Tag: OPA 80

This Week at Council: Official Plan Drama as Council’s Lobbied Hard

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This week at Guelph City Council, there was a little meeting and a big meting. The little meeting was the Committee of the Whole, which was over and done in about 20 minutes. As for the big meeting? Well that is – what’s the word? – complicated. The fallout from the Ontario government’s flip-flop on the Official Plan proved more trickier than you might have thought for a motion that was simply meant to reverse previous changes, but that’s what this recap is for… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Official Plan Drama as Council’s Lobbied Hard” →

LIVE BLOG: City Council Meetings for December 5, 2023

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It’s back-t0-back meetings to kick off December! You can click here and 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 Meetings for December 5, 2023” →

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” →

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the December 5 Meetings?

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Two big meetings back-to-back, united in the fact that there’s only one issue on each of their agendas. The final Committee of the Whole meeting of 2023 will actually look ahead to next year with a brief report, and after that, council will look to the past. Sort of. That Official Plan Amendment that was approved, sent to the Ontario government, rewritten, sent back to council and re-adapted… It’s back again! Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the December 5 Meetings?” →

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” →