City Council approve the applicant submitted Block Plan for the Guelph Innovation District Blocks 1 and 2 as shown in Attachment-5, as amended.

21:17report on endorsing or the endorsement of the Guelph Innovation District Block Plan

21:22for blocks one and two. So this has been a long time coming and so it's nice to at least have the

21:30discussion in front of us tonight. Looking forward to it a lot of engagement's been taking place both

21:36internally and externally with the with the public as well so we're here tonight to again here both

21:42internally and externally from some of our own staff and from some delegations as well

21:47and so we're looking forward to hearing about these plans and so we're going to just kick things off

21:54with a presentation from the internal which is our city staff and so we're going to kick that off.

22:00Jane are you going to bring some opening remarks and then move on? Yes it looks like you are. I will

22:04start yes. So Jane Holmes our Deputy CAO is going to kick things off for us okay thank you.

22:12Good evening. Marigathri members of council and members of the public.

22:17So tonight marks a significant milestone for the Guelph Innovation District Secondary Plan Area.

22:22This special council meeting has been convened to make key decisions that will shape the future

22:27of one of Guelph's last major development opportunities. Over the past three years city

22:33staff have worked closely and collaboratively with Fusion Homes to help shape a vision for this

22:38transformative community. With nearly 4,700 new homes proposed this development represents a major

22:44step forward in Guelph's growth and as our chief planner has emphasized it's essential that we

22:49get this right. Fusion has undertaken extensive stakeholder engagement connecting with the

22:56residents and community groups to understand their aspirations for a future ready innovative

23:01neighborhood. So tonight you'll hear directly from Fusion about what they have learned and how those

23:06insights have informed their proposal. Some elements of that proposal diverge from current

23:12city policies as outlined in the staff report and as you'll hear in our presentation. While staff are

23:18guided by council's direction tonight it also represents an opportunity to explore what else

23:23might be possible and based on what you hear this evening you may want to consider alternative approaches.

23:30The motions included in the report allow council to provide alternative direction on key areas of

23:35concern or to endorse some or all of the block plan proposal. So we recognize that this is a complex

23:42and consequential decision and that's why we have a special council meeting tonight. City staff are

23:47here to support you and answer any questions you might have and your decisions will provide clarity

23:52to both staff and Fusion Homes and will help guide the next steps in realizing the vision

23:57for the Guelph Innovation District. And with that Mr. Mayor I will turn it over to Lucas.

24:07Thank you Jane. So good evening Mayor, members of council and the public. Tonight is a special

24:13meeting of council to discuss the endorsement of the block plan for blocks one and two in the Guelph

24:19Innovation District Secondary Plan area. As will be discussed in further detail the Guelph Innovation

24:25District Secondary Plan requires block plans to be endorsed prior to planning applications being

24:31prepared and submitted for these lands. So I'm joined tonight by a strong complement of staff

24:36to discuss the proposed block plan and staff's recommendations. The Guelph Innovation District

24:44or GID is a secondary plan area in the city's east end which is generally bounded by Victoria

24:50Road south to the east, York Road to the north, Watson Parkway south to the west and just south of

24:56Stone Road east to the south. The GID secondary plan underwent a long planning process beginning in

25:042005 and the secondary plan was adopted by city council on May 12th, 2014. Appeals for the secondary

25:11plan were subsequently withdrawn and on August 10th, 2017 the secondary plan came into full

25:17force and effect. On December 14th, 2021, Fusion Homes purchased two parcels of land and are here

25:25today to present the block plan for blocks one and two. The vision for the Guelph Innovation

25:30District is laid out in policy 11.2.1.1 of the secondary plan and has been in place since the

25:38secondary plan came into force and effect in 2017. That vision describes a compact mixed use

25:45community that will be home to innovative and sustainable employment uses with an adjacent

25:50urban village. Land use connections are envisioned between the GID as the city's innovation center

25:57with the University of Guelph as the city's knowledge-based research center

26:01and the downtown as Guelph Civic Hub and Cultural Center. These connections will support the emergence

26:07of a university downtown GID trinity of innovation spaces. The GID will also celebrate the rich

26:14heritage resources of the district including the Aramosa River Valley, the topography and views

26:20and the historic reformatory complex which is located on block four of the secondary plan.

26:26That vision as well as the accompanying principles and objectives of the secondary plan

26:31are critical to shaping staff's assessment of the block plan. Staff wanted to provide a little

26:39bit of a refresher for council and the public on the current status of the Guelph Innovation

26:43District's secondary plan. So on April 11th, 2023, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing

26:49approved Official Plan Amendment 80 which was the city's latest growth management strategy to 2051.

26:56OPA 80 was initially approved with a total of 18 modifications. These modifications were

27:02reversed through Bill 150, the Official Plan Adjustments Act, but then Minister Calandra

27:08reached out to municipalities whose official plans were modified to determine if municipal

27:14councils endorsed the modifications made. On December 5th, 2023, council endorsed the

27:21modifications made to the Guelph Innovation District's secondary plan which came into

27:25force and effect through the passage of Bill 162, the Get It Done Act 2024. These modifications

27:32were made to a few select policies, the land use map or schedule, and the height schedule for the

27:38Guelph Innovation District's secondary plan which we'll go over over the next few slides.

27:43Modifications were not made to the vision, principles and objectives of the Guelph Innovation

27:48District's secondary plan. As a result of these modifications, there will be a significant change

27:54in the overall layout of the secondary plan which will affect the population and employment

27:59forecasts for blocks one and two. So prior to the modifications, the city was targeting a

28:06residential population of approximately 4,600 people with an employment forecast of 4,200 jobs.

28:14Following the modifications, the applicant now anticipates this forecast to change to between

28:198,111 people to 9,472 people and 3,673 jobs. So here's the GID land use schedule. On the left

28:35hand side is the schedule prior to provincial modifications and on the right hand side is

28:40the current schedule following those modifications. These modifications have resulted in the loss

28:45of approximately 25 hectares of employment designated land which has been replaced by

28:50residential and mixed use corridor GID designated land. As well the mixed use corridor GID land

28:57extends further south on Victoria Road south and is also located now on Stone Road east.

29:03A new park symbol has also been added along with an open space and park designation

29:07closer to the Aramosa River Valley. Here's the GID built form element schedule which denotes the

29:16permitted heights, city streets and nodes in the Guelph Innovation District. Similar to the

29:21previous slide on the left hand side is the schedule prior to provincial modifications

29:25and on the right hand side is the current schedule following those modifications.

29:29So prior to the modifications the maximum height permitted in the GID was 10 stories

29:35concentrated around nodes shown as the dark gray color on the left hand side. Currently the maximum

29:41height permitted in the GID is 18 stories in areas shown as the green color on the right hand side,

29:48areas shown in purple on the right hand side now also permit 12 stories. In addition to modifications

29:58made to mapping there have also been some slight policy modifications mostly to address

30:02locational references and policy to align with the modified schedules. For example this includes

30:08removing policy language related to the function of the main street which is an extension of College

30:13Avenue as a transition area between the residential and employment mixed use designation

30:19because the employment mixed use designation has been removed closer to that main street.

30:24As well there have also been locational reference changes for the single loaded local road

30:28also because of the reduction in the employment mixed use designation.

30:33Finally some of the urban design policies related to height of the street

30:37wall have been changed to account for changes in the height schedule. So with that I'm going to

30:42pass it now to Lindsay to talk about the development steps for GID. Thanks Lucas I'm now going to take

30:55us through the steps required to develop the Guelph Innovation District secondary plan area.

31:00So block plans are required to be developed to the satisfaction of the city and approved by the

31:05city for each of the identified block plan areas prior to approval of any planning act development

31:11application. Following block plan approval applications for official plan amendments,

31:17zoning bylaw amendments and draft plans of subdivisions as required can then move forward.

31:23Public notification and statutory public meetings will be held for future planning act

31:28applications in accordance with the requirements of the planning act. So agencies, city departments

31:33and residents will have future opportunities to participate and provide comments on these

31:38future applications. Development applications are to be generally consistent with the approved

31:44block plan but block plans may be amended through development applications provided

31:48the policies of the GID secondary plan continue to be satisfied.

31:58What is a block plan? Block plans establish the pattern of development which ensures that

32:03development occurs in orderly, cost-effective and timely manner. Block plan areas will also be

32:11used for the purpose of monitoring and ensuring achievement of population employment and density

32:15targets as well as capital programming and land assembly. What do block plans include?

32:26Block plans are prepared in accordance with the terms of reference and include the following.

32:30Road pattern, layout of development blocks, stormwater management ponds and facilities,

32:35location size and configuration of parks, open space and urban squares, density and distribution

32:40of housing types, architectural design controls, achievement of the population employment and

32:46density targets, provision of municipal services, refinement of trail network and active transportation

32:51links, river crossings, location of public views and vistas, evaluation of cultural heritage resources

32:58and methods of conservation, conformity with the built form and site development policies of the

33:03GID secondary plan and conformity with the energy policies of the GID secondary plan.

33:14The subject lands are municipally known as 328 Victoria Road South and 588 Stone Road East. The

33:20subject lands are located at the northeast corner of Victoria Road South and Stone Road East

33:26as you can see on the location map up on the screen. Currently the subject lands have a combined

33:33area of approximately 116 hectares with 1497 meters of combined frontage along Victoria Road

33:40South and 874 meters of combined frontage along Stone Road East. The subject lands are primarily

33:46vacant and used for agricultural uses with two buildings located on the northwestern side of

33:51the subject lands. So on this slide we've provided a land use schedule for the Guelph Innovation

34:01District. A number of designations including designations specific to the GID secondary plan

34:09area include lands that are designated for residential mixed use corridor GID, employment

34:16mixed use one, employment mixed use two, open space and park and significant natural areas and

34:22natural areas as shown on schedule B of the Innovation District Secondary Plan land use schedule.

34:34The subject lands are currently zoned urban reserve one according to Zoning Bylaw 2023 as

34:39amended which permits conservation uses and legally existing uses buildings and structures

34:45and as discussed in an earlier slide a future Zoning Bylaw Amendment application is required

34:50and can be submitted following endorsement of a block plan. History of staff work on blocks one

34:59and two. So as part of the block plan process a technical review committee was established to

35:04support an efficient review process and includes city staff from planning engineering transportation

35:10planning, heritage planning, parks planning, environmental planning, economic development

35:15and the Grand River Conservation Authority. Technical review committee members have been

35:19discussing the GID block plan for blocks one and two with the applicant and owner since 2023.

35:26The first submission from Fusion was received in the first formal block plan submission from Fusion

35:31received in May of 2024 shortly after finalizing the terms of reference. Given the non-compliance

35:37with current city policies there were numerous meetings over the last year and two additional

35:41submissions to work collaboratively with Fusion with the final submission received in July of 2025.

35:47While some of the outstanding issues have been resolved between staff and Fusion there are

35:51still areas of the block plan that do not conform to current council approved policies

35:56and as such we are looking for your direction tonight on how to proceed. So up on the screen is

36:05the applicant proposed block plan. You can see the road layout and different land uses based on

36:13the different colors which show residential, the park which is in green, employment blocks.

36:22I think the applicant's going to go into more detail with this so I won't go into too much

36:26detail about the applicant proposed block plan. Staff have reviewed the first, second and third

36:35technical submissions for the block plan proposed by the applicant. Technical studies and supporting

36:40materials as well as the import received from the developer led public consultation and based on

36:45this review staff cannot recommend endorsement of the block plan as submitted as it does not comply

36:49with current city policies. City staff have identified the following areas where the block plan does

36:55not conform with city policies and therefore affects the ability of staff to recommend endorsement.

37:00So I will outline the major issues now and we will go through each one in more detail in the

37:05following slides. So the community park is undersized. Locating the elementary school block

37:19and the employment mix to use to land use designation. Location of a cultural heritage resource in

37:24neighborhood park. No single loaded road along the eastern edge of development. Concerns with the

37:30design of stormwater management facilities. So Mallory Lemon will now be discussing the next

37:42few slides related to parks. Good evening. So the city's park system is made up of a variety of park

37:56types that differ in size, function and distribution. The council approved GID secondary plan called

38:02for one neighborhood park and one community park. The provincial modifications to the land use

38:07schedule added a third park. Neighborhood parks are designed to serve residents within walking

38:13distance of their homes. These parks typically feature essential amenities such as playgrounds,

38:18walking paths and informal open spaces. Community parks are intended to serve users from a broader

38:24catchment area and generally offer more robust recreational infrastructure including sports fields,

38:30courts, splash pads and larger playgrounds. The city's official plan requires neighborhood

38:37parks to be a minimum one hectare in size and community parks to be 10 to 20 hectares in size.

