Unreleased feasibility study for Emergency Services Centre irks councillors questioning the rural location

Farming advocates oppose locating new Police/Fire Training Centre on prime agricultural land near landfill. CTV London’s Daryl Newcombe reports.

A week after the preferred location for London’s new $187 million training centre for police and firefighters was made public in a municipal report, the Infrastructure and Corporate Services Committee heard concerns about the lack of public input and loss of prime agricultural land.

Crispin Colvin, Director with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture told the committee that his organization supports a new Emergency Services Campus in principle—but can’t support building it on the Class 1 agricultural land at 3243 Manning Dr. (at Wellington Road) near the W12A landfill.

“Reconsider the location,” Colvin urged council members on the committee. “That’s a great piece of farmland that you’re about to lose, and it’s a non-renewable resource. We don’t get more land.”

The city intends to use 50 acres of the 129.4 acre farm field buffering the W12A landfill to construct the joint-training facility.

A staff report recommends the location after all other city-owned properties were reviewed and a short list of 15 underwent an evaluation based on a set of criteria identified in a feasibility study.

“A (fire department) burn tower, a shooting range, K-9 training and scenario training, those are not something that you necessarily want in close proximity to a neighborhood,” said Mayor Josh Morgan about the rural location near the city’s southern border.

But Coun. Elizabeth Peloza, whose ward includes the property, pushed back against Morgan’s comment.

“I know that my residents might not be significant in numbers, but their concerns about quality of life and safety are significant,” Peloza said.

She added that residents in the rural part of south London including the neighbourhoods of Brockley, Shaver and Glanworth have not even been consulted yet.

“This isn’t going to require any rezoning,” Peloza explained. “So there has been no public participation meetings.”

Councillor Sam Trosow pushed back against staff who offered to set up a Get Involved London webpage after council confirms the location, “You talk about continuing to engage with the public - I don’t believe the public has been engaged with at all!”

Some residents have expressed concern to Peloza about the potential for smoke or chemicals to escape the training centre during fire suppression and hazmat training.

Fire Chief Lori Hamer assured the committee that fire training will utilize so-called ‘clean burns’ that do not emit smoke.

The response seemed to contradict a comment earlier in the meeting about smoke emissions near Highway 401 being a part of the property evaluation process.

“There were about 15 parcels (of land) that were reasonable in those 290 parcels (initially reviewed), but they were too close to the 401 with the smoke emissions and the various training exercises that will be at this facility,” said Matt Feldberg, Director of Housing Development.

“The report references that this site is preferred over something closer to the highway due to the smoke,” Peloza said to city staff. “Because if there won’t be smoke, you could maybe consider a different location.”

Chief Hamer responded, “My understanding is the site where they talked about the smoke, there were other mitigating factors for that site, but I’m not sure what factors those were.”

The staff report recommending the Manning Drive location repeatedly references a consultant’s feasibility study that included design options and established criteria for evaluating properties.

Councillor Trosow pressed staff to provide a copy of the feasibility study to council before a final decision about the training centre’s location, but was not successful.

The staff report states three organizations jointly hired the consultant:

“To evaluate and address this need further, the City of London, the LFD and the LPS hired an expert facilities consultant in 2023 to prepare a Feasibility Study which reviewed:

• The current training environment compared to modern standards;
• Optimal site needs for a new facility;
• Master planning options;
• Blocking plans and room descriptions; and,
• Probable project costs.

However, Anna Lisa Barbon, Deputy City Manager of Finance and City Treasurer said that the feasibility study isn’t something that the City of London can release to councillors.

“That report was not commissioned by the City of London and done through the London Police Services. I believe that report would be held in confidence and was basically done to put forward what that business case was going to be,” Barbon said.

“This is a well researched, well vetted recommendation from our staff that I am very supportive of,” Morgan assured the committee.

The committee subsequently recommended the location on Manning Drive.

After the meeting, Peloza and Trosow expressed concerns about the recommendation.

“It was based on a report that city council and the committee didn’t get,” Peloza said. “We don’t have access to it, so we’re just going off information (in) a summary that this is the best option.”

“I had this long list of questions, most of which would have been answered with the feasibility report,” Trosow said. “I want to look at that whittled down list of 15 properties because I was hearing two things about smoke today, which I think were contradictory.”

Council is expected to make a final decision on Tuesday, July 22.

“There’s no public participation meeting, so Council will unilaterally decide this is the site,” Peloza added.

A total of $187 million (Phase 1: $137 million, Phase 2: $50 million) was previously approved by council in the multi-year budget for the Emergency Services Campus.

Phase 1 (2025-2027)

• London Fire Department Main 911 Centre
• Primary Integrated Emergency Operations Centre
• Fire Station to enhance emergency response in the southeast industrial corridor
• Specialized areas for Provincial HAZMAT response unit
• Training Building (classrooms, drill hall)
• Purpose-built training infrastructure (scenario simulation, indoor and outdoor police firing ranges)
• Clean-burn Firefighter Training Tower
• Police K9 Building and Outdoor Area

Phase 2 (2028-2031)

• Public Fire Safety Village (all ages experience to build awareness and preparedness skills)
• Driving Track
• Fleet and Property Storage
• Fire Department Mechanical Bay