It’s a big agenda for the planning meeting this June! More heritage designations, two new proposals, and the finished guidelines for the now Ward Heritage Conservation District is on the agenda, as well as a discussion about provincial policy! Is this going to be a “bring your pjs” kind of night at city council? It might be but it depends on how many people have ideas about these pretty big projects! Learn more about them below!
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 June 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.
CLOSED MEETING:
Memorandum of Agreement between the City of Guelph and the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 241 and Local 973 – It was recently announced the two sides have reached a deal on a new contract, but since this is a matter “regarding labour relations or employee negotiations” it must be discussed in-camera under Section 239(2)(d) of the Municipal Act.
72 Gordon Street: Objection to Notice of Intention to Designate – This was on the agenda last month, but motions to either uphold the designation or remove it both failed. Instead, council voted defer this motion till this meeting so that they might be able have a vote that doesn’t end in a tie.
128 Dufferin Street: Intention to Demolish a Cultural Heritage Resource – This house is listed on the Municipal Register of Cultural Heritage Properties, but staff could not find enough of the original materials existing on the property, or any historical significance or contextual value, so they’ve granted their permission to demolish the house.
14 Mitchell Street: Notice of Intention to Designate – This home was owned by Caleb Chase in the beginning. He came to Guelph when he was 18 years old in 1856 and started the Chase Carriage Company, and worked his way up the civic ranks as city councillor, deputy reeve, reeve (or chief magistrate) and eventually mayor. He was also one of the main drivers in creating the Guelph Public Library! 14 Mitchell was also home to war hero Kenneth Macalister, who was a Rhodes scholar and then a spy for the Special Operations Executive. He was captured while on a mission in Nazi-occupied France and executed in Buchenwald in 1944. This house meets meets five of the nine prescribed criteria for determining cultural heritage value or interest, according to Ontario Regulation 9/06.
15 Gordon Street: Notice of Intention to Designate – Presently, this storefront at the top end of Gordon is home to the Found Coffee Company, but that’s only one purpose its served over the years and decades. This portion is all that remains of the five limestone buildings comprising the Day’s Block, which was built in the mid-19th century; it’s a three-bay, three-storey building constructed of local limestone designed in a neo-classical, vernacular style with Georgian elements and it meets six of the nine prescribed criteria for determining cultural heritage value or interest.
5 Queen Street: Notice of Intention to Designate – This house was once owned by Nathaniel Higinbotham, to whom much of the early development of Guelph is credited. Like Chase, he was a prominent business man, city councillor, deputy reeve, reeve, and mayor, but he was the first president of the Guelph Humane and Children’s Aid Society. This land that his old house sits on was once surveyed by (that!) John A. Macdonald. So all things considered, what we’re going to call he Higinbotham House meets five of the nine prescribed criteria for determining cultural heritage value or interest.
57 Kirkland Street: Intention to Demolish a Cultural Heritage Resource – This house may have been built in 1875, but all the heritage value in the world couldn’t save it from the ravages of fire. The property owner is requesting that the house be taken off the registry so that it might be more easily demolished, and Heritage Guelph endorsed the move last month.
75 Suffolk Street West: Notice of Intention to Designate – This strip started as a residential building in 1861, and expanded into an additional residence and commercial property in 1880. Over the years, the building has been home to a variety of grocers, including, at one point, The Stone Store. This stretch meets five of the nine prescribed criteria for determining cultural heritage value or interest.
77 Suffolk Street West: Notice of Intention to Designate – This part of the same structure as 75 Suffolk Street West.
79 Suffolk Street West: Notice of Intention to Designate – This part of the same structure as 75 Suffolk Street West.
Public and Decision Meeting: 725 Imperial Road North Proposed Zoning By-law Amendment File: OZS24-004 – This property is an empty green patch between the Hampton Inn and a row of fast food restaurants facing Woodlawn, but someone wants to build a new six-storey hotel on the property, which requires a ZBA switcheroo from “Service Commercial” (SC) zone to a site-specific “Service Commercial-XX” (SC-5) designation. The new hotel will have 152 rooms, which would put a serious dent in the number of hotel rooms lost over the last few years. This is a combination statutory meeting and decision meeting, so any delegate will get their 10-minutes, but council will also make a decision about the project before the end of the meeting.
Public and Decision Meeting: 81 Royal Rd Proposed Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendments File OZS25-004 Ward 4 – Presently this is a big empty at the corner of Royal and Woodlawn, but it might soon be a “Industrial Supply Outlet” with nearly 2,800 square metres of commercial space and two loading areas. This is also a combination statutory meeting and decision meeting, so any delegate will get their 10-minutes, but council will also make a decision about the project before the end of the meeting.
Ward West Heritage Conservation District Study – The latest of the three ongoing Heritage Conservation Districts finally comes to council for feedback and discussion about the established characteristics and proposed borders for the HCD. The Ward West area is exemplified by its status between the rivers, industrial development and the railroad, affordability and adaptive redevelopment. The proposed boundaries are the same as what was presented at Heritage Guelph earlier this year: Along the river, then up Hersey to York to Huron, and then down Alice to Duke to Elizabeth and back to the river. However, the proposed boundary will be stretched further west to Lyon Park and then up Morris to Ferguson to Huron and the railroad tracks behind Elizabeth to the river. Also, if approved, the area will be dubbed The Ward Heritage Conservation District going forward.
Special Economic Zones Act, 2025 – This is from an information report to council on May 16, a request for feedback from the Government of Ontario about the creation of “Special Economic Zones” as part of the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act. The deadline for submissions was May 17, but Councillor Leanne Caron asked to pull this item for discussion.
Guelph Politico 