It’s another one of those times when city council schedules two meetings in one 24-hour period. We’ll worry about that second meeting another time, for now we’re all about planning matters, and at the first meeting on this subject this year there was a first look at a major new piece of policy, and a first look at a pretty major new development in the east end. So let’s get into all of that with this week’s recap!
Planning Meeting of City Council – January 21, 2025
There were two big plans requiring council feedback at this month’s planning meeting, one being a matter of policy and the other being a matter of development.
On the policy, the file was the draft Community Planning Permit Bylaw. One of the requirements of the Housing Accelerator Funding, this is a policy mean to streamline the development permitting system by combining bylaw amendments, minor variances and site plan applications into a singular continuous process that will bring the review period down to 45 days from a currently typical 180. The CPP will be used in two areas of the city, with phase one focusing on the area of Stone and Edinburgh Roads, which were previously identified as strategic growth areas in the Official Plan.
What’s the upside? Securing more development that suits community needs through trade-offs, like more height for deeply affordable units for example. The CPP will supposedly help make it easier to facilitate planning already approved in the Official Plan and the Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw, while focusing on the creation of a better mix of uses and building types while increasing density and providing more active transportation and transit connections.
Strangely, there were no delegations for this item, but there was feedback from council. Much of the concern was about the erosion of public input about planning applications, which staff tried to downplay while noting that they’re still looking at ways to ensure people can be informed about changes in their own neighbourhoods. There was also some discussion about feedback from the development community, who have apparently told staff that they had some concerns about provisions in the CPP that might make the development process harder, which Mayor Cam Guthrie said was a “non-starter” for him.
The final version of the bylaw will be brought back to council by the end of April.
After that, council took a nearly hour-long break before the second and final piece of major planning business, the application to build over 900 apartment units in four buildings plus over 200 townhouses with nearly 3,000 square metres of commercial space and a neighbourhood park in a big plot of land once earmarked for a major grocery store in the east end.
The only delegate was a designate for the developer of this project, who showed several renderings of what the finished development might look like and explained how decisions from the number of parking spaces to the placement of the park were made. There was a question about the reduction of the original planned commercial space, but Jonathan Roger from Zelinka Priamo said that there’s more commercial floor space now than there was when they took the plan to the community a year ago. There’s also apparently “a lot of interest” from potential business owners, including grocers, they’re just waiting for council approvals to get going with real negotiations.
Council explored the nuts and bolts like the use of driveways for the back-to-back towns instead of communal parking. In a rare bit of honesty, Watson Holdings owner Joe Valela said that “People love their cars in Guelph!” and that people want to park where they live. Council also had concerns about communal or common space – or lack there of – and a lack of any meaningful progress on net zero building standards or accessibility options over and above the bare minimum.
On the flip side, some councillors praised the developers for their great presentation, and Guthrie said that he hopes that this comes back to council for approval sooner rather than later because this land has just been a mud field for years; also, there’s not just housing opportunities here, but economic development ones too. Council approved receipt of the project and adjourned for the night.
End of Part I. Stay tuned for Part II.
Click here to see the complete recap of the meeting.
Guelph Politico 