38:42However, recent provincial amendments to the planning act have capped parkland dedication

38:47rates and the total parkland requirement for the GID area is 7.7 hectares. Therefore, a 10 to 20

38:55hectare community park is not achievable. As the city continues to grow, the Parks and Recreation

39:01Master Plan highlights a significant and rising demand for additional sports fields. Given that

39:08these facilities are typically feasible only within community and regional parks and that acquiring

39:14community parks usually depends on large-scale secondary planning, it is critical to secure

39:19a community park within the GID area that is large enough to accommodate a variety of sports fields

39:25and recreational amenities. Therefore, staff recommend allocating one hectare of the parkland

39:31dedication requirement to neighborhood parks and the remaining 6.7 hectares to the community park.

39:37For comparison, the average size of Guelph's community and regional parks is 6.65 hectares.

39:45The block plan submitted by the applicant proposes a community park of only 3.64 hectares,

39:50roughly half the recommended size and significantly below the official plan's minimum

39:55threshold. Through the block plan process, the applicant identified an opportunity to distribute

40:05parkland more evenly across the GID area. Staff support this approach, recognizing that successful

40:11neighborhood parks have previously been developed on parcels as small as 0.25 hectares. With this

40:17precedent in mind, staff support a configuration that includes several neighborhood parks totaling

40:22one hectare alongside a single community park of 6.7 hectares. This arrangement will meet the

40:29recreational needs of the community while ensuring parkland is well-distributed throughout the

40:34residential neighborhoods. However, of primary importance when planning the park system is

40:41ensuring that park blocks are functional and can accommodate typical park amenities.

40:48To assess this, staff requested that the applicant demonstrate functionality of each of the proposed

40:52parks through facility fit plans. Facility fit plans are schematic layouts that show the dimensions

40:58and spatial requirements of required park amenities. These plans allow the city to evaluate

41:04whether the size and configuration of the proposed parks are sufficient to meet the recreational needs

41:09of the community. The neighborhood park facility fit plans were to include a playground and informal

41:17open space, and the community park facility fit plan was to include a cricket pitch with two overlapping

41:23soccer fields, four tennis courts, a washroom and change room building, a playground, a picnic

41:30shelter, and parking for 300 vehicles to support tournaments as well as park use at peak capacity.

41:37This is typical in our large parks that offer multiple sports fields like Eastview Park and

41:41Guelph Lake Sports Fields. I want to reassure council that these are not necessarily the

41:47final amenities and the final designs for the parks and GID, but rather a way for staff to assess

41:54if the proposed parks can fit a full suite of park amenities in them. The applicant's facility fit

42:01plans reveal several concerns. Number one, the proposed community park is undersized and can't

42:07accommodate the required amenities. Number two, the proposed linear neighborhood parks are too

42:13narrow to support adequately sized playgrounds and fail to meet the zoning bylaws minimum road

42:18frontage requirements. And number three, one of the proposed neighborhood parks contains the frost

42:24building, which is not aligned with departmental needs and limits the ability to program the park

42:28with recreational features. Lindsay will speak more on the concerns about the frost building later in

42:33this presentation. Given these findings, staff do not support the parkland configuration as proposed

42:40by the applicant. However, we remain confident that the overall park system can be reconfigured

42:46to better meet community needs. This can be achieved by increasing the size of the community park,

42:53reducing the footprint of the neighborhood parks, and refining the shape and layout of individual

42:58park blocks, all while maintaining the same overall quantity of parkland. And I will pass it back to

43:07Lucas. Thank you, Mallory. So I'm going to spend the next few slides discussing some of the proposed

43:19employment lands. Prior to the modifications to the GID secondary plan, there was approximately 40

43:25hectares of employment mixed use land made up of both employment mixed use one and employment mixed

43:30use two land. Following the modifications made and using the size of the blocks proposed by the

43:36applicant, there would be approximately 16.48 hectares of employment mixed use land. However,

43:43the applicant submitted block plan would reduce the amount of employment mixed use land for employment

43:49uses to just 5.3 hectares as the community park, the proposed elementary school, and the storm water

43:56management block at the corner of Victoria road south and stone road east would take up land for

44:02these employment uses. While the province did make modifications to the land use schedule, the

44:08province did not select the location for the storm water management block or the park block.

44:15Employment and land for employment uses is a key component of what makes the vision for the GID.

44:21The GID is to be the city's innovation center and it will grow innovative employment opportunities

44:26that support the knowledge based innovation sector, which is a sector targeted for strong

44:33employment growth in the city of Guelph. As well, the GID has always been planned to accommodate a

44:39significant share of Guelph's employment growth, especially to 2051. The employment mixed use one

44:45designation in particular will include areas targeted for significant growth as a landmark area in

44:50our university downtown GID trinity and will be made up of a mix of street related as well as

44:57campus form development. As the city's latest employment land strategy showed, that campus form

45:03development and the development of the knowledge based innovation sector typically require larger

45:09sites so that offices, research and development, and even light manufacturing can all be accommodated

45:15on a single large site. If we lack these sites in the city, we may miss out on those uses and the

45:22permitted uses in the employment mixed use designation are strongly aligned with the city's

45:26targeted employment growth sectors. If we do miss out on those uses, it may have effects on the

45:32achievement of our jobs target. While the mixed use corridor GID lands may help to cover some of

45:38these uses such as offices, it would not permit those heavier employment uses such as assembly

45:45and manufacturing and research and development facilities, which are critical uses for the

45:50achievement of an innovation center. While the world of work is changing, need for lands for these

45:57kinds of employment uses remain and we want to have a diverse portfolio of potential sites from

46:02now to 2051. Staff do understand that some of these blocks proposed by the applicant are in their

46:09ideal location such as the stormwater management block or are permitted by existing policy.

46:15But these policies were crafted when it was intended for there to be 40 hectares

46:20of employment mixed use land in the GID. For example, if we take the GID secondary plan prior

46:27to provincial modifications and were to remove the 6.7 hectares for a community park, that would

46:33still leave 33.3 hectares of employment mixed use land, a far greater amount than the 16.48 hectares

46:42staff are recommending tonight. Therefore, staff are recommending that council direct the applicant

46:48to include 16.48 hectares of employment mixed use land within blocks one and two to accommodate

46:54for the vision, principles and objectives of the GID secondary plan. Related to this discussion is the

47:02proposed location of the elementary school block in the employment mixed use to designation.

47:08Despite the fact that the upper grand district school board has approved this location and block

47:12size, staff do not support using this designation for an elementary school as it does not conform

47:17to the employment objectives and policies for the GID secondary plan. While the school board

47:23does have specific requirements such as the size of the block and where that block can be located,

47:28the policies of the city of Guelph still need to be met and the school board's requirements

47:33can be met on another land use designation. The employment mixed use to designation is designed

47:39to support uses in the employment mixed use one land. The employment mixed use two designation

47:45will provide land for uses that support the employment function of the larger employment area

47:51within the Guelph agri-innovation cluster as described in policy 11.2.6.3.4.1. For example,

48:00this could include smaller research and development facilities, education uses through partnerships

48:05with the University of Guelph or Conestoga College, and entertainment and recreational

48:09commercial uses that support a complete community and transition between harder employment uses

48:15and residential uses. While the elementary school will provide employment and education

48:21uses are permitted in the employment mixed use to designation, the school use will serve the

48:27population from the residential areas of the Guelph innovation district rather than the population

48:33from the employment areas, which does not conform to policy. However, as already permitted by policy,

48:40it would be more appropriate for the needed elementary school block to be located in the

48:44residential designation subject to the upper grand district school board sizing and phasing

48:49requirements. With that, I'm going to pass it back to Lindsay to go through the rest of the presentation.

49:01Thanks, Lucas. So with respect to the location of the GM Frost building,

49:06in heritage planning staff's professional opinion and is approved by Heritage Guelph,

49:12the Frost building meets the minimum criteria to determine cultural heritage value and interest

49:17under the Ontario Heritage Act and have made public their intention to recommend designation.

49:22On April 8th, 2025, Council voted to defer the designation of the Frost building until the block

49:28plan for the Guelph innovation district is presented to City Council. The purpose was to see how this

49:33building might fit into the overall development of the GID before making a decision on the Heritage

49:39designation. The Heritage designation is on the agenda tonight after the GID report.

49:45The applicant submitted block plan proposes a neighborhood park in the area that includes the

49:49former Frost building. Both heritage planning and parks planning do not support a neighborhood park

49:54in this area as it implies that the building is being conveyed to the city. Acquisition of the

49:59building is not aligned with departmental needs and limits the ability to implement park amenities

50:06that are needed. There is no identified use for this building from City staff and no condition

50:12assessment to understand what the operational and maintenance requirements are for this building

50:17in the future. Staff recommend utilizing designation under the Heritage Act as the tool to conserve

50:23the heritage building rather than parkland dedication. City staff are recommending that the

50:28block plan be revised so that the Frost building is not in a park block.

50:36Provision of a single loaded road. As per the policies of the GID secondary plan,

50:41a single loaded perimeter local road is required to be considered along the western edge of the

50:46Aramosa River Valley. A single loaded road is when development is only present on one side of the

50:52road. The single loaded perimeter road has not been fully provided on the applicant's submitted

50:57block plan as there are some residential blocks on the east side of Street G. The single loaded

51:02road provides a public edge opportunities for separated active transportation infrastructure

51:07and full public view and public vista opportunities and greater protection opportunities of the

51:12Aramosa River Valley. City staff are recommending that the block plan be revised to include a

51:17single loaded road by shifting Street G to the west which would allow for the residential blocks

51:22currently located on the east side of Street G to be relocated to the west side. Stormrod

51:31management facilities. Engineering staff have reviewed the submissions and have identified

51:36significant concerns relating to the three stormrod management facilities. An objective of the block

51:42plan review from an engineering perspective is to ensure that the proposed servicing infrastructure

51:47and stormwater management requirements are planned appropriately and that sufficient land is planned

51:52to inform and guide the content of the subsequent development approvals. It is important for the

51:57applicant to address comments related to stormwater management design through a revised block plan

52:02submission as changes to the stormwater management facilities could impact the overall layout of

52:07the block plan. Engineering staff have identified concerns related to the stormwater management

52:12facility inlet design, stormwater management facility, for bay sizing, the post development

52:18stormwater management hydrologic model, Brentwood storm tank sizing, and existing rail culvert

52:24capacity analysis. The current design strategy increases the number of structures within the

52:29stormwater management facilities which increases the number of structures for the city to operate

52:34and maintain and complicate sediment management and clean out logistics. The design also suggests

52:39more frequent clean outs than what is achievable by the city. City staff are recommending that any

52:45revisions necessary to the stormwater management facilities to ensure adequate design and sizing

52:50to the satisfaction of the city engineer be made prior to endorsement of the block plan

52:54to ensure sufficient land is available for the stormwater management facilities.

53:03So in summary, staff are recommending that council direct the applicant to make the

53:07following modifications in order to receive endorsement. Revise the block plan to include a

53:13community park of 6.7 hectares in size. Include 16.48 hectares of employment mixed use land for

53:20employment uses within blocks one and two. Locate the elementary school block in a residential

53:25block within blocks one and two in accordance with the upper grand district school boards phasing

53:30and sizing requirements. Revise the block plan so the GM Frost building is in a residential block.

53:36Include a single loaded road by shifting street G to the west and make any necessary revisions to

53:42the to the design and sizing of the stormwater management facilities. So next steps. City staff

53:51and the applicant have been working collaboratively but are now seeking council direction on the key

53:56issues identified. If council directs the block plan to be modified the applicant would modify the

54:01block plan and come back to staff for final endorsement in line with your direction. If council

54:06endorses the block plan as submitted the applicant would then prepare and submit planning act application

54:12as required for specific areas and blocks one and two in accordance with a phasing plan.

54:17If council directed modifications are in a way that is not satisfactory to city staff the block

54:22plan will come back to council for final endorsement and after endorsement of the block plan future

54:27planning act applications will be submitted. So we have the following recommendations to council.

