This Week at Council: Big Nights for Big Projects

It was a packed night, or make that a couple of nights, at Guelph City Council. Two nights, two big planning projects, one in the south end and one in the east end. Both have been hotly anticipated (dreaded?), at least one for many, many years, and while one is still at least theoretical, the other is now moving on to the next phase of development. For all the details, let’s get right into this week’s recap of council business…

Planning Meeting of Council – September 9, 2025

There were really two items on the agenda for this month’s planning meeting, one massive and one noticeably minor.

The massive project was one that’s been long anticipated, the redevelopment of the Pergola Commons plaza at the corner of Clair and Gordon. The plan is to build a new mixed-use residential and commercial complex with four buildings and five towers ranging from 10 to 14 storeys, containing 715 dwelling units in total. The cost? The present commercial plaza that’s home to State & Main, Harvey’s, The Beer Store, Galaxy Cinemas and more. Although the project technically meets the zoning requirements for the property, it does come with a laundry list of specialized regulations.

There were four delegates who took turns speaking against the project. Size was a particular issue, and so was the increase in traffic to the area, but they were also concerned about the loss of local amenities including the movie theatre. On the developer side, Kara Green, Director of Development for property owner First Capital REIT, tried to sell positives like net-zero build and the “Woonerf” design, meaning a living street that’s primarily pedestrian friendly; think Carden Street outside City Hall.

Council’s primary concern? Timing. When would something like this get underway construction-wise? That’s the tricky part, Green explained. First, all the businesses in the plaza are on a lease, and some of those leases are short-term and others are longer. And then there’s the present economic picture, as Green noted (and perhaps understated), the residential housing market is “not great” right now. Conceivably, this project could get started in the next 10 years, but Green couldn’t disclose the length of even the short-term leases; they’re just looking to secure the zoning so that the project is ready to go once all the other proverbial stars align.

Council also expressed concerns about overflow parking, the fact that retail/commercial space was being halved, the potential loss of local community, and access to the future site with the road layout presented in the plan. There were also concerns raised about the city’s water capacity, stormwater absorption, and whether the City should look at changing up the configuration of Gordon at this intersection to help manage traffic. Councillor Ken Yee Chew, who lives in the area, said that he hopes First Capital could continue to work collaboratively with businesses and area residents as the development continues.

Council then voted to receive the report, and I’ll share the next part with all possible emphasis for when you share this with your less politically savvy friends and neighbours: The plan was not approved, and no final decision was made at this meeting.

The second item concerned changes to the Parkland Dedication Bylaw, new exemptions meant to tide us over till the full review of the bylaw coming in the first quarter of 2027. The changes were the removal of the PDB for additions and renovations that don’t effectively add to the city’s housing stock, plus a carve out for an apartment building on Woolwich Street that would have to pay the PDB for the first time as they add a new bachelor unit.

The changes were relatively uncontroversial, but the topic included a 45-minute in-camera session so that council could get solicitor’s advice. When they returned, council heard the two delegates – a rep for the apartment building and a homeowner upset that their own renovation prompted a massive PDB payment – and then promptly approved the changes.

Click here to see the complete recap of the meeting.

Special Meeting of Council – September 10, 2025

Twenty-four hours later, council gathered again on a separate planning matter, the first two block plans for the Guelph Innovation District property. This plot, bought by Fusion Homes in 2021, is on the western side of the river across from the Guelph Reformatory property and was already subject to alteration after the Ontario government changed the Official Plan and then council voted (marginally) to keep the changes after the plan reverted back to its original version.

First things first, staff were recommending to council that they reject the block plans because they “diverged” from their expectations for the project. At issue: The planned community park isn’t big enough, and neither is the planned school, which is now situated in the employment lands and not residential. Plus, the plan doesn’t meet minimum employment mixed-use requirements, the single-loaded road on the eastern edge of the property is missing, there needs to be revisions to the stormwater management facilities, and the perspective heritage asset, the Frost Building, needs to be part of a residential block.

