After March Break, council will sit down for this month’s relatively thin planning meeting with two items on the agenda. One is about approving a plan for a seniors’ residence in the south end, but the major one concerns a pretty big piece of land. What are council’s thoughts about the work done so far on the Heritage Conservation District plan for the Ontario Reformatory Lands? We’re going to find out!
NOTE #1: Delegates will be able to appear at this meeting in-person or via tele-presense but you do have to register with the clerks office before 10 am on Friday March 17. You can also submit written delegations and correspondences for agenda items.
NOTE #2: In addition to appearing in-person, this meeting will also be live-streamed on the City of Guelph’s website here.
Decision Report for 1408 Gordon Street and 33-41 Arkell Road Proposed Zoning By-law Amendment – This project came to council for public scrutiny last May, a mixed-use retirement community that will include 47 retirement apartments, 99 independent living suites and 88 assisted and memory care units plus 257 square metres of commercial space, and common areas like a swimming pool, fitness rooms, dining facilities, and outdoor amenities. Staff are recommending that the project be approved with a few variances that will allow the project to proceed with the units and amenities as presented last year.
Ontario Reformatory Heritage Conservation District Study Phase One Report – If you’ve been following recent events at Heritage Guelph, then you know that they’ve been making progress on the Heritage Conservation District plan for the Ontario Reformatory property. Now it’s council’s turn to have a look at the progress made and approve all the work done so far before the heritage team moves on to the second and final phase of the plan.
The big piece of this is the approval of the proposed boundary for the heritage district. The boundary does now encompass the former site of the Jaycees Park as well as the Matthews Farmhouse and the surrounding heritage attributes, plus the former spur line and wooden trestle bridge. Alternatively, the wetlands and reservoir didn’t make the cut because the formal connections were severed by Dunlop Drive and neither was a cast iron staircase on the former Turfgrass lands because they’re far outside the property boundary.
Council will be asked to approve the boundary, and then direct staff to work with consultants to finish the heritage district plan which includes the formal policy and objectives, the heritage approval processes, the implementation and integration strategy for new construction, guidelines for alterations, and guidelines for adaptive reuse.
Guelph Politico 