Tag: Affordable Housing

This Week at Council: Squares, Downloading, and Bike Lanes End 2025

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It was the last council meeting of the year, and it’s been a wild ride, but there were at least a couple of surprises left for civic policy nerds before Christmas Break. Yes, as expected, council discussed the final, final design for St. George’s Square as council sought the ever nebulous “wow” factor. In addition to that there was some push back from council about changes to conservation authorities and a twist ending for fans of bike lanes. For the last time in 2025, here’s the recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Squares, Downloading, and Bike Lanes End 2025” →

RECAP: City Council Meeting for December 16, 2025

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Let us wrap up a very busy, and a very difficult 2025 in the council chambers. You can click here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here for the Politico preview. For the complete blow-by-blow of today’s council meeting, you can follow along with the thread below, or you can watch the whole meeting for yourself by watching it on the City’s website here. Continue reading “RECAP: City Council Meeting for December 16, 2025” →

This Week at Council: More ADUs, But Four Units is Enough?

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In the last planning meeting for 2025, there was indeed a lot of planning. No new projects were on the agenda, so no future additions to the housing stock, but maybe the fruits of this meeting will lead the way(?). In the first half, council talked about making it easier to get more ADUs built in the city, and in the second half they looked at doing more than four units as-of-right in low residential areas. Let’s get into the recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: More ADUs, But Four Units is Enough?” →

RECAP: City Council Meeting for December 9, 2025

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Plans and planning will on the agenda for this second-to-last meeting for 2025! You can click here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here for the Politico preview. For the complete blow-by-blow of today’s council meeting, you can follow along during the meeting on Blue Sky or recap the complete thread after the meeting below. You can also watch the City’s own live-stream of the meeting here. Continue reading “RECAP: City Council Meeting for December 9, 2025” →

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the December 16, 2025 Meeting?

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Merry Christmas! City council’s present to you is a new vision for St. George’s Square assuming that they want to pursue it. That’s one of the items in what looks to be a fairly straightforward final meeting of the year, which will feature any final thoughts about the items from Committee of the Whole, a busy (and mysterious) closed meeting agenda,  and some new appointments to the advisory committees. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the December 16, 2025 Meeting?” →

This Week at Council: Renoviction Bylaw Go and the Budget Conclusion!

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It was a busy week for city council business with two big meetings. Nay! Make that huge meetings!! At the regular meeting, council decided (again) to pursue a renoviction bylaw and a vacant home tax with immediate effect. The real money matters though was the budget decision meeting (although technically the budget was already decided and this was just adding amendments) and there was definitely some friction to talk about there. Let’s get into the recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Renoviction Bylaw Go and the Budget Conclusion!” →

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the December 9, 2025 Meeting?

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What’s on the agenda for the last planning meeting of the year? Housing, obviously. No new projects are being proposed at this meeting, but changes that might create more housing in the future will be discussed and debated like changes to the program that develops Additional Dwelling Units or ADUs, and a potential plan to allow five units as-of-right on select properties in Guelph. In other news, more plans will get an alteration. Here’s the preview… Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the December 9, 2025 Meeting?” →

RECAP: City Council Meeting for November 25, 2025

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Meeting number one of a two meeting week, the non-budget one! You can click here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here for the Politico preview. For the complete blow-by-blow of today’s council meeting, you can follow along during the meeting on Blue Sky or recap the complete thread after the meeting below. You can also watch the City’s own live-stream of the meeting here. Continue reading “RECAP: City Council Meeting for November 25, 2025” →

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the November 25, 2025 Meeting?

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It’s going to be a big week for city council with two meetings, but this may not be the biggest one with the other one being about the budget. Still, council will likely have some additional thoughts on a couple of big reports from Committee of the Whole, and they then they will dig into some items concerning the joint committee that the City of Guelph collaborates with the county on. So let’s dig into all the non-budget business in this meeting preview! Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the November 25, 2025 Meeting?” →

This Week at Council: A Renoviction Bylaw Now (or Soon)!

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It was a big meeting of Committee of the Whole, and one that’s been long anticipated. The topic on this day concern’s a proposed renoviction bylaw and a new vacant home tax. The latter was kind of a foregone conclusion because staff were recommending its creation, but the renoviction bylaw… That was going to be another story. But which version of the story was the committee going to want to tell? Find out in this week’s recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: A Renoviction Bylaw Now (or Soon)!” →