54:39At the front of your report there's actually four recommendations the first one is essentially to

54:43receive the report. So the ones that are shown up here are two three and four. So that I'll just

54:51read through them quickly. That the report titled decision report on endorsement of the

54:56gulf innovation district block plan for blocks one and two regarding the block plan application

55:01submitted by MHPC planning limited on behalf of the owner fusion homes for lands municipally known as

55:06328 Victoria road south and 588 stone road east be received. Oh sorry that was that's not up there

55:15that was the first one. So that city council refused the applicant submitted block plan for the gulf

55:20innovation district blocks one and two as shown in attachment five for the reasons outlined in

55:25attachment six of the report and that city council authorized the general manager planning and

55:31building services to issue final block plan endorsement after the applicant modifies the

55:35block plan to the set to the satisfaction of city staff to include a community park of at least

55:42six points seven hectares in size and minimum of 16.48 hectares of employment mixed use land

55:49the elementary school in a non-employment mixed use block provided it meets the sizing and phasing

55:53requirements of the upper grand district school board the frost building in the residential block

55:58a single loaded road along the eastern edge of blocks one and two and any revisions necessary

56:04to the store modern management facilities to ensure adequate design and sizing to the

56:08satisfaction of the city and that the block plan be brought back to council for endorsement if the

56:13above modifications are made in a way that is not satisfactory to city staff.

56:18So with that that actually concludes our presentation.

56:25All right well thank you very much to staff for their presentation and for laying that out for us

56:30we we appreciate it we do have delegations as I mentioned so we're as normal good to go to them

56:37now and thank you very much for coming just as a heads up right off the top there's no more than

56:45five minutes for your delegations so you're going to hear a beep go off at the four minute and 30

56:54second mark which means you got 30 seconds you got to wrap it up or your mic gets cut off

57:00don't go there let's wrap it up okay and then when you're done just stick around just case myself

57:06for any of my colleagues have a follow-up question and with that it makes sense that

57:16Lee Picoli would come up first and then Mike Darman I think is here here in the wings okay Mike

57:33welcome Lee and thank you very much for joining us tonight and well the time will start as soon

57:38as you're ready so go go ahead. Mayor I got three members of council it's nice to see you all

57:44one of the one of the greatest moments of my career was the day I got the call from the broker

57:52saying we had won the auction for the Guelph Innovation District you know I still remember it

57:58was four years ago and I still remember like it was yesterday the auction was so intense we were

58:05going against every large GTA developer and literally after I got the phone call from the

58:13broker saying we won I was alone so I didn't have anybody to high five so I was running around the

58:18house fist pumping like we had just won the world series you know we had obviously been looking at

58:25and been aware of this land for some time and had always been incredibly inspired by the opportunity

58:31it presented not only for us but for the entire city of Guelph you know we envisioned building

58:38a city within a city you know almost 5,000 units of homes thousands of jobs and and really

58:48a once in a generation opportunity to build the city of the future you know we picture

58:56a European type urban square where people from all walks of life can come and gather

59:03and you know share a meal have a gelato place we can hold festivals parks and trails woven through

59:13the entire community not all concentrated in one area but parks and trails through the entire

59:18community connected to the natural heritage system all leading to this incredible urban square

59:26you know we imagine a park at the highest point of the city of Guelph where people are going to

59:30take wedding pictures pickleball tournaments fire pits where families are going to sit and

59:36make s'mores on cool fall evenings an amazing playground across from a state of the art primary

59:43school and a best in class community park with a sports complex that should be the envy of the

59:54entire region we imagine employment lands that will bring best in class jobs and the best and

1:00:04brightest talent to this city sustainability programs to help protect the earth affordable

1:00:11housing to provide opportunities to people and using technology to enable all this it's a big vision

1:00:21and we knew we couldn't do it by ourselves so we engage stakeholders across the entire city we

1:00:27engage the university of Guelph we engaged large employers we engage the chamber of commerce gcat

1:00:33golf hiking and trails club and many others we held open houses we engaged the entire city

1:00:40we took all this feedback and we enhanced the plan and i and i have to say the feedback we've

1:00:49received on our submission has been nothing short of astounding we've hired world-class

1:00:58planning firms you know one of which you're going to hear from tonight to bring thought leadership

1:01:03from the best projects in the world look the the secondary plan for this site was conceived over

1:01:1320 years ago while it was inspired for its time the world has changed significantly since then

1:01:23you know in 2005 we were using flip phones now we have supercomputers in our pocket

1:01:29facebook and instagram didn't exist remote work was not a phrase we hailed taxis instead of calling

1:01:36ubers autonomous vehicles were a pipe dream and ai was something we just saw in movies i feel like

1:01:44these recommendations from staff although they conform with what was conceived 20 years ago

1:01:51diminish the visionary aspects of this plan you know the world has changed and we need to change

1:01:56with it and that's why this project can't be guided by the past and it must be built for the

1:02:06world of tomorrow so tonight this is not a planning decision that's in front of you it's not a

1:02:15planning decision that we're going to make tonight it's a decision for wealth to live in 2005 or 2050

1:02:24thank you okay thank you very much lee we appreciate your your presentation let me see if there's any

1:02:32questions from any of my colleagues before we go on yeah i'll start here with uh councillor Downer

1:02:36please thank you to you mr. mayor to mr. bacolli um thanks i think you've you know i think for the

1:02:44the most part um we're happy that you purchased this land thank you so thank you um

1:02:52though i you know i and i the engagement has been spoken about quite a bit and i know that you've

1:02:57done a significant amount of engagement i attended a couple of meetings uh and really appreciated that

1:03:04though what what i don't understand with what's left the the few outstanding issues here because

1:03:10there's not like i don't think it's insurmountable i think i think there's probably could common ground

1:03:17to be found but in all that engagement where would you have heard that the people want smaller park

1:03:25a smaller community park where would you have heard that the employment lands should be reduced from

1:03:3040 hectares to 16 hectares where would you have heard that you want a school in an in a in an

1:03:38employee in the employment lands so that's sort of like i think it's great to talk about the engagement

1:03:44and and i can see some of it reflect like some have reflected here that i heard but the outstanding

1:03:50issues don't reflect what i think i heard in in any of the engagement the amazing question kathy and

1:03:58thank you i was hoping i was hoping that somebody would ask it because i would love an opportunity

1:04:03to address and to clarify some of these things our our proposal does not have less parkland

1:04:11our proposal does not have less parkland the secondary plan calls for almost all the parkland

1:04:19to be concentrated into one community park our proposal has a smaller community park which we

1:04:27feel can accomplish the same objectives as the large one plus the balance of the parkland woven

1:04:36throughout the community right like like i feel for everybody that we've talked to and we've shown

1:04:41both plans it has been almost a hundred percent of people that were favorable to having parkland

1:04:50throughout the entire community and not concentrated in one place putting the school block

1:04:58beside the community park allows you to double up on the parking right like having a community park

1:05:04with 300 parking spaces for me in 2025 um you know i don't i don't know if it's the best use of land

1:05:11whereas if you have a school block beside you can the the uses of those amenities are complementary

1:05:17to each other and so you can double up on the parking you know the single loaded road if if we

1:05:23have to do a single loaded road there's just going to be a big retaining wall that's blocking views

1:05:29to the natural heritage system like literally you can talk to the engineers there's going to be a huge

1:05:34retaining wall you're not going to see the natural heritage system our plan proposes views view corridors

1:05:41and other openings so that people can enjoy the views the natural heritage and and also houses

1:05:50instead of seeing you know a big block retaining wall um and as far as the employment land goes

1:05:58just just speaking frankly this this isn't good employment land like this is you know we're not

1:06:04we're not in the south end we're not in the south end so manufacturing isn't going to locate here

1:06:10we're not we're not downtown so we're not going to get office buildings and and so i think we're

1:06:15trying to be clever with how we're going to achieve the target for number of jobs and i think there

1:06:23are ways to do it we're going to put in a ton of retail we have a we have a ton of mixed use in here

1:06:29which is all going to create jobs we have a school that's going to create jobs we have

1:06:34a lot of employment land left that we've been talking to people about creating an innovation

1:06:40hub we've been talking to the university we've been talking to others like so so i think um like

1:06:46from our standpoint it's just it's just rethinking the relevancy of a lot of the policies for 2025

1:06:54versus 2005 does that address everything you asked Kathy um it answers your perspective of everything

1:07:02i i sort of i the park thing still doesn't satisfy the the rationale you provided just

1:07:09please sit with me but that's okay we can do this okay thank you uh

1:07:17karan alt and busatel you had the same question well that was easy okay uh we will go with alt

1:07:28and then busatel thank you mayor guthrie uh through you to mr bacore mr bacore thanks for

1:07:34presenting to us i am struggling a bit with your 20 year comment about 2005 versus 2025 and 2050

1:07:42you're quite correct the world has changed and guelph has changed and one aspect of guelph that

1:07:46has changed is our ethnic cultural demographic and one very key issue for me is that that has

1:07:53changed substantially as well as have trends in canadian activity which include cricket now i'm not

1:08:00a cricket player i wouldn't know a cricket from a beetle but but the other thing that that does concern

1:08:05me is that as a cultural and our ethnic demographic has changed we have seen the cricket is the most

1:08:12rapidly growing sport in canada so with the reduction of parkland what i'm hearing from staff

1:08:18and i'll ask them again is that this does not necessarily accommodate accommodate the modern

1:08:24trend in outdoor activity and i was wondering if you could comment on that please absolutely so

1:08:29so there are staff reports that specifically state that there is no need for another cricket

1:08:35pitching wealth these are these are your staff reports they specifically state there's no need

1:08:40for another cricket pitching wealth additionally i think for larger larger amenities like that they

1:08:49should probably be put in places where the land is less valuable and and not going to take away

1:08:57from much needed housing in the city so to answer your question on the cricket there's staff reports

1:09:03that indicate we do not need another cricket pitch and i think that you know we can all agree that we

1:09:08do need more housing thank you i'll follow up with staff on that one another one um just because

1:09:15you mentioned that your vision is looking out to 2050 i'm quite familiar with sift in west in

1:09:21london and also with some uh some of what edmonton has been doing in in the blatchford neighborhood

1:09:29i was wondering if you could please outline what some of the specific technological advances are

1:09:35that we can expect in your 2025 2050 vision i mean we talked about maybe putting like a

1:09:43airport for flying cars um fair it was a joke um so so we're aware of the sift in development

1:09:55not aware of the one in edmonton we are you know it's difficult it's difficult to have some of

1:10:02these conversations without block plan approval it's difficult to have some of these conversations

1:10:07without us having more direction on what we are and are not able to build um sustainability is going

1:10:14to be a big feature of this community um we've had conversations and we've had workshops with

1:10:24with different consultants on the best way to achieve these things we're committing to build

1:10:28all net zero ready homes um we're committed to exceeding the building code um our air tightness

1:10:36testing already exceeds already exceeds net zero um we're committed to using technology in

1:10:45smart buildings in order to conserve electricity and energy and and things like that and i think

1:10:51as we move forward with this plan we can start to get more specific and start to drill down on

1:10:57some of these issues thank you uh poofs atill and kate thank you hi there so i agree our community

1:11:08need more piazzas absolutely being a salient and immigrant i absolutely agree with that i wanted to

1:11:14use the word problem but i was told not to um but i do have concerns about parks i would also agree

1:11:19that our communities have changed with you over 20 years i live close to margarine park and i was

1:11:25part of the group that really engaged the the city and saying look let's let's get cricket here

1:11:31i am very surprised because even as the former school board chair for the upper grand district

1:11:36school board in the new high school in the south end we were lobbied constantly for additional

1:11:43cricket and so i think in in changing communities what i'm seeing is more pressure on our existing

1:11:50regional parks and so you know i believe that everyone has to do their part and i'd like to hear

1:11:57i would like to see a community park a regional park in your development that can accommodate

1:12:02what i see which is special events cricket tournaments and so on so where i am i'm in ward

1:12:08four there's a lot of poverty and so the community there is sharing that margarine park very limited

1:12:15space with pickleball australian football baseball um many other activities so i i guess what i'm

1:12:23saying is in that course of 20 years what i'm seeing is more demand for parks in the city as a whole

1:12:29and i would hope that fusion would say okay we're going to do our part and and host a regional

1:12:35park that is large enough for more amenities so if you can comment on that absolutely so so just

1:12:41to reiterate our plan and the one proposed by staff have an equal amount of parkland

1:12:49so really what we're deciding tonight is a cricket pitch and very little to no parkland in the rest

1:12:57of the community okay so a cricket pitch and no parkland for the 5 000 units that are going to be

1:13:06in the rest of the community or a smaller community park and acres of parkland for the 5 000 units

1:13:16that are going to be housed in this community i think i think and that's and that's your decision

1:13:21you know i mean you know how i feel i think i think there's other places in the city we can put a

