Perhaps a bit anticlimactically, the year at council came to end this week with two back-to-back meetings that laid out the progress on the City’s shift to a new customer service strategy, and the approval of several hundred new housing units. Also, Mayor Cam Guthrie gave out some medals, including one for a Guelph recipient of the Order of Ontario who’s pictured above. So how did 2023 end at council? Let’s recap…
Regular Meeting of City Council – December 12
Council kicked off its second last meeting of the year by spending over an hour in-camera. They discussed the Ontario Land Tribunal appeal of the Clair-Maltby Secondary Plan, and they gave staff direction. They received information about something called “Procedure By-law Training and Clarity”, and they heard the performance evaluation of the Chief Administrative Officer, which was approved in open session.
After giving City medals to Marva Wisdom in recognition for being a recipient of the Order of Ontario and the BeaverworX team from Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School for being the 2023 First Robotics World Championship Winners, council got down to talking about the one item on the open agenda.
Under “Implementing Service Simplified Guelph’s Customer Service Strategy” staff reviewed the work being done to transform the City’s customer service processes into something a little more modern. The City is transitioning to a central customer contact centre, meaning that people will be able to access the most popular (frequently visited) services through one porthole. The goal is to make it easier for people to get the information they need and eventually access any City service with one password or one point of contact, but it’s slow going because they are reviewing one department at a time.
After a few questions, council received the report for information.
Click here to see the complete recap of the meeting.
Planning Meeting of City Council – December 12
After a brief pause, Mayor Cam Guthrie opened the final meeting of the year, which was the December planning meeting.
Though the “Housing Affordability Strategy Update” was on the consent agenda, councillors pulled it for a couple of questions. Mostly, council was curious about how the report would be used to start developing housing solutions, and GM of Planning Krista Walkey explained that the report would be a starting place for follow-up work that will happen throughout 2024, which will look at how to address the gaps identified in the report like the crushing need for one-person occupancy units.
After that council approved 136 new units for 331 Clair Road East and 353 new units for the first phase of the residential development across from the site of the new library on Baker Street. And then council heard about 27 and 35 Janefield Avenue where two properties will be separate into seven with the house at 27 Janefield retained and then joined by 10 new units. The application was pretty straightforward, and there was only one delegation from the site’s planner. Council approved the project unanimously, which caused Guthrie to note that council had approved nearly 500 units in the space of about 30 minutes.
With business done, the mayor wished everyone a happy holidays. No more city council until 2024!
Click here to see the complete recap of the meeting.
Guelph Politico 