Tag: Official Plan Amendment

MEETING PREVIEW: Heritage Advisory Committee Meeting for November 6, 2025

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This November meeting of the Heritage Advisory Committee will look to the future in some key ways. There’s not a lot in new heritage designations, but there will be some discussion of future designations, and some discussion about a future Official Plan amendment and its impacts on heritage work, a potential demolition of a (sorta) heritage asset and a mistake made in the minutes of a previous meeting. Let’s get into the preview… Continue reading “MEETING PREVIEW: Heritage Advisory Committee Meeting for November 6, 2025” →

Planning Staff Looking to Reverse Course on Some Official Plan Changes

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The adventure continues… Earlier this year, Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing returned to the City of Guelph the latest version of their Official Plan with 18 modifications. There was some disagreement about that. Since then, the new Minister announced that he was going to rescind those changes made by his predecessor, but what does that mean for Guelph? There’s a meeting for that! Continue reading “Planning Staff Looking to Reverse Course on Some Official Plan Changes” →

Remember Those Official Plan Changes? Calandra Says Never Mind

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It was two months ago now when former Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark resigned from the Ontario cabinet in the wake of the Auditor General’s report about the changes to the Greenbelt. It was a little over a month ago that Premier Doug Ford announced that the government would be restoring that land back to the Greenbelt, and it was just last week that Paul Calandra, Clark’s replacement, finally introduced that legislation. So what’s new this Monday? Continue reading “Remember Those Official Plan Changes? Calandra Says Never Mind” →

The Letter Mayor Guthrie Didn’t Want to Send, Revealed

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Earlier this month, city council reviewed the decision of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing on Guelph’s Official Plan Amendment #80 (OPA80), and some of those decisions were pretty controversial. And then there was the response to the controversy, which itself got, at times, pretty controversial. The fruits of that controversy, a letter to the minister, were revealed in an information report to council on Friday. Continue reading “The Letter Mayor Guthrie Didn’t Want to Send, Revealed” →

This Week at Council: Official Plan Decision Debate Takes Over Planning Meeting

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This month’s planning meeting was probably always going to be a controversial affair, but,  as it turned out, making a decision about a 23-storey tower at the corner of Wyndham and Wellington is something council didn’t have to worry about… for now. Instead, council had to find a new source of friction and boy was it delivered thanks to a staff report about the Ontario government’s decision on the latest Official Amendment. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Official Plan Decision Debate Takes Over Planning Meeting” →

RECAP: Committee of Adjustment Hands Out Minor Variances and Talks Bylaw

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As compared to April’s marathon Committee of Adjustment meeting, the May meeting was a breeze. There were just four applications on the agenda, but there wasn’t a lot to fight about, and after that, staff gave a presentation about recent changes to two big committee-adjacent matters: the Ontario government’s decision about the latest Official Plan update, and the newly approved Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw. Continue reading “RECAP: Committee of Adjustment Hands Out Minor Variances and Talks Bylaw” →

LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for May 9, 2023

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City council is proud to present this month’s planning meeting. 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 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 May 9, 2023” →

MEETING PREVIEW: Committee of Adjustment Meeting for May 11, 2023

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This month’s Committee of Adjustment meeting will hopefully not be the marathon that April’s was; there are significantly fewer than a dozen different applications to dispatch. The committee will hear a couple of applications that will look at some building expansions, and then they will hear from staff about the approved changes to the Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw and the Provincially approved changes to the Official Plan. Continue reading “MEETING PREVIEW: Committee of Adjustment Meeting for May 11, 2023” →

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

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May’s planning meeting was all set to be a contentious affair, 23-storey contentious. But you know what? Never mind. See more details about that below, and also see details about the next building in the heritage planners’ list of buildings to save, the effects of Bill 23 on the Building Code, and, at last, a full discussion about the impacts of the provincial changes to the City’s primary planning document. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the May 9 Meeting?” →

GUELPH POLITICAST #369 – What’s the Deal with OPA 80?

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This has been an exceptionally busy week for the City of Guelph’s planning department. As the staff were getting for the final approval of the new Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw this week – the first update in nearly 30 years, remember – the Government of Ontario dropped their decision on Official Plan Amendment #80, the latest version of Guelph’s Official Plan. It never rains, but it pours! Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #369 – What’s the Deal with OPA 80?” →