What makes a strong environmental platform for the City of London?

From housing affordability, carbon emissions, farmland loss, growth and increased transportation options how can London's next Mayor and Council have a positive impact on equity and prosperity for all Londoners and future generations?

October’s Elections in London is Important for the Future of Ontario’s Environment

Barring a dramatic u-turn by the provincial government, for the next four years, much of the burden of diverting new homes away farmland and natural spaces, slashing carbon emissions, and ending car-dependency will fall on the Cities, Regional, and local governments.

The good news is that there’s a great deal municipal governments can do – as long as this October’s elections produce mayors and councils committed to delivering the policy changes needed to protect Ontario’s environment. London won’t be alone but we need to do our part.

To help candidates craft their platforms –and help City of London residents decide how to use their time, money, volunteer hours, ballots – Climate Action London is flagging the municipal policy changes and initiatives in the City of London that would have the biggest positive impact on our shared environment.

Here’s how to distinguish environmental champions from greenwashing.

A STRONG ENVIRONMENT PLATFORM FOR LONDON WILL:

  • Stop sprawl and protect farmland & nature by planning and approving enough new compact, land-efficient homes within London to maintain our current urban boundaries and be able to accommodate London's projected population growth. This would be consistent with the London Plan, London’s Strategic Plan and the Climate Emergency Action Plan (CEAP).

  • Stop the spread of monster homes and create transit-supporting, complete communities by replacing “exclusionary zoning” with rules that instead incentivize landowners to add a lot of lower-cost new semi-detached homes, townhomes, low-rise walk-ups – plus compatible corner stores, home offices & amenities – when they rebuild houses in low-rise neighborhoods.

  • Prioritize funding of the Climate Emergency Action Plan (CEAP) in the next multi-year budget cycle. Staff reports and plans are only as good as the priority and funding they receive from council. Climate actions are investments that reduce future costs, avoid costs as the impacts of climate change become more pronounced and also reduce our emissions.

  • Prioritize public transit on London’s roads and reduce the number of car trips by completing already approved rapid transit projects for Downtown, South and East as well as approve Rapid transit projects for the West and North. Additionally create additional bus priority lanes on major transportation routes. Invest in the LTC (including electrification of the bus fleet) so they can provide frequent and reliable service even during peak periods when Western and Fanshawe students are in the City.

  • Make cycling the preferred mode of transportation for more Londoners by enhancing safe school routes that protect and promote walking and cycling for our children. Reduced speed limits by themselves are insufficient. Add protective barriers to a network of bike lanes and expand to create a network of separated bike lanes.

  • Reduce tailpipe emissions from those motor vehicle trips that we can’t eliminate, by rapidly adding electric vehicle chargers to all City owned parking lots and significantly increase sidewalk chargers to curbside parking spaces. Prohibit new developments with parking spaces unless 100% of parking spaces are EV Charging ready, with at least 25% of those parking spaces having EV chargers immediately.

  • Reduce reliance on fossil fuels for heating and electricity by opposing the construction, expansion or increased use of gas plants, by supporting a provincial phase-out of gas plants, by phasing out furnaces, water heaters, stoves and ovens in new homes that operate using fossil fuels and replace with electrification, and by helping fund energy efficiency & electric retrofits, solar energy systems and battery storage units in homes of all types.

  • Reduce environmental racism, classism, and encourage the construction of non-profit, deeply affordable and supportive housing by setting much more generous as-of-right permissions (eg., height, setback) for “social housing” than would be available to market-rate developments.

DYK that the two largest components of the City of London's Infrastructure Gap by program area are Transportation Services and Parks & Recreation. Many of the platform priorities above address the City's growing Infrastructure Gap.

DYK that London declared a Climate Emergency in April 23 2019. The Climate Emergency Action Plan was passed by Council April 5, 2022. London will need a strong forward looking council to implement many aspects of the CEAP.

Beware of an Environment Platform that:

  • Plans to maintain, or only moderately reduce, the current number of private automobile trips, based on the false assumption that the necessary transition from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles will be sufficient to deliver the emissions reductions we need. Even if all vehicles in London were EVs we not come close to meeting our emission reduction goals.

  • Leaves in place rules that make it hard to add lots of new low-rise walk-up apartments, multiplexes, & multi-tenant homes to London’s existing “single detached” residential neighborhoods, based on the false assumption that highrise buildings downtown will be sufficient by themselves to meet housing demand and prevent sprawl.

  • Co-opts rhetoric about “complete communities” or “mixed use development” as window dressing for greenfield development that sprawls beyond the current Urban Growth Boundary, which does not border existing built up areas, to support frequent transit, and a full range of amenities within walking distance. This approach costs existing taxpayers, makes future tax increases more likely and further worsens the Infrastructure Gap.

  • Foregoes less-expensive, quicker-to-implement public transit solutions like bus rapid transit lanes, bus priority lanes and protect bike lanes in favour of costly, resource-intensive, slow-to-implement projects, in order to avoid reallocating road space away from private automobiles

  • Obstructs the reform of discriminatory and “low-density” zoning by misrepresenting the preservation of aesthetic preferences – such as large front lawns, physical separation between houses, low building heights, or even the absence of playing children and pedestrians – as “environmental” priorities.

  • Mislead voters by paying lip service to the overhaul of land use planning, the rapid expansion of public transit, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, and the other environmental policies your municipality needs, while refusing to fund those changes.