1:13:26cricket pitch i think it's irresponsible as me as a developer to build 5 000 homes and not have any

1:13:33parkland for these people thank you and just around the school i'm sure you're aware westminster

1:13:41woods already has a parking sharing agreement with the state wealth so school boards have built

1:13:46schools collaboratively so that is and the other thing that i would say is schools including elementary

1:13:51schools play cricket they have cricket leads provincially and and so on so i i'm concerned

1:13:57about the parkland i'm concerned about the location of the school in in employment yeah

1:14:03and i would wonder why you put it into the employment land and if that was a motion of the

1:14:09upper grand district school board saying please put it in there it's part of our long-term accommodation

1:14:13plan where that came from so so number one it's allowable under the secondary plan

1:14:19um number two we wanted it beside the community park so we could reduce the amount of parking

1:14:23required for both facilities and number three yes the school board did approve the location

1:14:30thank you kate and then awesome thank you through you mr mayor um first off i just wanted to say

1:14:43i i do like the design and um i i'm very excited about the the prospect of you all getting started

1:14:51but i also do understand a lot of what staff is asking for and the reasons for that

1:14:56and the reasons behind it um so when we're talking about the parkland specifically because i know

1:15:02that's where we're all kind of focused right now um they we do have that one hectare distributed

1:15:09so it's not all going into the community park so we think we do have the opportunity for smaller

1:15:14options and um i was wondering about the decision to put the frost building on parkland because

1:15:25that does take away some of the parkland by having that building there um and just as a

1:15:32general commentary i'm the word one one of the word one city counselors and i've been getting a

1:15:38lot of requests for cricket and so while it may not be within the the staff projection the population

1:15:46that has been moving here recently is really big on cricket and i'm not a sports person but i believe

1:15:52them that they want it so i just want to make sure that we've got room for all of the sports

1:15:56so councillor councillor kate i'm so sorry interrupt and you didn't hear what i had said

1:16:00earlier because you weren't in the room but we could just make sure we just try to get right

1:16:04to questions right away uh you in commentary maybe a little bit later okay sure thank you

1:16:13thank you councillor kate oh that's let's let's sorry let's let councillor kate and ask her

1:16:18question oh yeah okay you still have the plurna yeah one of my questions was was asked i was asking

1:16:23about the uh the frost building on the park and uh how that kind of coincided with the the total

1:16:32park land so so the location of the frost building and when when i was speaking earlier and i talked

1:16:38about a park at the highest point of the city of guelph where people are going to take wedding pictures

1:16:46that's the spot that's why we put the park there like that is the most picturesque view of the city

1:16:55of guelph anywhere and so i think it only makes sense for us to have a park there honor the frost

1:17:02building in some way um but but to to have homes there and then to not have that view available

1:17:13to everyone again for me you know it waters down the vision a little bit so that's that's why we put

1:17:19the park there thank you um what was your vision for the frost building in the park listen um my

1:17:29honest opinion on the frost building and and look like you know we developed metalworks and we took

1:17:35the heritage building and we restored it enhanced it and i and i feel it's gorgeous um my personal

1:17:46opinion on heritage you know there's there's beauty and there's age right and heritage to me

1:17:53is old and beautiful and i think the frost building is new and not so beautiful so my personal opinion

1:18:01on the frost building but again these are decisions that uh that you will have to make and we're happy

1:18:07to honor it in some way we want to have the park there um but you know yeah i think i think we can

1:18:14do better than having than just having that building stay up there thank you um when when you speak to

1:18:24the manufacturing uh we we do have manufacturing in word one just kind of around the corner so

1:18:31how do you feel that that's not compatible with the space everybody that we've spoken to about

1:18:38this employment land we've been we've been speaking with people we're not we're not employment land

1:18:43developers i i know a cursory i have a cursory knowledge on unemployment land but i'm not an expert

1:18:49so we've engaged with with others who are experts in employment land uh trying to you know partner

1:18:55with them or you know potentially do a forward sale or stuff like that and we hear the same thing

1:19:01from everybody we hear the same thing from everybody that it's just it's it's c-class employment land

1:19:07right so again you know i wish it was different not not ideal i think i think there's other

1:19:13things we can do with it though i think i think it's the perfect place for an innovation hub

1:19:18you know i do i would love to partner with the university we've had conversations with them i would

1:19:22love to partner with somebody else i would love to build an incredible innovation hub there again

1:19:28bring talent and bring great jobs to wealth um you know certainly you know it's part of the vision

1:19:35of the community um but but to have but to have an excessive amount of that employment land frankly

1:19:42it's just going to sit thank you um how would you propose to um deal with parking conflicts with

1:19:54the school and the park during events and and sports again on on a on a high level i think

1:20:04that the uses of those two facilities are very complementary where schools used

1:20:10monday to friday nine to four p.m and a community park would be nights and weekends so you know

1:20:16high level the it seems seems very complementary and it seems that uh you know it would be common

1:20:22sense that you could take the parking and instead of doubling it up you know have have some complementary

1:20:30aspect to it um and if we and if we get approval tonight i think that's something that we need to

1:20:36dig deeper in and we're committed to because i don't think anybody i don't think anybody here

1:20:40wants two big parking lots you know i think that's probably one thing we can all agree on thanks and

1:20:47finally um what is your timeline for the build of the 5000 homes you mean to start or to finish

1:20:55just like over time you know if you've got like a schedule of them that i'd love to hear about that

1:21:00yeah so um you mean the build out of the entire project yes yeah i would say i mean

1:21:07you know if you think about wealth absorption um you know 5000 units you're 10 to 20 years you know

1:21:14250 to 500 units a year depending on the market if it's like now you know probably longer i'm

1:21:21assuming i'm assuming things are gonna are gonna get better yeah i would say i would say 10 to

1:21:2620 years we'd be i'd be disappointed if it took if it took longer than that would be very

1:21:31disappointed i'd like to see personally i'd like to see it closer to 10 to 15 but yeah

1:21:37and i apologize i i'm i'm misconstrued so when also would you start i had final question ah

1:21:43so uh so if we get endorsements tonight we can submit for zoning and draft plan

1:21:48which we would hope to get by february and we have to do our engineering which would take around

1:21:53nine months um grading on this site is a massive undertaking and then servicing so um if tonight

1:22:01goes favorably we would probably have building permits sometime in late 2027 thank you thank you

1:22:12great thank you uh councillor caton uh councillor Klassen and then uh billings yes thank you

1:22:18through you mr mayor uh to mr pocoli thank you for being here and it's i think a testament to the

1:22:23work that you've done that we're sitting here um and and and talking about uh g id lands and uh from

1:22:30just going over the the secondary plan i'm not a planner but it's there's a lot in there there's a

1:22:35lot to be achieved there's lots of big visions and you know the world has changed as you've suggested

1:22:41but a lot of it i think is still pretty grounded in you know wanting to build a more sustainable future

1:22:47um but i'm not going to talk about those things because i think you kind of touched on some of

1:22:50those and i know that some of my colleagues have too um but there is one there is one line and i think

1:22:55one of the parts is like creating an attractive um you know landmark type space and you talked a

1:23:02little bit about those those spaces but for me um you know we're kind of in the high level

1:23:08planning of this of this land what are those landmark areas you kind of mentioned one potentially

1:23:14where the current turf grass institute or building frost building used to be um but what are those other

1:23:19you know like what are those memorable things for for you um you know as you lead through this project

1:23:25that you know that you're kind of selling the vision on like sell sell me on some of those

1:23:30those items i would love to so so yes the the space where the frost building is certainly

1:23:36is going to be a huge feature of the site we've we've conceived what we what uh and and big are

1:23:44amazing globally recognized consultants will speak to you later one of the things we've conceived

1:23:51is called the ridge line and it actually follows diagonally through the community the highest parts

1:23:56of the entire community um we we we envision the college street extension going into gid

1:24:06culminating in the urban square or the or the piazza and in front of it a landmark building

1:24:15right so you imagine driving up college af going into gid urban square restaurants coffee shops

1:24:25gelato festivals with a landmark building right in front i would love to do an innovation hub if

1:24:34we can find a partner i will 100 percent guarantee i would love to do an innovation hub i think

1:24:40that's another big feature um i think i think the trails tying into the natural heritage

1:24:48part of the community is an incredible feature um you know we've even we've even talked about

1:24:55having a loop that goes around the community and through the natural heritage you know maybe you

1:25:01can have marathons well maybe marathons a stretch but you know five five or ten k races and things

1:25:07like that um you know you're going to see some of these images later and i mean literally

1:25:12partly we've hired the best of the best in the world to come to gulf and take us into 2050

1:25:22all right excited for that thank you creep thank you and then to billings please

1:25:31through you mr mayor i wanted to ask about the uh the frost building so would you consider

1:25:38retaining ownership or are you 100 know that you want to convey it to the city

1:25:45um okay so this part i'm not i'm not an expert on i really don't want to own it i mean it's

1:25:51it's rundown it's it's dilapidated i don't i don't think it's very safe right now um

1:25:58you know frankly i think it's in the best interests of everybody in the city and

1:26:02for the community um to honor it in some way you know we would definitely do that i think

1:26:10maintaining it is going to be a major challenge for whoever has to undertake it okay and next question

1:26:19stop me a comment about there's two neighborhood parts too narrow to fit playgrounds

1:26:28can you comment on that because i was surprised by that statement so can yeah i'm i'm surprised

1:26:35by that statement too my understanding is that those those neighborhood parks are more than wide

1:26:41enough for like more than wide enough for playgrounds pickleball courts fire pits yoga in the park

1:26:48whatever and we want and we want to do all of that like we we want to have those amenities

1:26:55inside the community we want we want the people that we're selling homes to to be able to enjoy

1:27:00those amenities like um like it helps us sell homes you know so so i don't think we would

1:27:06i don't think we would design a park that was too narrow to put a playground or a pickleball court

1:27:14or anything like that okay and then for now my last question is you heard the comment

1:27:22the comment regarding the stormwater management facilities the issues that staff have however

1:27:28they're they're wanting that those issues to be resolved before the block plan gets approved

1:27:34can you comment on that so so on a detailed level i have to leave this conversation to

1:27:42to the engineers on a high level on a high level we're at the block plan stage right now

1:27:48i think and and this is not anything against staff i think i think those comments on the

1:27:55stormwater are a little bit too detailed to be having at this stage i think those are conversations

1:28:01you have at draft plan and engineering design we're at the block plan stage like literally the

1:28:06stormwater management is is a blob of blue on on the plan um and to give you more detail in that

1:28:14i'm not an expert and i think that you know we have other people who could probably speak more

1:28:18intelligently to that so on the agenda who would be would that be david like who who would be i would

1:28:26i would think i would think it would be david yes okay thank you mr pacolin my pleasure i think

1:28:35we're done yeah i come once in 10 years and i get grilled huh thank you all thank you all well

1:28:42we appreciate your delegation thanks thanks so much for joining us and we'll move on uh mike darman

1:28:49is going to come up next and then uh i'm so sorry if i'm saying the last name wrong is it jason

1:28:54swick am i saying that right is jason here oh jason yeah it says let me go i cannot see is jason here

1:29:04nope jason actually can't make it tonight he had a okay work problem no thanks no problem

1:29:10um i wonder if we could ask the clerk because through you mayor guthrie asked the clerk to advance

1:29:15our our slide into the video right away if you can before i start great great thanks very much

1:29:29good evening mayor guthrie councillor and city staff my name is mike darman i'm co-chair of g cat

1:29:34advocacy co-committee g cat advocates for sustainable development and safer enjoyable well

1:29:40connected active transportation infrastructure to places of work and schools in our existing and

1:29:46new communities i personally delegated for development such as the alice block because of its

1:29:51good land use planning and that encourages active transportation wherever the fusion g id

1:29:56development vision excites me even more because it offers a once in a lifetime opportunity for a truly

1:30:03walkable city within city that connects people and places both within the development and to the

1:30:08greater city of guelph due to its unique location do we simply want another cookie cutter development

1:30:14or do we want a truly visionary sustainable legacy development from a builder with a proven

1:30:18track record in guelph like vote from the city newsroom august 28th we're really excited about

1:30:24this new development and what it means for our community so we're eager to get this right says

1:30:28christa walkie general manager of planning and building services this decision goes beyond

1:30:33land use it's about shaping the kinds of lives possible for the people who come after us neighborhoods

1:30:38become our homes there are places we raise our kids build friendships and find joy and connection

1:30:43we need to carefully consider how the guelph innovation district is planned to ensure it

