This month’s planning meeting of city council had three phases. First was the one new development application, which came with some very old arguments against it. Then there was a vote about re-approving a heritage designation, which was swiftly followed by a vote to un-designate. And then third, a discussion about administrative changes to the Sign Bylaw that went way too deep. Check out the details in the recap!

Planning Meeting of City Council – May 13, 2025

There were three items on the planning agenda this month.

First, there was the public meeting for 105 Elmira Road, which is presently a big empty plot at the corner to Willow and Elmira, but the developer wants to build a six-storey apartment building there with 126 new rental units. The property is presently zoned as Neighbourhood Commercial, but its remained untouched since 2004 even as the rest of the area’s been built up, which is why the developer wants to try something different.

Area residents who delegated had other ideas saying that the proposal was too big, too different, required to many exemptions to the zoning, and it was too much of an invitation for more traffic when there’s a school right there (Mitchell Woods) and people are already speeding along side streets. Council meanwhile focused on the loss of potential commercial space as well as creating an assortment of units that might appeal to people in the area with families.

Rachel Bossie from GSP Group, who was there on behalf of the developers, noted that there’s a lot for the community to like in this project as they didn’t seek additional height and there will be some green building standards in the construction. They also didn’t seek the maximum occupancy for the site because they wanted to create unique common amenity spaces in the building that people living there might find appealing, which will also be street facing so that the building still has the visage and appearance of a storefront. There are also some planning limitations that requires the project entrance to be off Willow instead of Elmira, hence creating some potential conflict at the “kiss and ride” in front of Mitchell Woods.

Before going to the vote, Mayor Cam Guthrie said that this project reminded him of an apartment building at Kortright and Edinburgh, which was built by one of the developers of this Elmira projects. It’s a similar building in size and scale, and many of the residents in that area had the same concerns when it came to council for approval. Change is hard, the mayor said, but not as hard as we think before we see the change in action. Council voted unanimously to receive the report, and staff will now take it back for further consultation.

Next, was the Objection to Notice of Intention to Designate at 72 Gordon Street, the old Schnurr Electric building. Council moved the designation following an endorsement from Heritage Guelph back in March, but the owner of the building says that it hasn’t held on to a lot of that history and that any designation threatens redevelopment plans. Staff, respectfully, disagreed, which is why this was on the consent agenda. Councillor Rodrigo Goller asked to pull it.

Goller said that he had a conversation with the owner, and he wanted to either vote to remove the designation, or just vote it down believing that a designation is too much of a burden. Despite assurances from heritage planner Jack Mallon that a designation, especially this designation which focused on the exterior walls, doesn’t not preclude redevelopment or adaptive reuse, five councillors voted against affirming the designation.

The problem? Five councillors voted for it. A tied vote is a failed vote.

Goller then put repeal of the intention to designate on the table, and that vote also failed in a 5-5 tie. This left council in a procedural conundrum: they haven’t affirmed the designation in reaction to the objection, but they didn’t repeal it either. The only option was deferral, which council has time to do given that the City has to respond the objection by the end of July. Look for this item to come back to council for a tie breaker at the June planning meeting.

That just left a largely administrative update to the Sign Bylaw, which was prompted by the 2023 update to the Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw, which mostly meant updating zone categories to match the CZBL, realigning some definitions, and removing outdated bits of policy. There were some big questions about matching this bylaw to the City’s night sky policy and the potential placement and appropriateness of signs downtown, but again, this was largely administrative, so council cut themselves off before going all the way down the rabbit hole. The changes will come back for approval later this year.

Click here to see the complete recap of the meeting.

The next meeting of city council is the regular meeting on Tuesday May 20 at 6 pm. You can see the agenda on the City’s website here, and you have until next Friday at 10 am to register with the clerks’ office as a delegate or to send a correspondence.