pick up the pace quite a lot to meet this goal,” committee chair Jesse Helmer countered.

Fulfilling the mayor’s promise will require 600 new affordable housing units each year. Those are typically private or non-profit homes where rent is set below average market value, not the same as city-run public housing units that are rented based on a person’s income (and go for an average of $310 a month).

London eyes UN’s ‘music city’ label

London’s music office garnered full support from city politicians in a bid to become a “music city” — what would be the first in Canada, joining international destinations like the birthplace of the Beatles — under the United Nations Creative Cities program. London, which hosted the Junos in 2019, has to apply for the designation by the end of April. UNESCO’s Creative Cities program includes three other Canadian participants, with Montreal the city of design, Toronto the city of media arts and Quebec City the city of literature.

Economic development office to helm film strategy

The London Economic Development Corp. was recommended to lead the city’s film strategy, a fledgling city hall effort that hopes to capitalize on the power of film and economic potential of the industry. City council recently pumped up the budget for its film strategy, earmarking $300,000 over each of the next three years to help market the city as a destination and attract crews for filming.

The community and protective services voted unanimously, 6-0, on Tuesday to recommend the LEDC lead the strategy.

Just a day earlier, politicians on the corporate services committee voted unanimously to proclaim Oct. 17-24 Southwestern Ontario Film Week, based on an application from the Forest City Film Festival.

Green bin program, landfill expansion endorsed

City politicians recommended proposals be sought from companies that could operate London’s green bin program, a long-awaited curbside compost pickup that’s expected to begin in 2022. London is the largest Ontario city without some kind of organic waste program. It’s the next step to help divert more trash away from the landfill, a move that’s required for provincial approval on an expansion of London’s dump.

Several key decisions still have to be made, including what will be allowed in the green bin, most notably whether pet poop in biodegradable bags will be a candidate. The civic works committee voted 5-1 (Coun. Paul Van Meerbergen was the lone opponent) to seek proposals for the green bin system, with and without pet waste.

Politicians also voted to recommend seeking public feedback on the expansion plan to build the dump up by 26 metres, or nine storeys, at Tuesday’s meeting.