1:30:47becomes a neighborhood that supports that kind of life for decades to come i agree and believe

1:30:53that fusion homes vision of a walkable mixed use neighborhood offers us this opportunity to build a

1:30:58community that we probably wish our neighborhood was like we love how fusion has built active

1:31:04transportation throughout the design the linear parks along with covered and uncovered cut-throughs

1:31:09and mid-block design crossings are a brilliant brilliant way to encourage active transportation

1:31:14by making the journey direct safer and calmer but just as important more enjoyable to the point

1:31:19where it's more attractive way to get to your destination rather than driving the linear parks

1:31:25offer tree shade and programming opportunities for many activities but most of all provide

1:31:30opportunities to quietly connect with their neighbors and the greater community i've had some

1:31:34of the best conversations with strangers that started with a good morning as i pass them on our

1:31:38all season maintain downtown active transportation network rail trail which brings me up to my next

1:31:45point connectivity between the gid to our other neighborhoods and our downtown which i've delegated

1:31:51on several times the beauty of all of a rail trail extension of the downtown trail adjacent to the

1:31:57same ggr city owned railway is a more direct mostly flat and protected bikeway to and from the gid

1:32:04to downtown and regional and local transit we have met with fusion several times our plans

1:32:11which include several road options and they want us to continue meeting with their planners and

1:32:15consultants and possibly incorporate our plans into future submissions the war to downtown bridge

1:32:20along with the proposed amazing linear park trail beside the woods the new woods to development

1:32:25will be the gateway to the extension of a continuation of what i consider a linear parkway to the gid

1:32:31recently barcelona spain was faced with traffic congestion and air pollution their city planners

1:32:38have created super blocks where walking and cycling have returned the city streets to the people

1:32:42instead of cars they're very similar to the linear parks proposed by fusion i'm not disputing the

1:32:47concern of city staff regarding the need for a large open space for large sports events but

1:32:52distributed parks in this very large development actually make more sense for local residents

1:32:57since they are well connected which provide more pleasant mobility options my daily commute

1:33:02allows me at least two options to get to downtown but i will always choose the downtown trail which

1:33:06is lined with trees pollinator plantings and runs adjacent to a small community park versus the on

1:33:11street bike lanes or even quiet city streets because it's the most pleasant way and safest route

1:33:17this development will invite residents of downtown and other neighborhoods to visit the gid and vice

1:33:22versa this is the most exciting opportunity we have to finally realize a minimum grid of connected

1:33:27and protected and joy enjoyable bikeways to inform this city within the city this will kick

1:33:33start a real mode shared shift to alternative and affordable mobility options health and clean

1:33:38clean air carbon reduction and economic development are the benefits now wouldn't be the amazing to

1:33:44also have a direct lrt type of service along the same underutilized railway should fusion have to

1:33:51solve the problems that the city has not required enough parkland for large large sports fields

1:33:55and change this innovative design approach to urban planning and development do we really need

1:34:00the site to be dominated by large sports fields and 300 car parking spots when we so badly need

1:34:06housing and employment mixed use developments that are centrally located within biking and

1:34:11walking distances to existing amenities this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a real

1:34:16livable community that other developments will copy because of its success thanks great thank you

1:34:24very much mike and is there any follow-up for mike at all okay councillor Goller

1:34:30through your worship thank you for your presentation mr darman i i really appreciate that you showed

1:34:36the the video i was wondering if you could just take a moment to to walk us through what the video

1:34:41was showing and that route and how it you know it connects to the gid sure i wonder if the could

1:34:47the clerks just run that again through the mayor allows it through you mr mayor we're just restarting

1:34:52the system we've had a bit of a down so perhaps maybe just verbalize okay thanks so basically the

1:34:58the video shows um i guess it's gonna be glasses on um it shows the starting at the downtown um

1:35:05basically where um the new ward to downtown bridge is being proposed and then it will go down towards

1:35:11duke street towards the woods development which you see on the right hand side that's that's the

1:35:15proposed trail of course they'll have a beautiful linear park in that area it won't look like it

1:35:20does right now and then we continue along to towards stevensson street which will be a right turn

1:35:26this and this is just one option to the gid by the way there's several ways of getting there

1:35:30once we turn onto stevensson street we cross over to york road cross york road and then we're right

1:35:35into the river trail system and then from the river trail system we we're basically end up at

1:35:41right at the victoria street or victoria road bridge which again we'll need a crossing over to the

1:35:48gid but that's one great option and it's it's very direct and i'm mostly flat as i've stated before

1:35:56okay no thank you for that and if you could just help me understand um if we were to go with with

1:36:01the staff recommendation from one large community park we could still fit all those bicycle lanes

1:36:06along the the main roads of the gd that would connect through say york road that has you know

1:36:11the the bicycle lane so what would be the the material difference of having this dedicated

1:36:17trail that is off-road along linear parks versus having the bike lanes on the road where they are now

1:36:24yeah um thanks for that question um really as i stated before i will always pick a trail over

1:36:31no matter how well protected even on a on a on a road um a bike lane is i think to get more

1:36:38residents actually truly wanting to start biking we have to make the experiences as as comfortable

1:36:44as possible and i think trails are the way to go active transportation trails by the way that are

1:36:48maintained all year long i appreciate that thank you for representation thanks thank you worship

1:36:55great thank you mike i i appreciate you and gcat coming there's no further questions okay thanks

1:37:00great thank you um so chason again is not available i'm just going to say his name one more time

1:37:08nope and as susan watson available i think kirks have indicated that she's not she's not available

1:37:16right now is that right she's yes yes mr mayor we've tried three times to connect with mrs watson

1:37:22we can attempt to call later on if you'd like at the end of the delegate list but i'll leave that

1:37:26to you we'll go on to scott frederick then on video and scott i see i think you're jumping up on the

1:37:33screen for us if you could just turn the camera on it's not i can hear you scott but uh the camera

1:37:41is not on um yes well that's probably a problem at my end that's okay it's a big deal though yeah we

1:37:49can hear you we can hear you pretty well so why don't you think we're good okay so go ahead

1:37:58i i support the position of staff that this plan should be refused in general i support projects

1:38:05that are in compliant with the in compliance with the official plan and a critical of proposals

1:38:11that are not in compliance we should remember that the official plans are developed by staff

1:38:18and are in compliance with many other higher level plans official plans have been passed by council

1:38:26and endorsed by the provincial government we need to be aware of the consequence of allowing

1:38:32exemptions to the plan if exemptions from the plan requirements are made the difference needs to be

1:38:39made up somewhere else for instance if a required parkland dedication is not made the overall parkland

1:38:45target remains unchanged so in effect a relaxation of parkland dedication in one proposal represents

1:38:53a transfer of that burden to subsequent proposals unless i've completely misunderstood how it works

1:39:00but that's my understanding so this proponent proposed a reduction of parkland and employment

1:39:09areas we should remember that following the reversal of bill 150 council approved among other

1:39:16things a reduction in amounts of parkland and employment lands on the site this means that

1:39:23the areas set aside for these uses have already been significantly reduced the proponent is now

1:39:30asking for further reduction so i want to focus a bit on employment lands i think some people might

1:39:38think that so well we need more housing as if you can't have both we do need housing and we need

1:39:46parks for the people in the housing and we need workplaces for the people in the houses to work at

1:39:54the entire time that i've living wealth which is 13 years i worked in manufacturing company where i

1:40:01worked has over a hundred vendors 90 percent of which lie in a circle it stretches as far as miss

1:40:08us other the reason we choose local vendors is because shorter supply lines are more reliable

1:40:17supply lines involve lower transport costs it's important to remember that if you lose a manufacturer

1:40:25or fail to acquire one that that loss could affect over a hundred other businesses in our area

1:40:31and manufacturing works stronger together and a loss of one could be a loss to many others

1:40:38this is why the retention of employment lands is important somebody somewhere needs to make

1:40:44things we can't just sell insurance to each other so how did we get here there's an inherent

1:40:52conflict between what developers want and what we as a city want what we want is represented

1:41:00in the official plan what the developers want is to maximize their profit on the particular

1:41:07pieces of land that they own they have no choice to do this as they have judiciary duty to their

1:41:14shareholders the duty of council is to rule in the best interest of the citizens of wealth

1:41:21not to facilitate the profits of developers i recommend that this plan be sent back for a

1:41:29revision that will bring it into compliance with the official plan thank you for your time and for

1:41:36your deliberations that's the end of my delegation yeah thank you scott for joining us we appreciate

1:41:44that and let me see if there's a follow-up there is not so thank you again have a great night

1:41:50thanks uh we have three more and next up is i'm taking a gamble and saying the name

1:42:03i net is that is that right i'ma did i say that right awesome okay come on down and then uh

1:42:16just dave ashton is next and then ryan we're gonna switch you guys okay that's fine so dave

1:42:23and then ryan okay so welcome and uh i'll turn it over to you whenever you're ready thank you i just

1:42:29want to see in terms of the clicker it's just the big green button and then okay so hello

1:42:36hello everyone um very excited to be here and to kind of share a sneak peek of uh the vision of jd

1:42:43um the big one sorry um so we see jds home for the existing community but also new community to come

1:42:57we see how we can offer diversity of open spaces starting from like a very urban place connecting

1:43:05and kind of activated streets um innovation i know you i know you probably practiced this in front of

1:43:10the music but i'm gonna pause okay we're easy more yeah so can we either have the backing track

1:43:25we just mute the backing track so we can hear your voice over it what can we do which one

1:43:31can do either you can you can there was a nice ambiance with that backing track uh but i uh

1:43:39but we heard the music it was very good we're gonna we're gonna mute that and let just your voice do the talking if that's okay

1:43:46all right so i'm gonna start the timer over and we're gonna go back to the beginning thank you so we see that as a home

1:43:54we already said for the existing community and also the new community to come together

1:43:58activation in the streetscape connections bring innovation to here and see how community and

1:44:05technology can actually work together showcase we see a layer of porosity connections between the open

1:44:11spaces some that are more you know landscape and natural but some that are very active and also as

1:44:16as lee mentioned the ridge line provide views and then all of this together we see as kind of a vision

1:44:22for a network of open spaces to the community sorry okay oh sorry okay so here can

1:44:43see the network of the public park system and instead of consolidating as mentioned before to a

1:44:51one big park we see opportunity to distribute that to create a network of open spaces and why

1:44:57we think this is good because this is provide more accessibility so every resident between in this

1:45:03development will have the maximum of 500 meter access to a park this is great walkability distance

1:45:11and then another idea here is the idea of diversity so instead of creating one big park we provide

1:45:18diversity for people different people different age group for the community and then it's great

1:45:24also ecological network that provide biodiversity and connectivity throughout i'm gonna have a kind

1:45:30of sneak peek into each of the parks and then let later mhbc to dive deep into the details of each

1:45:35of them starting with the community park we talked about task fits you can see it here we looking into

1:45:40the kind of largest park park of the community provides sports fields parking forces need amenities

1:45:47places for events and celebration the second one is the neighborhood park this is much more

1:45:53intimate places for people to hang it has community parks playgrounds as people mentioned here but

1:45:59really create a sense of belonging to the people around and then there is this layer of these kind

1:46:05of safe connections that bring people from the middle of the master plan towards the natural

1:46:10heritage corridor and these provide different programming and we really try to to kind of

1:46:17present it here you can see in the section how all of this could come together and happen

1:46:22at the same time circulation as well as different programming tennis or pickleball and the most

1:46:29important car free places for the community to move around you can see here at test fits

1:46:35and this is for example show a tennis court a playground circulation even bike lands and

1:46:41we did kind of more of these you can see also pickleball different seatings area playgrounds

1:46:48outer gym and this is more just to say that we will love to work together with the city to make

1:46:53sure that all of these parks and spaces are highly programmed and working well with the community

1:47:02those places could have different diversity in terms of a different character some are more

1:47:08active some are more passive and then the reach line that Lee mentioned before this is the place

1:47:14when there is like opening to the views again safe corridor separated from cars for people to move

1:47:20around it could have different features as art as lighting and so on and there's a layer of

1:47:27connectivity and porosity these kind of shortcuts that people can have to their different places

1:47:32around the master plan to provide this connectivity it could be sprinkled with art and different

1:47:38retail but it could be also more kind of simple and kind of quiet and then the jewel maybe of

1:47:43the master plan this is the kind of urban square this is where all the existing community and the

1:47:49new community come together to celebrate moments and different events and kind of celebration with

1:47:55the city and this is connected continuous college avenue which basically connects a really

1:48:02create this kind of spine between the university heart to the new master plan heart and we not

