City council takes March Break too. After the kids go back to school, council will get back to work with this month’s planning meeting. No specific project is on the agenda for discussion or approval, but there is going to be a lot of discussion about the creation of more housing as staff will talk about all the plans, plus the city-owned property that can help make it happen. Also, there are a tonne of heritage files needing approval.
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 February 28. 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 starts at 10 am in lieu of the regular start in recognition of the Holy Month of Ramadan and those that celebrate in the Muslim faith.
19 Woodycrest Drive: Notice of Intention to Designate – According to the staff report this house built sometime in the mid-to-late 1850s is “an exemplary representation of mid-19th century Italianate/Tuscan villa architectural style in Guelph.” It meets three of the nine criteria for defining cultural heritage value or interest as outlined in Ontario Regulation 9/06 and was endorsed for designation by Heritage Guelph last July.
328-332 Woolwich Street: Notice of Intention to Designate – This Gothic Revival-style row house was recommended to Heritage Guelph for formal approval last November. It meets five out of the nine criteria for a Part IV heritage designation under Ontario Regulation 9/06.
33 Dormie Lane: Notice of Intent to Designate – This building dates back to the 60s, when owner Bill Zaduk came to like the style of Frank Sinatra’s “Twin Palms” residence in California designed by Emerson Stewart Williams and wanted to establish a bit of that here in Guelph. Although there were some renovations done in 2017 and 2018, it still meets three of the nine criteria under Ontario Regulation 9/06, and Heritage Guelph approved its designation back in October.
33-35 James Street West: Heritage Permit Application – More specifically this is a demolition permit. Since this building is in the area of the Brooklyn and College Hill Heritage Conservation District they need council’s approval for not just the teardown, but the new building that will take its place. Staff has a couple of reservations about the design, but they’ve endorsed the project and are recommending that council do the same.
59 Green Street: Notice of Intention to Designate – This is a unique example of “mid-19th century three bay, hipped-roof Georgian limestone house, replete with Neo- Classical refinements.” Endorsed by Heritage Guelph last October, this is being designated for four of the nine criteria outlined in Ontario Regulation 9/06.
72 Gordon Street: Notice of Intention to Designate – You might recognize this as the Schnurr Electric building on Gordon, but it actually dates back to the 1920s during a period where bread and other baked goods were produced in the building under several different companies. A “one-storey, flat roofed, red rug brick functional industrial building, split into 2 storeys on the south side,” the building meets five out of nine criteria under Ontario regulations, and was approved for designation last spring.
99 Maltby Road West: Notice of Intention to Designate – This might possibly be one of the first stone houses built in the Township of Puslinch, a “1.5-storey residential farmhouse building covered entirely with a modern flagstone veneer” built in the Georgian style that was typical from the mid-19th century. It was also approved for designation by Heritage Guelph last October as it meets six of the nine prescribed criteria under Ontario Regulation 9/06.
Housing in Guelph Semi-annual Update – You may recall that the City of Guelph signed a housing pledge to build 18,000 additional units by the year 2031. So how’s that going? Well, Guelph missed its target in 2024, but then again, so did nearly four out of five of all the municipalities in the province last year. There were 645 building permits handed out in 2024, which is about half as many as were handed out in 2023, and the vast majority of those permits were for ADUs, or additional dwelling units like basement apartments. This report reviews the ongoing work to meet legislative changes, the progress of programs tied to the Housing Accelerator funding and the current challenges being faced in housing development. Also, council will be asked to endorse the Affordable Housing Seed Funding Program, which will offer up to $25,000 in grants for pre-development work like site surveys and planning fees that will be available to charities and non-profits building deeply affordable housing.
Strategic Property Acquisition and Disposition Update – City staff have been working on a project since about this time last year to identify land owned by Guelph that could be made available for low-cost housing (the land itself being the most expensive part of construction). Out of 36 potential parcels of land, 18 were under-sized, three are locations for future improvements to the Hanlon, six are either a weird shape or too closed to rail and industrial, and one is the former IMICo site on Beverly Street, which comes with it’s own unique set of issues. Of the eight remaining sites, three cannot be serviced, and four are in floodplains, which leaves one portion in the south end on Rodgers Road near a stormwater management pond that could be used to build five units. Council may want to do something with that, but for now staff are recommending that they take a closer look at at the municipal parking lots on Neeve Street and Fountain Street.
Guelph Politico 