This Week at Council: It Was a Gas!

It was just going to be a quick meeting, 10 minutes in and out max, but a funny thing happened between that time and when the agenda was released a few weeks ago. Mostly, a couple of councillors wanted to have their say about more provincial overreach, in this case when it comes to how Queen’s Park is looking to override the Ontario Energy Board. So did council lay the smack down, and how many of them wanted no part of it? Read on… Continue reading “This Week at Council: It Was a Gas!”

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the April 9 Meeting?

For all those watching housing regulations in the city, and fans of discussions around city-wide changes to zoning, this planning meeting of city council is for you! Since last year, City of Guelph staff have been diligently exploring the question about whether we should allow four units as-of-right in the city. That question will get an answer, and speaking of answers, an new proposal will get its day in front of the horseshoe! Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the April 9 Meeting?”

LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for March 26, 2024

One more meeting for this March calendar! You can click here for the amended agendas 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 on Twitter, or follow the tweets below. You can also watch the City’s own live-stream of the meeting here. Continue reading “LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for March 26, 2024”

This Week at Council: Demolition Bylaw, Man.

Don’t judge an agenda by its cover. The docket for this month’s planning meeting of city council looked kind of plain, but looks can b deceiving and at least one item on the agenda opened up an opportunity take a deeper dive on demolition policy, or demolition by neglect policy to be precise. There will be more about that coming this year, but for now here’s what was said on the matter at this past week’s council meeting. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Demolition Bylaw, Man.”

Committee of the Whole Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the April 3, 2024 Meeting?

The council agendas were kind of light in March, so April is appropriately busy right off the bat with some pretty big technical updates and some pretty big matters of new policy development. In terms of the technical, there’s water, sewers, and the City’s program to make residential buildings more environmentally sustainable. In terms of new business, we get back to matters of tourism, and we talk about organizing our precious lobbyists. Continue reading “Committee of the Whole Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the April 3, 2024 Meeting?”

Dolime Development Open to Suggestions at First Look Open House

In the west end of Guelph you will find the newest part of town, 230 acres of land sitting on top of about 11 million litres of precious ground water. Presently, this land is still the Dolime Quarry, but in the years to come it will be a new subdivision. So with development plans currently in the works, the land’s owner, River Valley Developments, opened up the doors for the first time for public input. Continue reading “Dolime Development Open to Suggestions at First Look Open House”

LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for March 20, 2024

Finally, after March Break, some planning! You can click here for the amended agendas 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 on Twitter, or follow the tweets below. You can also watch the City’s own live-stream of the meeting here. Continue reading “LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for March 20, 2024”

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the March 26 Meeting?

We come again to the end of the month and the regular council meeting. It’s been a pretty laid back month compared to last, and this meeting’s agenda fits that theme as council will revisit the very uncontroversial Committee of the Whole agenda, and then add another matter about whether not council should support the idea of subsidizing new pipelines. So let’s get into a very issues-oriented, nerds only kind of agenda. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the March 26 Meeting?”

Calandra Touts Guelph Housing Success with Novelty Cheque (But Real Money)

Pomp was in the air of the courtyard at Guelph City Hall Thursday morning. The special guest was Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra, and the order to the day was celebrating Guelph’s success on housing starts in 2023. The what was a giant novelty cheque, a symbol of the very real award for Guelph starting construction on 1,287 new housing units last year, nearly $4.7 million in “reward” money! Continue reading “Calandra Touts Guelph Housing Success with Novelty Cheque (But Real Money)”

RECAP: Social Services Committee Feels Good About Direction Post-Symposium

This month’s Social Services Committee meeting was a special occasion, not only was there a change in venue to a Wellington County building on Wyndham Street, but this was the last committee meeting in its present iteration. But before a new committee takes over, there was a lot for this group to tackle on the March agenda from ongoing construction projects to the aftermath of the Health and Housing Symposium. Here’s the recap… Continue reading “RECAP: Social Services Committee Feels Good About Direction Post-Symposium”