1:48:09even just thought about the streets to be of course safe and separating bike lanes but we also

1:48:14thinking about how they open after to the natural heritage heritage corridor so at the end of each

1:48:23street you'll have this kind of window this kind of surprise moment that connects you to the different

1:48:29trails and it could be with seating with the different kind of viewpoints to the water and so on

1:48:35and then maybe the last portion is the layer of place making and art and culture we see a lot of

1:48:40opportunity not just to bring like fun interactive activities but also to make sure we bring back

1:48:47the community and make sure they are part of this process this is an example of the college that

1:48:52happened in Guelph and to see how we bring them and kind of make them influence the public realm as

1:48:57well great thank you thank you very much we appreciate that is there any follow up questions

1:49:05councillor Allt has one thank you very much mayor Guthrie I have two uh mrs. uh Libeliner thank you

1:49:11very much for your presentation I'm somewhat familiar with your portfolio and it's very impressive

1:49:16but it's also very significant in terms of what I define as mega projects throughout the world

1:49:23the questions that I have relate to economics with regards to your proposals for the linear parks

1:49:32I'm concerned about the maintenance of such things as pickleball courts in your vision

1:49:38where do you perceive the financial support financial operating costs being found I would

1:49:46kind of defer that to Lee or to MHBC to speak to because I would see it more you know we look at

1:49:52the vision and see how that could happen of course these questions are are very important but I'm not

1:49:58part of this you know specific coverage so I would let them to to have those but because you're an

1:50:03architect I'm going to ask you another question as well and it's about heritage I did a fair bit

1:50:09of studying of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Bauhaus school and so consequently I'm very familiar with

1:50:14architectural preservation do you believe it's important to preserve architectural heritage

1:50:18even if it's something like a field house that's in this particular development I think there is

1:50:23opportunity to preserve that I do think that in the current position what we propose is flexibility

1:50:29so we propose we're not saying we're taking that out and we're we're providing actually the park that

1:50:35you know bring people to this piece and I think there is a lot of with these block plan there's

1:50:41a lot of possibilities to also maintain it in the future or as Lee mentioned have kind of like

1:50:47remembrance of that thank you very much of course thank you thank you and uh Karan please and then

1:50:56Gawler thank you and I hope you're the appropriate person for me to direct this question I don't

1:51:01want to overwhelm Mr. Bacoli since he got most of the questions I thought I'd save a few um the

1:51:07the mixed use and so many of the images and renderings that you provided of good examples

1:51:11around the world really resonated with me and I think when people saw your your three-dimensional

1:51:19kind of uh bringing to life of the space it was very inspiring and a few other things that you

1:51:24showed was a market and a yoga center and a restaurant um guest spaces artist studios cultural

1:51:31amenities and so um going back to the frost building and seeing that that is such an incredible

1:51:39space to have all of those things I want to talk about the location and the repurposing of of that

1:51:46building and whether that's an appropriate space for some of those cultural amenities that you

1:51:50described and then further to that whether or not the the group the planning group within fusion

1:51:58has I mean we have a really good example of you know offering it to a community group for a dollar

1:52:06we have we have community spaces and heritage buildings that the city owns that are rented

1:52:11for a dollar maybe two dollars um that have been rehabilitated and turned into cultural spaces

1:52:18and I believe we have a development in the in the heart-sland area that takes the old farmhouse

1:52:22and turns it into guest rentals and housing and community space so just wanted to get a better

1:52:29idea of potential cultural amenities that could take place um not in the in the parks but in buildings

1:52:37adjacent to parks so maybe I'll start with that and say that we see the kind of main street

1:52:43and the plaza the big public square area very active and and having those programming um bringing

1:52:50people bringing different groups of people arts and science we have also innovation and have a

1:52:56place and a home for all these to exist because this would be a successful master plan so definitely

1:53:02this is something that we see as part of like the edges the ground floor activation we understand

1:53:06we cannot active all the master plan and that's why we need to find like a specific location which

1:53:11we can you know showcase that and make sure it's provide you know food traffic and and

1:53:17different events and kind of like happenings to to to be this is maybe about that and again

1:53:22I think about the frost building I think there's all of us see an opportunity in this location

1:53:27as Lee mentioned it has incredible views and there is um thinking about and treating that

1:53:34differently I think for now this just gives this opportunity to do that and flexibility

1:53:39the the block land doesn't say you know keeping that or not I think it's an another discussion

1:53:46but actually bringing a park there I think it's even providing like an open space for people to

1:53:51gather to see to approach this this place and then along the same theme of using space to

1:53:59celebrate culture celebrate heritage celebrate community community I know that the group is

1:54:05aware that this is probably the oldest site in Guelph where indigenous artifacts from 10 000 BC

1:54:13have been found and that our archaeological connection to to the land and and reconciliation

1:54:22for First Nations was something that I know the community consultations happened and I wondered

1:54:28whether the things that you're describing in terms of the use of parkland and edge spaces and

1:54:34the river and connections to the river will honor our indigenous community and history

1:54:40definitely I think there is something about have much more impactful open space and when

1:54:47they are formed by the community and I think there's a lot of projects around the world that's like

1:54:51there's competitions for local community to come with ideas or to come with designs or even like

1:54:56this collage that I show this is a I think it happened in Guelph during the pandemic and this

1:55:03was kind of like 65 people put together kind of a mutual collage to kind of you know reflect on

1:55:09what's happening I know some of those murals started to being placed in the city center so I think

1:55:16there's a lot of opportunities to to definitely bring the voices of the community to those open

1:55:21space and kind of make this kind of it feels like an ownership of of their you know public realm

1:55:30thank thank you councillor Goller and then Claussen

1:55:34thank you for your worship thank you for your presentation I wanted to ask for a little more

1:55:39detail on this this concept of the the ridge line I just wanted to clarify when I when I looked at

1:55:43the plan it seemed to traverse residential blocks and through and I just wanted is the

1:55:50vision that there is a path that actually goes from park through people's you know backyards

1:55:56that actually connects the whole highest you know area of the of the of the plan so I think it's

1:56:04very early stages and also maybe MHBC we could speak a bit more for the policy of that but I do think

1:56:11that there is opportunity to provide this porosity this is what we're looking into and yeah have like

1:56:15you know places when you kind of cut through you know maybe back maybe it's easements maybe and again

1:56:22like MHBC will speak more to that but this is like a main spine that connects all the open spaces

1:56:29from the community park to the public square to the neighborhood park and it could provide a really

1:56:34safe circulation for elderly for kids to school another kind of like alternative to you know

1:56:41next to cars I really like that thank you thank you worship thank you and quasim please

1:56:48yes and thank you for the presentation as well lots of great urban design ideas within and I

1:56:55think that lots of those images are exciting to see I had a question with regard to so in the

1:57:03in the in like how the plan was foreseen it talked a lot about it talks about the rivers and and

1:57:10natural heritage and one I just pulled a word out of it which was river crossings and that's not

1:57:16something I've heard yet about I know there's other there's other presentations coming but there's

1:57:21there's a river that runs you know right through this site and I appreciate the parks kind of

1:57:26are working within that natural heritage area but I pulled that you know within the GID secondary

1:57:32plan you know part of it was where are these river crossings and I'm just curious if this is

1:57:37something that you can answer or if I should save it for another part of the delegations I would say

1:57:43maybe we save it to image we see but I would say about the river and its presence within the plan

1:57:48and going back to the ridge line I think these are the the moments when you have a bit low

1:57:53in most of it you have a bit low density and this provides these windows to the river and back to

1:57:59the city so when you high up on this spine you have opportunity to kind of like get this kind of

1:58:05glimpse to the nature while you before you kind of you know go into the nature great thank you oh

1:58:15I got Gibson go ahead thank you through you mr. mayor thank you very much for your presentation

1:58:21I just wanted to ask about the the car free corridors and the green spaces that are connecting

1:58:29the community was the you know typically when we think of parks we generally think of the younger

1:58:35generation we think of children we think of sports teams but the idea around pickleball and

1:58:40perhaps the ping pong tables and I saw some of my comments kind of come to life there for a second

1:58:45I talked about outdoor chess tables is that really focused on a senior element as well and

1:58:50incorporating multi-generational use in that sort of urban square or the urban parks yeah so I think

1:58:57there was just test fits to you know talk to the point that we will love to work together to find

1:59:04the specific you know programming the community needs and the specific sports or again programming

1:59:11to make these these kind of parks active but definitely as from the test fits you can see

1:59:16there is like a lot of flexibility there to accommodate circulation sometimes bike lanes

1:59:22green spaces playgrounds and different players and also some of them could be you know places with

1:59:29sitting for elderly you know to sit and to kind of enjoy the nature so there's a lot of flexibility

1:59:34here it could be very active it could be much more natural and we have this opportunity to design

1:59:41that together and and to make sure it fits what the community needs yeah the different age demographics

1:59:47kind of came through that presentation thank you very much thank you seeing nothing further thank

1:59:55you very much for your presentation um uh councillor Allt just let me know that uh that Susan Watson

2:00:05might be back into cell range so maybe maybe she does to you mr. mayor would you like us to

2:00:14attempt to call her now or proceed maybe through the other delegates and try at the end I'll take

2:00:18your no I no go ahead you can try her now hello Susan it's mayor got three and I think we might

2:01:03have got you now and I wonder if you can hear me okay yes terrific thank you yes can you hear me

2:01:09yes you're coming through fine thank you very much and you have up to five minutes and I'll turn it over

2:01:14to you thank you mayor got three and members of council I have two adult children starting their

2:01:22university terms this September one and fourth year of an undergrad and one in a master's program

2:01:28so this prompted me to reflect on this block plan through the lens of a university assignment

2:01:35if this block plan was a project submitted by a student in the university of waterloose

2:01:39planning program it would receive an s fail because it simply did not fulfill the requirements of the

2:01:47course in this case city of wealth policies since we are living in the real world and not academia

2:01:54these failures have serious implications for wealth citizens let's look at parkland for example

2:02:02parkland is infrastructure just like pipes roads and electricity networks parks need to be

2:02:08appropriately sized to the population and like a pipe pipe a park park has a maximum carrying

2:02:15capacity it's astounding to me that the developer has simply cut the amount of parkland in this

2:02:21block plan in half it's a pretty binary situation parkland is always a liability for developers

2:02:28because it cuts into the profits they make but parkland is an asset for wealth citizens

2:02:35I'd like to remind you that the last update to our parks and recreation master plan identified

2:02:40that this city is on track to be short 174 hectares of parkland by 2051 relative to population and

2:02:49that was before Doug Ford further limited parkland dedication in high density buildings

2:02:57174 hectares is equivalent to five riverside parks undersizing parks in the innovation district will

2:03:05have a negative impact on citizens in other parts of the city because if there aren't adequate sports

2:03:10fields for tennis soccer baseball and cricket in this neighborhood then those residents will go to

2:03:16other parks putting pressure on their capacity this will diminish quality of life for everyone

2:03:25failure to plan properly for parks now will rob future generations of the right to have them

2:03:31the unilateral decision by the developer to cut existing employment lands by another two-thirds

2:03:37is audacious to say the least the original vision for the innovation district was that there would

2:03:43be 40 hectares of employment employment lands against the advice of staff a slim majority of

2:03:50this council already voted to cut that by more than half this represented a financial windfall

2:03:56for the developer but a future tax hike for wealth citizens because employment lands generate higher

2:04:02net taxes than residential lands so again that financial shortfall will be made up by citizens

2:04:09it was pretty surprising to me that this decision would have been supported by so many so-called

2:04:14fiscal conservatives moreover you were warned at the time by then ceo scott stewart that this city

2:04:21does not have the future water capacity for that extra housing so if we didn't have it then we still

2:04:28don't have it now why would we add even more housing at the expense of reducing our employment

2:04:34and revenue capacity and exceeding our water supply wealth city council needs to reject this

2:04:41block plan the developer needs to go back to the drawing board to submit a plan that meets

2:04:46city of wealth policies a year out from the next municipal election this will be an opportunity

2:04:52for citizens to see where you stand is it your priority to serve the interests of developers

2:04:59or is it your priority to serve the interests of the common good and the citizens of wealth

2:05:04thank you thank you for calling in let me see if any of my colleagues have any questions

2:05:13no we don't have any so thank you very much for joining us thank you for persisting thank you

2:05:21okay uh dave you're up next and ryan you're in the wings by the way just before you start dave

2:05:43just to have it on the record council richardson's actually been joining joining in and watching for

