In the first regularly scheduled council meeting of the year 2026, downtown was the centre of attention. Again. In this planning meeting council got its first look at the Community Planning Permit System for the core, and they took their last look at the plan and guidelines for the Heritage Conservation District downtown. Along with that, there was a slight diversion to the south end and a major downtown project was approved. Here’s the recap!
Planning Meeting of Council – January 20, 2026
Back to regular order on Tuesday, council held this month’s planning meeting with a focus on downtown and a brief stopover in the Hanlon Creek Business Park. After approving some heritage matters and the new planning application for the residential portion of the Baker District Redevelopment, council dug into the Downtown Community Planning Permit System.
Not dissimilar from the one already approved by council for the area around Stone Road Mall, the CPPS works with previous planning documents for downtown and combines the various applications and processes needed for development into a kind of one-stop shop that will theoretically accelerate approvals. Projects with none or very minor changes can be approved through delegated authority by staff, with council handling projects that have more substantial changes.
Aside from the streamlining, the CPPS is most notable for the community benefit piece; essentially, developers will be allowed more height in exchange for things like heritage protection, extra parkland dedication, or, most importantly, affordable housing. For any additional storeys approved, 33 per cent of those units have to be affordable at least once the community charge is fully phased in.
And that’s where the issues started….
Ian Panabaker from Wood Development Group (and who used to work in the City of Guelph’s planning department) explained in his delegation that with their plant #2 project coming to council soon for approval, the changes proposed in the CPPS could scuttle the project. He said the proposed density and scale were keyed to the demands of remediating the brownfield, and those costs were based on marketable land value and the added height approved in OPA 106.
Todd Smith, a consultant on the project, added that there is an issue of fairness here too because projects approved after this goes into effect will be hit by requirements that projects approved a year ago won’t. He also questioned the economics of what’s proposed, and the presumptions staff made in order to reach their conclusions.
City staff said that they would be happy to go over their numbers with the delegates, or anyone in the development community that would like more insight. Some councillors also said that they would like to see that review in order to ensure that everything added up. When asked about uptake to the CPPS already approved for Guelph, GM of Planning and Building Services Krista Walkey said that there’s been some meetings but nothing firm yet. As for the overall success of CPPS programs province-wide, staff said that they’ve seen some good results in Innisfil and a couple of other places, but Guelph is kind of ahead of the curve on this initiative.
Mayor Cam Guthrie said that it was hope that the CPPS, when complete, will not be cumbersome to new development and will balance red tape cutting and getting community benefit from the deal. He also encouraged staff to take their time and get it right instead of his usual encouragement to get it done faster. Council unanimously received the report, and the new CPPS should come back to council for final approval in March.
The next two items were handled a great deal more swiftly. First, the housekeeping amendments for phase #3 of the Hanlon Creek Business Park, postponed from December’s meeting, were examined. Primarily, this had to do with correcting a mapping error, splitting one block into two new blocks and preserving some land for a future well production site. Council approved those changes, and an extension to the subdivision plan through November 2029 without any additional input.
That just left the approval of the Heritage Conservation District plan and guidelines for Downtown Guelph. Notably, there was no discussion or concern about burdensome heritage protection regulations at this meeting as staff reiterated the plan’s dedication to balance growth and preservation, as well as all the consultation work over two years that went into the development of the plan and the revisions since last fall. On the council side there was nothing but praise, so the plan was passed unanimously. Barring any appeal, Guelph will have two heritage conservation districts by the beginning of March.
Click here to see the complete recap of the meeting.
Guelph Politico 