The antepenultimate meeting of the term was a planning meeting with massive number of projects. Not only were there a lot of projects on this agenda, the projects themselves were pretty big including a massive new development in the south end, a big new student residence on College Avenue, and another heritage conservation district that got council approval, but it was a long way getting there. Here’s the recap…
Planning Meeting of Council – September 9, 2026
Like Mayor Cam Guthrie at this week’s council meeting, let’s open with a trivia question: How long was the final planning meeting of this term? The answer is that it was a little over five hours long. But the length of the meeting was kind of proportional to the size of some of the projects.
First, a decision report for 266-280 Clair Road West, 950 Southgate Drive saw staff recommend refusal to the hundreds of potential units here, including a couple of hundred affordable ones. Why? It’s because the project would mean the loss of employment lands, there’s a lack of compatibility with the surrounding area and there were environmental concerns as well.
However, sensing that council doesn’t want to be caught saying “no” to affordable housing, or any housing really, staff presented a compromise: If the developer agrees to a commitment of 40 years on the affordable units, to restore the ecological link, execute an agreement of purchase for City lands, and finish the required studies, this project would get an approval.
Before getting to the delegates, there was a tech hiccup that interrupted the live stream. It did end up getting resolved, but not before the meeting continued with several people speaking in favour of the project. Hugh Handy from GSP Group, representing the owner, said that it was his hope that they could still get to yes with the staff alternative. Mike Labbe from Home Opportunities, the owner of the project, took things further by voluntarily pledging to pay back the development fees they’re no longer required to pay as a non-profit corporation building affordable housing.
What Labbe also made clear though is that the staff solution does not answer all the concerns of Home Opportunities and its partners, and while a “yes” is better than a “no”, the project is incapable of proceeding with the conditions that staff were asking for. Guthrie proposed a deferral so that staff and the developer can work out the details, and Labbe said that at the very least changing the zoning of the property was “a place to start” for future negotiations.
There were, at least, a few detractors. Laura Murr and Hugh Whiteley spoke to the environmental concerns for the property and the history of trying to preserve it, but the most discussed environmental aspect of the project seemed to be the potential noise from the surrounding industrial properties, and how that might have an impact on the people who end up living there.
After a break council interrogated staff about the decision to refuse and some other issues, but eventually the alternative recommendation to approve the project was put on the table. The motion was amended to have staff explore the definition of affordability for this development including an evaluation of the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s meaning of “income based” affordability, and then after some commentary from council the project was approved with the staff conditions. (Only Councillor Christine Billings voted against it.)
Next, council headed north to College Avenue and a proposed apartment building across the street from the University of Guelph that will be geared to post-secondary student. This time, staff were recommending approval with some adjustments made since the public meeting, but not everyone was satisfied. Jorn Christensen, whose house will be sandwiched between the Sports Dome and this project, wanted to see more work get done on the proposal and asked to have it deferred, and he had an ally in Cutten Fields who, with two delegations, still voiced concerns about the impact of this building on the golf business, though they did appreciate the decreased massing on the upper floors.
Councillors voiced concerns about the impact on the Christensen and his wife and talked about a letter from the University of Guelph not included in the agenda that raised some unspecified concerns on their end. Councillor Linda Busuttil again noted the need for the units to be flexible for families lest the city at some point having more student housing than students, and also noted the lack of common amenity space, which would, presumably, have to be supplied by the U of G.
Councillor Carly Klassen went further saying that more adjustments needed to be made before she was satisfied with the proposal and then she called the massing “ugly”. Guthrie says he would support the project because there’s a real difference between where it ended up and where it was before, but regardless Klassen was joined by Phil Allt and Cathy Downer in voting against it while their seven other colleagues voted in favour.
Closing in on 11 pm, council voted to extend the meeting’s timeline to consider the last two projects. Ms. Staples still had concerns about infringements on her property if the project at 220 Arkell Road goes ahead, and wanted her address removed from the application documents. Council obliged her, and Dave Aston from MHBC Planning said that while his client would be happy to add a “No Trespassing” sign per Ms. Staples’ request, they can’t put up a fence because of wildlife. That application was approved.
And that brought us to the 132 Clair Road West Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendments. This plan will see the construction of 458 apartment units in three buildings of six–12 storeys, plus 56 stacked townhouses, 16 back-to-back townhouses and 59 lower-density units. Andrea Sinclair from MHBC thanked staff for the hard work and the affirmative recommendation, and council went on to approve it.
On Thursday in a press release, the City of Guelph noted that on Wednesday night council essentially approved 1,726 units, or to put it another way just 26 fewer units than what was approved all of last year. In 2026, council has given the green light to 2,257 total housing units approved, which means that there are up to 9,008 approved housing units that are awaiting building permits in Guelph.
To wrap up this newsletter, like Mayor Guthrie at the meeting, we offer another trivia question: How many more council meetings are there before the election? One.
Click here to see the complete recap of the meeting.