2:05:49like almost i'm going to say 45 minutes or more but she's just having trouble getting in the system

2:05:55so she's actually she's actually on call like she's actually on a phone and watching online right

2:06:00now so she is a part of the meeting and uh the clerks just wanted me to be aware of that okay

2:06:06go ahead dave uh good evening mayor members of council uh dave astin a graduate of the

2:06:12university of wealth so happy to be here tonight um to to speak to this vision and we talked we've

2:06:22heard about a vision we've heard about a vision from the landowner we've heard about vision from

2:06:27architects and we've talked a lot about an amazing vision for a part of the city that really will

2:06:35contribute to the future growth and development in the city and the block plan that we are proposing

2:06:44does achieve the objectives of the block plan requirements so we've heard a lot about vision

2:06:50and unfortunately i may have to start to bore you with responding to some of the comments on

2:06:56the policy and the objectives so we're moving forward with a block plan to look to implement

2:07:03some of the policies and strategies as mentioned from the past and we're taking those policies and

2:07:10principles into this block plan and i'll speak a little bit more about that but what i want to do

2:07:16with this table in the next slide is really speak to the recommendations that are before you from

2:07:23staff and to provide some response to them as best that i can there's been a lot of discussion about

2:07:30community park and parkland let's be clear there's no decrease in parkland requirement with this plan

2:07:38it's providing the parkland requirement under the planning act acknowledged by staff

2:07:45a community park is identified a community park is not a regional park there are regional parks

2:07:52in the city this is not identified as one regional parks are much larger parks um this is a community

2:07:59park and it's been designed to accommodate community facility needs on the employment lands

2:08:08there is a reduction from what was identified as a gross area on a secondary plan i just point out

2:08:15that everything that's being proposed is permitted under the official plan within that designation

2:08:23so while we're talking about compliance we're hearing about non-compliance my opinion we're

2:08:31hearing about interpretation what's being proposed is permitted in the official plan

2:08:38the school board we consulted with them we met with them when we talk about the location

2:08:45they're satisfied when we talk about working with them on phasing and design that will come

2:08:51the location of that school is central to the gid remember there's four phases to gid this is one

2:09:00and two there's also a phase three so this location is central same with the community park the frost

2:09:08building discussion will occur on the outcome of the frost building and opportunities i can't

2:09:16believe i wrote so much about a single loaded road but there's a lot um and what the plan is proposing

2:09:25it is different than the employment area picture of an employment area with a single loaded road

2:09:31and you have one large building it would block the view and i think that was the intent keep the views

2:09:39into the valley and with the block plan is proposing with residential there's setbacks between units

2:09:46there'll be views through there there's a stormwater management pond block there will be views there

2:09:52and there's other street ends as you heard there will be views there so views and connectivity

2:10:00and bringing the valley into the site is going to occur when we talk about stormwater management

2:10:07i'm not an engineer the locations were identified we haven't heard concern with the locations

2:10:14the details of forebays and water balances and outlet rates those are details at the draft plan

2:10:22a subdivision level they will be addressed so parks we're looking at a distribution of parks

2:10:33we've heard a lot about parks and butters i want to skip ahead a bit um and you know really do i

2:10:40really have 34 seconds left um one of the key things is distribution you know if i could talk

2:10:46about distribution this plan illustrates the distribution of the fusion proposed plan and the

2:10:54city plan and what you can see is with the plan that's being proposed the green area covers the

2:11:01entire community and what's proposed with the one neighborhood park and community park and there may

2:11:07be alternatives to this but before what we're talking about tonight there's a large portion

2:11:21you have you have concluded yeah sorry yeah well i appreciate Dave thank you sorry gotta gotta be fair

2:11:27to everybody so we appreciate that let me see if there's any questions okay uh councillor Gibson

2:11:33then galler thank you so i really did appreciate the the last slide that was up on the screen

2:11:39not being facetious but the the illustration of the distributed parks rather than the block

2:11:43parks can can i ask for him to just elaborate on his thoughts when when they talked about creating

2:11:48the five different smaller parks rather than the the large bulky parks thank you yeah i think uh i

2:11:57think you had just finished with that slide as as your five minutes was up so i think you might just

2:12:03need to repeat yourself again there i just don't but go ahead yeah thank you mayor to the councillor

2:12:08the intent of this slide was to illustrate kind of the walkability and connectivity of the community

2:12:15and in the fusion proposal and you heard a lot about the different park designs and elements

2:12:20the entire neighborhood is covered by a 500 meter walking distance if you just look at a large

2:12:27community park and one other neighborhood park that's identified really in the secondary plan

2:12:34it leaves about no a good portion of the community not within walking distance of a park

2:12:46that that answers my question thank you okay thank you go ahead your hand up go ahead please

2:12:53thank you and through your worship to mr. s and thank you for your presentation i really

2:12:56appreciated this slide deck i wanted to go back to the question of the school it was brought to

2:13:02my attention that the provincial policy statement 2024 talked about podium schools co-locating it so

2:13:08could you tell me a little bit about you know more about that and how the school in a in a mixed

2:13:14area actually contributes to to to what the province is asking through mayor to councillor yes

2:13:21and we had a few discussions with the school board not only about co-locating and where they

2:13:26want to be central to the community and accessible you know by all modes of travel and i think if

2:13:33you were to look at the block plan you would see along what i'd call a collector roads there will be

2:13:40from from our discussions with staff sidewalks cycling facilities so they'll be connected there

2:13:47and then the plan with the parks kind of running north south then connects the community down to

2:13:53that spine to the school block i think that supports the objectives of the school board to

2:13:59really get walkability to the school the the community park adjacent to provides opportunity

2:14:06for some shared use shared facility and we did explore the concept of uh the school having

2:14:16additional use maybe there's additional stories with other uses that would support school uses

2:14:23or institutional uses and that's something that is just starting to be discussed at the school

2:14:30board level and there's open to discussion about that and i think that will continue yeah thank you

2:14:37for that that's very interesting um and through your worship my other question was about the

2:14:41employment lands the staff report said that we the city could not count the mixed use as as

2:14:47employment lands but you talk about you know employment actually being provided in that mixed

2:14:53use so you know what what rationale do we have that there would actually be enough jobs in the area

2:14:59to accommodate um you know with the mixed use versus purely having dedicated employment lands

2:15:06to the degree that the official plan calls for yeah through marriage to the counselor it it's a good

2:15:12question and there's obviously been a lot of discussion about employment lands i think when

2:15:17we talk about employment lands we're talking ultimately about jobs um and while the plan

2:15:25identifies other uses within the employment land areas that are are permitted when the

2:15:29secondary plan is done it doesn't account for where storm ponds need to go in those types of things

2:15:35so those are net developable areas the secondary plan has kind of roast developable areas in the

2:15:44same way in a residential area you take out storm ponds and parks so we had to remember that um in

2:15:52the mixed use areas and really uh in the 2024 pps the province changed the rules a bit and with the

2:15:59new planning act on employment areas and define kind of employment areas as manufacturing warehouse

2:16:08research and development things that i would say the hamlin business park is geared towards

2:16:15these lands already in my opinion weren't employment lands under new provincial policy

2:16:22because they allowed institutional uses standalone offices retail accessory like it allowed those

2:16:30uses so what's being proposed still meets the objective of providing for employment

2:16:38and providing for jobs and the pps also talks about what's really interesting is

2:16:43it's encouraging mixed use areas strategic growth areas which these lands are to include and mix

2:16:54and incorporate different types of employment opportunities um and that's what we're proposing

2:17:01the mixed use areas could include a whole number of job opportunities um and so those along with

2:17:09kind of the designated employment areas the schools going to add jobs um work from home

2:17:18will add jobs as well so we believe that this plan still provides opportunity for a good mix

2:17:27and balance of employment and jobs yeah thank you for that thank you worship thank you

2:17:34class and i'm sorry actually i did see kate first kate and then class

2:17:40thank you through you mr mayor um i when we talk about accessible parks i do like that you've got

2:17:47parks distributed um i really like that part however uh when i was thinking about accessibility

2:17:52for the park that you have on top of the hill um especially with the building there i was wondering

2:17:58because i didn't see any parking as their plans for parking because a lot of people can't make it up

2:18:02that hill without a vehicle after mayor the counselor when i think we're talking about the

2:18:08neighborhood park uh maybe over near more of the frost building and the idea there really walkability

2:18:15i think what we're trying to avoid is creating parks with parking lots and we're not creating

2:18:23parking land dedication you don't need more parking lots you need more parks um and so that

2:18:30neighborhood park we really see is a walkable park it will connect to the origin line and connect

2:18:36back into the other trails so accessibility would be part of the design within that park space as far

2:18:43as the facilities uh and maybe the trails and benches or play area within that park area uh

2:18:50certainly would give consideration to accessibility and parking for there i guess if people need to

2:18:57drive there there still would be the option for on-street parking kind of around that park

2:19:06thanks i just wanted to caution that not everyone can walk when we're talking about walkability

2:19:12i in terms of the uh the linear parks i do like that you've got the corridors um you can fit a

2:19:21pickleball court in half the size of those parks and tennis tables and or like the ping pong

2:19:28tables and things like that in a much smaller space has there been any consideration to narrowing

2:19:34those spaces and keeping some linear park access but then expanding the large the community park

2:19:40so that we could have more sports after mayor to the counselor has there been consideration there's

2:19:48been a lot of consideration about how we are looking at the community from overall parkland

2:19:55and park use and programming perspective um i think part one of the slides i would have got to

2:20:04was showing it's still the opportunities in the community park to provide for uh parking

2:20:12picnic area playground area which could be a splash pad or or whatever uh four tennis courts

2:20:19two soccer fields and the ability for shared facility i've heard that when we were talking

2:20:26about cricket pitches a lot of those are shared facilities and i think the plan the size of the

2:20:32park that we're showing now could still be an opportunity for some shared facility for that

2:20:38type of use it's still a large park um so the idea of the linear parks the neighborhood parks

2:20:49was to provide the the connectivity and uh really a broader opportunity for park spaces

2:20:59for people within the community is it not possible to have that connectivity at a smaller width

2:21:06uh through the mayor to the counselor could the connectivity be in a smaller width um

2:21:15i think then again i'm not the designer but then you're starting to squeeze

2:21:23the vision and the intent of what we're trying to achieve with the community design

2:21:31thank you through the mayor um so when we were talking about the employment lands and we were

2:21:35talking about how things have changed over time um just since january we've had a huge change in

2:21:42terms of the tariffs and what we've been kind of asked to do as a country to make up for issues

2:21:51with trade and to increase our manufacturing and so how how do you think that the mixed use

2:22:00employment will help meet that goal through mayor is that may is that for me to respond

2:22:10okay i wasn't sure uh the mayor um when what's changing there's a bunch of things happening

2:22:19and what's what changed with provincial policy talked about manufacturing and and what i would call

2:22:25or characterize your what maybe your zoning might call general industrial or heavy industrial

2:22:31which is where your main manufacturing productivity of larger goods and such

2:22:38could occur and those are now kind of focused into employment areas and i think the city's

2:22:45probably going to start to go through an exercise where you're going to define where you're designated

2:22:51or defined employment areas are i think it's probably in the hamlet business park and your

2:22:56other business park areas the lands and gid will still provide for a mix of some lighter

2:23:06manufacturing uh some research and development those uses are still available in that area

2:23:14when talking about large manufacturing i think the the lands and gid were probably already

2:23:21somewhat constrained by compatibility considerations with residential existing

2:23:27and planned around it so the larger industrial manufacturing was probably going to be focused

2:23:36in your larger business parks and we're maintaining opportunity for some of the this lighter

2:23:42manufacturing and that lighter manufacturing can occur in the mixed use areas as well the the pps

2:23:50talks about that we may need to work with staff on the zoning and how we get there but provincial

2:23:56policy is talking about integration of uses thank you thank you and then finally it looks like i have

2:24:06a quasim please uh thank thank you through you through you mr mayor um i i'd like to ask a couple

2:24:17questions about the frost building i know i don't want to be dead to death too much but i have a

2:24:22couple of questions um when you were looking at the block plan and and you were deciding what to do

2:24:30with the frost building did you look at some creative solutions for integrating the frost

2:24:37building into into residential into the park i mean it's in a park so i wonder you know if it's

2:24:45there and if we had if we designate it what would it be used for um is there some like you know

2:24:52i think from looking at you know what your what urban design you normally do i think that you've

2:24:59taken cultural heritage in the past and converted into something else so i'm curious about um

2:25:05what the exploration of that looked like uh through mayor to counselor um i think there's

