There are many planning matters on the agenda for October, including matters of affordability in the city. Yes, there will be the introduction of a new housing affordability strategy, and some kind of affiliated pilot project, and in regular business there’s a new zoning bylaw amendment plus some grant money to chase and a piece of heritage recently moved from an old home to a new/old home!
NOTE #1: Delegates will be able to appear at this meeting in-person or via tele-presense but you do have to registerwith the clerks office before 10 am on Friday September 6. You can also submit written delegations and correspondences for agenda items.
NOTE #2: In addition to meeting in-person, this meeting will also be live-streamed on the City of Guelph’s website here.
NOTE #3: This meeting will take place at the special time of 4 pm!
302 and 306 Edinburgh Rd S: Application to remove properties from the Municipal Heritage Register – This is kind of a weird one. There were four stone pillars from the original St. George’s Church that sat in the square downtown that’s now named after it, and they have spent the last several years in front of a pair of houses on Edinburgh Road South. These pillars are listed on the Municipal Registry as protected heritage assets, and staff are asking to delist them from this property because they recently moved to a new location at the present St. George’s Church on Woolwich Street.
Grant Opportunity: Endorsement Request for the Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund Applications – No formal report was included with the initial release of the agenda, but it seems like there’s some opportunities to get federal funds for a couple of rec projects, in this case the rehabilitation of the Lyon outdoor pool and, obviously, the South End Community Centre.
Public Meeting: 8 Mitchell Street Proposed Zoning By-law Amendment File OZS24-011 – Sandwiched between Mitchell and Arthur just north of Eramosa, this parcel of land might soon be home to four semi-detached duplex dwellings. Pretty straightforward, but there may some issues in terms of the added density on the site. Still, this is just the statutory planning meeting for this development, and no formal decision will be made about it at this time.
Draft Housing Affordability Strategy – A lot has change with housing issues in Guelph since the last time the City of Guelph completed a Housing Affordability Strategy, but a lot has stayed the same. As the report notes, there’s not much that the City can control in terms of housing development, and that they’re already taking action with more flexible regulations, financial incentives, and punitive measures like a possible renovation bylaw.
New directions the strategy proposes includes the promotion of YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) principles, reduced parking requirements, a review of City-owned land, and to search for other ways the City can accelerate housing development. Council will only vote the receive this report, and then the work will continue. Next, there will be a series of public engagements over the next few weeks, and the final recommendation will come back to council in December.
Affordable Housing Demonstration Project – Courtesy of up to $1.9 million from the Housing Accelerator Fund, the City of Guelph is moving up the planned relocation of the Pottery Centre at 14 Edinburgh Road South to make space for this affordable housing demonstration project. What the project will look like is a decision that will be made by the winner of a Request For Proposals, which will use the grant money to build as many affordable units as the budget will allow (hopefully as many as 12), and the City will sell that Edinburgh Street address to the winner of the RFP to make it happen.
Guelph Politico 