In a special meeting of city council, the mayor and councillors will hear about a subject a little broader than the regular minutia of city governance they deal with on a weekly basis. What will the future of Guelph look like? We may have the document for you…

CAO-2019-07 Community Plan – After a year of hard work and much consultation with various community groups and stakeholders, the Community Plan is finally unveiled. The Community Plan is meant to be a cohesive document that will guide the next 10 to 20 years of Guelph’s development, and is meant to be the foundational document for the Strategic Plan.

Council approved the development of a Community Plan back in July 2017. It’s goal was to make formal a unifying vision for the community across all formal and informal local groups, from government to non-profits to community groups. A formal direction can then be used to create proper benchmarks and oversight that the community will be able to follow along with and audit as they’re achieved.

You can see the completed plan here. Called “A United Vision: Guelph Community Plan”, it outlines the shared community vision:

“We’re grounded in community and our deep connection to the environment. We look out for one another, celebrate our diversity and smile at each other in the streets. We are leaders who shape tomorrow. We tackle local and global challenges through innovation, art and action. And we’re committed to inclusive prosperity—because together, we’re stronger.“

The plan also outlines a series of values including well-being, environmental stewardship, fiscal responsibility, innovation, and inclusiveness. From there, the plan is organizer around some very general themes and strategic directions. For instance, the category under “We move around freely” covers ideas of active transportation, infrastructure, easy movement within the city and interconnected access across the region.

The Community Plan is based on information gathered from over 110 different events, five workshops, 38 strategic plans, more than 4,200 engagements, and conversations with over 6,200 people. Council will be asked to receive the completed Community Plan and refer to act as the foundational vision for the development of the City’s new Strategic Plan.