The Committee of Adjustment will not be given a chance to ease into the new year because they have to get right back at it with about eight different files that are all looking for some kind of accommodation. New additions, separations, and some musical parking spaces are all on the agenda, plus a special request from a vital community service that’s looking to expand its capacity. Let’s look at the list of applications for January…
NOTE #1: This meeting will hybrid in format, available on the City of Guelph live stream, but you can also appear in-person at the council chambers in 1 Carden Street.
NOTE #2: If you would like to delegate on one of these matters, or submit a written comment, you have until Wednesday January 10 at noon to get in touch with committee staff at cofa [at] guelph.ca, or by calling 519-822-1260 extension 2524.
NOTE #3: The meeting begins at 4 pm.
Chair and Vice-chair Elections – Since this is the first Committee of Adjustment meeting of the year, we’ve got to get things started with the election of the chair and the vice-chair, which is presently James Smith and vacant respectively.
B-1/23 280 Speedvale Avenue West – Originally brought to the Committee of Adjustment this time last year, this is a request to separate a smaller parcel of land on the eastern side of the property while retaining the larger portion on which sits an industrial building. A decision was deferred last January so that the applicant can work out some storm sewer easement. According to a letter from an engineering firm, it sounds like any stormwater infrastructure on the property isn’t there anymore, but it is possible to service the site so they endorse the separation as viable from an engineering standpoint.
A-86/23 35 Hillcrest Drive – Deferred from December, this is an application for front and rear additions that require reduced front and rear setbacks to proceed. The file was deferred so that staff and the applicant had more time to work on the application.
A-1/24 51 Alice Street – Changes are coming to this house in the Ward. The property owners are looking to create a new enclosed front porch, a new rear addition, and a new attached garage and to do that they need variances for the front, right and left yard setbacks.
A-2/24 1 Yorkshire Street South – Right now this is a small house next to the tracks just outside downtown, but the owner wants to build a new two-storey building but with a similar footprint. The plan requires five different variances around setbacks, frontage and lot area.
A-4/24 22 Neeve Street – Right now on this site there’s a small one-storey bungalow, and the proposal is to build a two-storey addition on the rear that will require a variance for the rear-yard setback of about three metres. The plan also requires the homeowner to remove an existing detached garage that’s presently at the rear of the property.
A-5/24 23-25 Gordon Street – You may not know the address, but you know who lives there. This is the location of Stepping Stone, an overnight shelter downtown, and sadly they’re looking to expand. Looking to add a third story to their building, Stepping Stone is requesting a variance that will allow them to have a maximum of 75 beds in the building, but that requires another variance to allow for the current number of parking spaces to remain unchanged since they’re adding capacity.
A-6/24 1888 Gordon Street – Tricar is looking to start construction on the third and final building on this site, but they want to do it with fewer visitor parking spaces for the residential portion of the development. In all, they would like to assign just 78 of the approved 135 visitor spaces to the purpose of visitor parking with the other 57 spaces being reallocated to residential parking for the building.
A-8/24 93 Hayes Avenue – This is presently a vacant lot, but the property owner would like to build a “modest” two-storey house and a basement unit that will be a separate accessory apartment. Why is this a Committee of Adjustment matter? They need setbacks for the left side yard and the right side yard due to the size of the property and not necessarily the size of the proposed house, at least according to the applicant.
Guelph Politico 