After staff went through their issues with the project, several delegates spoke including members of the community, but for the most part the delegate portion of the meeting was an opportunity for the Fusion Homes team to rebut the staff presentation and present their point of view.

The first delegate was Lee Piccoli, the CEO of Fusion Homes who said that they were very excited about the project they’ve developed so far, but sticking so closely to what was developed in the secondary plan didn’t make a lot of sense seeing as how it was developed 20 years ago. Opting for smaller parks instead of a big community park was a decision to spread the parkland around the property instead of concentrating it in one place, Piccoli said, and as for reducing the amount of employment land, he explained that the property was unlikely to attract heavy manufacturing or logistics businesses – Guelph’s economic bread and butter – due to its location.

Councillors hammered Piccoli on sports fields. The linear parks that Fusion promised in their plan were going to be too small, in staff’s estimation, to allow for the placement of sports fields while parks staff have repeatedly noted the increased demand for sports fields in Guelph, especially for emerging sports like cricket due to the changing demographics in the city. Piccoli disagreed about the need and said that if more sports fields are need then they should be put in places where the land is “less valuable”.

As for the Frost Building, Piccoli said that he didn’t find the building especially beautiful and that it wasn’t old enough to be considered heritage. He also said that he doesn’t want to own it and that it’s unsafe, which is why they want to tear down the building and turn the land into a park. Piccoli repeatedly cited the view of the city skyline from that spot as ideal for wedding photos and placemaking.

Councillors also had questions about the timeline and Piccoli said it could take 10 to 20 years depending on the market. He said he would be disappointed if it took longer than 20 years to get this project completed but seemed bullish on the prospects. Barring any delays caused by the meeting’s result, Piccoli explained, construction could begin in late-2027, though one of his colleagues suggested that it might be even sooner than that.

Other questions were asked of the different Fusion staffers, including a query about the level of consultation with the Upper Grand District School Board about the placement of the school, which never seemed to go beyond the level of planning staff. Some members of council wanted to interrogate how the plan to have the park and the school separated by a road was a safety issue, while others asked about the degree to which Fusion has engaged with the University of Guelph as the development’s neighbour.

Nearly three hours after the meeting started, council was finally able to start their own deliberations. After some further questions to staff about fate of the Frost Building and the programming of linear style parks, the voting started. Mayor Cam Guthrie said he would take each of staff’s conditions one at a time to allow for straight up and down votes or to provide councillors the opportunity to make amendments.

By a slim 6-7 vote, council endorsed Fusion’s idea for the linear parks and rejected staff’s demand for a 6.7-hectare park.

We pause here to note a technical issue. Councillor Michele Richardson, who was at a work conference, took part in the meeting via phone. After technical difficulties, Richardson was able to record her voice vote, but Councillor Linda Busuttil had questions about how council defined being a meeting participant considering that Richardson had been passively taking part over the phone after joining the meeting in progress. Guthrie rejected any further interrogation, but it’s worth noting that Richardson ended up being a swing vote in many of the motions.

The second staff requirement to have 16.48 hectares of mixed-use employment land was also rejected by council 6-7.

More successful was an amendment concerning the school. Council endorsed the idea that the school should be located in a non-Employment Mixed-use block and amended the motion to orient the school and the park so that they’re not separated by the road.

As for the Frost Building, council opted to amend the motion to not make the property part of the park block. It ended up passing by an 8-5 vote with Councillor Leanne Caron on one side arguing that modern architecture is the most at risk of loss, while Guthrie played, what he called, “Devil’s advocate”, saying that it didn’t think the Frost Building should count as heritage due to its relative youthfulness.

Council then had another marginal 7-6 vote, this time in favour of the staff recommendation to have a single-loaded road on the eastern edge of the property and then voted unanimously to make any necessary revisions to the stormwater management plan, mostly because it was required anyway with the changes they had just endorsed.

The only thing left to do was to endorse the heritage designation for the Frost Building, which was deferred at a meeting earlier this year after Fusion asked council to wait for the block plan before approving the designation. It was approved 8-5.

Afterward, as council rose for the night, the Fusion Homes team huddled in the gallery to start looking at what comes next…