2:25:11still discussion to occur on the frost building there's going to be talk about designation tonight and

2:25:18even with designation i still think there will be opportunities or there's going to need to be

2:25:23discussions conservation when we talk about conservation of heritage does come in many

2:25:29different forms it could be the building as it is it could be the building as adapted it could be

2:25:35something else with some other commemoration we've looked at a number of different alternatives

2:25:42i think uh there are opportunities and i think you heard kind of the the vision tonight of the

2:25:52what the thought process of what that would be or may or may not be but i think that there's

2:25:59still some opportunity to um conserve uh the frost building and it may not be that it stays the way

2:26:11that is now in the place where it is now there's some alternatives that could be considered thank you

2:26:23chew and hauser thank you through you mr mayor it's good to see another rpd yeah i went through

2:26:33the program myself and yeah we're all talking about urbanism right when we went through a real

2:26:38planning program uh i just want to quickly ask because the facility fit obviously is quite

2:26:45pertinent to some of our decisions tonight and i just want to kind of lay down some of the assumptions

2:26:51that are made because for me like this is quite new being at this high level of talking about a

2:26:57facility fit was the school board uh consulted on some of the options um and some of the the idea for

2:27:06the co-location of this school board amenities being on that space was that kind of the inspiration for

2:27:14the sign i threw mayor to counselor on school board consultation yes they absolutely were they

2:27:23saw the block plan we talked about different locations with them kind of central to the

2:27:31gid area um they're aware kind of the of the location relative to um

2:27:41pedestrian cycling vehicular connections and to the the community park i wouldn't say that we

2:27:49had a lot of detailed discussion about how that co-location shared partnership would look

2:27:56i think there was just general discussion that the school's in proximity to a community park

2:28:03and i'm assuming some of the high-level programming elements they're inspired by some of the

2:28:08needs based off of some of those high-level discussions right i threw the mayor to the

2:28:13council and the school board will do their designs for based on their needs of school size

2:28:20and programmable space i think there's then always opportunity to kind of consult with

2:28:27the school board on on how the community park space could be utilized um my opinion

2:28:35open space opportunity for elementary children to have access to and run around uh is what is needed

2:28:48thank you go ahead counselor how's her

2:28:53who's the um three a mayor um just to kind of piggyback on that conversation um when i picture

2:29:01schools and parks um they're almost always on the same side of the road to share the spaces

2:29:06much more efficiently um i can only think of exhibition park um that doesn't and there is

2:29:12problems with safely crossing um can you tell me a little bit about um the decision where to be

2:29:19across the road to the councillor um again uh at the block plan level we had the consultation with

2:29:28the school board um and the identification of of the location they've accepted um i think that there

2:29:39could be ways that discussions made or the discussions may need to occur on how the

2:29:47the two uses interact but at this point we we have kind of what we have from them as far as

2:29:55the location of the of the facility in relation to the community park we they they saw the block

2:30:02plan design we didn't just give them a plan in isolation so i think they they were seeing the

2:30:09entire concept at the time of uh providing acceptance for the location and through the

2:30:20mayor um just point of clarification is that like a main arterial road in between uh you know

2:30:27or like it would be uh through mayors councillor it would be a collector road thank you great thank

2:30:37you everybody i think how the council and i didn't see anybody else so go ahead thank you and through

2:30:44the mayor a similar question you know school board background school board background you've got a

2:30:49couple of former trustees and educators here yeah yeah 16 years um so when you mentioned that they

2:30:57accepted can you be a little bit more explicit who is they is that the decision makers or is that

2:31:04at what level where was the presentation and the acceptance uh through mayor to the counselor

2:31:12as part of the planning process a consultation occurred with the school boards uh planners

2:31:20who are responsible through the planning process as it relates to and this is my understanding

2:31:27determining location implementing accommodation study and needs and providing recommendations

2:31:35that ultimately are part of a decision or recommendation to council for decision so that's

2:31:42who we dealt with uh school board staff uh and they provided an email to us confirming the

2:31:51location was accepted thank you yes i've seen the the email so uh it was not presented to the

2:32:01decision makers of the board so the board of directors similar to council that make that

2:32:05decision is what you're saying it was a a manager who who you had the conversations and got the

2:32:11the nod it's not in the long-term accommodation plan it's not embedded in other things is that

2:32:17is that my understanding correct that's the manager to the counselor i we dealt with the

2:32:22manager planning who i understand is responsible for implementation of the long-term accommodation

2:32:29plan from a planning level thank you i just wanted clarification on they accepted because

2:32:35just clarification and i would also reiterate what i'm going to say trustee hauser counselor

2:32:41hauser uh mentioned you know when i think of school boards co-locating i think of westminster

2:32:47woods that is a school and a city park and a shared area of parking so it's a little bit

2:32:52surprised to see the uh road between the park and the school again around safety and children and

2:33:00access so can you explain that because i didn't quite understand the response i i

2:33:07through the mayor to counselor i think my explanation is we we worked with staff to

2:33:15identify a location um there's understanding of the school block location relative to the

2:33:21community park location i think there's also understanding in relation to the school block

2:33:28in the broader community in the central element of the gulf innovation district

2:33:35there may be opportunity for numerous walkway connections in the adjacent lands to the school

2:33:42as well so in as we get into the greater details of of the plan of subdivision and design

2:33:51there probably will be other opportunities to provide connectivity to that school

2:33:56from the residential areas so that's kind of what we're working with we can only work with

2:34:04the elements and the discussions and the and the support that we received from

2:34:09school board staff thank you my final question is just about i didn't quite have a chance to look

2:34:15at your slide with the circles the green areas as you're aware school boards also provide green

2:34:21park space and so on i think of michael woods and a number of other areas that act as and when

2:34:26the city of guelph did their inventory of green space park space that included uh school spaces

2:34:32that provide you know tobogganing hills ice rinks you know a number of other kinds of amenities

2:34:38i couldn't see where your circles did it include the green space the neighborhood kind of green

2:34:44space that would be provided included in that school site uh through the mayor if we if i were to

2:34:51block the school site in the proximity of this community park that staff are identifying it

2:34:59would generally be in that area and would not extend to cover 500 meters of the entire community

2:35:07and i think i would just clarify that when looking at that it was looking at parkland

2:35:14because that's kind of the element that we're looking at in that context as far as parkland

2:35:19dedication i appreciate that the school boards also provide an open space element but they're not

2:35:27accepted as parkland and that was the element that that we're looking at as it relates because the

2:35:34other element if we wanted to talk about open space would be you know uh that what's being proposed

2:35:42with the plan and the stormwater blocks and the linear connections with a plan that's before you

2:35:48is approximately uh 35 percent of the land being open space area and what we're looking at is how

2:35:58do we use that area to its full advantage with trails and connections and and trails in the valley

2:36:06and providing opportunity for all people to access open space and parks

2:36:14thank you that's all thank you just to wrap us up but councillor crown had a quick question as well

2:36:20so please go ahead yeah seems like we're we're talking a lot about uh as a council in your

2:36:25interest as well on on the co-location and the and the synergies that can happen in parkland

2:36:32in a mixed-juice area and uh in the school zone and so i'm trying to put those all together and

2:36:43the you had spoken about just the the school site being proposed the the existing school site and i

2:36:49wonder whether when you went to the school board whether there were any other locations that you

2:36:54that you proposed or was this the only one proposed and the reason that i'm asking is that the um

2:37:00the southern portion of this site is the one that is closest to another existing school at

2:37:06arbor vista but the northern portion of the site is actually where um the boundary or the the

2:37:13unservice area of a school population might be and when i look at the map and the block

2:37:20planet you're proposing a park for the for the frost building well the frost building was actually

2:37:25designed as an educational functioning education building and so the adaptive reuse of the frost

2:37:31building as a school or the ability to retrofit it or add an addition i just wondered whether you

2:37:36propose that to school in fact um there's a lot of really great examples award-winning examples of

2:37:43former manufacturing or other educational buildings being adaptively reused into into schools i'm

2:37:49thinking of um centennial college took a um a manufacturing building and turned it into their

2:37:55new aerospace school and i just wondered whether that site had been proposed to the board uh through

2:38:02me either to the counselor um with regard to the first comment when we first met with the school

2:38:08board we didn't just give them a location we talked about kind of the whole community so it

2:38:15wasn't just here this is the only option you have we we had a discussion with them um on the

2:38:21second point we haven't explicitly asked the school board would you take the frost building

2:38:27as your new school we can ask them because i'm assuming that party that discussion was about

2:38:33co-location of parks and green space with the educational site the educational zoning

2:38:38uh through the mayor but we we simply didn't ask them about the frost building so um i mean

2:38:46it may not even meet their overall size requirements but uh we just we didn't ask them

2:38:54okay thanks thank you thank you um no don't go anywhere uh counselor also has a quick follow-up

2:39:02but then i'm gonna call it guys we've got to go on to the next delegation thanks uh mr scott appreciate

2:39:07you uh being here i'm gonna move at the higher education at the university of guelph i understand

2:39:12that you have not yet worked with the university of guelph but the university is quote explored

2:39:16possibilities what do we mean by possibilities that's from one of the hires up at the university

2:39:23through the mayor to the counselor i'm actually gonna leave that for mr scott to respond to

2:39:30is that okay thank you now now ryan knows the first question to answer

2:39:41so that's we're saving some time okay oh thank you very much thank you appreciate you and we

2:39:48have one more delegation uh ryan scott come on up wherever you are okay you're standing up there

2:40:00and ryan just as a reminder because i've been feeling bad for some of the other ones ahead of you

2:40:05you only got five minutes so so so go push through as fast as you can and then we'll see if

2:40:11there's any follow-up questions we know one already okay so you can start whenever you're ready sounds

2:40:17good i'm just gonna give a heads up to everyone once once you're done uh ryan and and then our

2:40:21questions are done we're gonna take a 10 minute break we gotta get up we gotta walk around a

2:40:25little bit okay then we'll come back and then we'll start making some decisions from there okay so

2:40:29go ahead ryan uh thank you uh good evening mayor Guthrie and city council as you now know my name

2:40:35is ryan scott svp development and finance at fusion homes there's been a lot of information shared

2:40:40tonight and a lot of great questions asked we've come to council with a vision for this for the

2:40:45future of this exciting community it comes after years spent working with some of the top consultants

2:40:50in the industry years working with city staff years hearing from citizens and stakeholders of

2:40:55guelph including consultation with first nations there's so much excitement and hope for this

2:41:01community that has come through that's feed clearly feeding us as evidenced by the crowd tonight

2:41:08we've come to council at a critical point we're ready to move forward we're ready to get into

2:41:12formal planning applications we're as committed as ever to the project and the needs of guelph

2:41:17homes services amenities jobs we're looking for your voice and direction does our bold vision

2:41:25as you've heard it and inquired about in our desire to do something different something

2:41:30innovative resume we envision a parkland network where all residents and workers are five minutes

2:41:35or less from public park spaces where programming is provided for people of all ages with a focus on

2:41:41pedestrians and after transportation we're a complete hierarchy of parks community neighborhood

2:41:47urban square exist and connect to each other to the beautiful natural heritage lands and trails

2:41:53that surround the site both connecting through views and through physical physical connections

2:42:01where focus is on things like active transportation instead of asphalt and parking spaces and retaining

2:42:06walls a future community derived from a block plan that's laid out with flexibility in mind

2:42:12ready to adapt to an uncertain future that surrounds us where opportunities for mixed use

2:42:17areas that blend homes jobs recreation and education exist a community built to a high

2:42:24standard with consideration for overall well-being energy efficiency ecological health watered

2:42:30stewardship water stewardship that goes above and beyond it's important at this time i think to

2:42:36call out and reiterate that this vision and plan is not isolated we've talked about stakeholder

2:42:42engagement we've also talked about the secondary plan and the secondary plan as you all know lays

2:42:47out six core principles protect what is valuable views trails access to natural heritage flow through

2:42:55connections number two create sustainable and energy efficient infrastructure we're working on

2:43:00high performance development standards that go above and beyond building code contemplating energy

2:43:04water biodiversity and ecology and overall well-being to establish a multimodal number three

2:43:10establish a multimodal pedestrian focused mobility system that one's a mouthful we've talked

2:43:15extensive extensively about the usefulness enjoyable and safe parkland network to create an

2:43:21attractive and memorable place meaningful spaces like the community park urban square natural

2:43:26heritage system public art ridgeline to promote diversity of land uses and densities a mix of

2:43:33housing options types and a mix of uses in buildings and six to grow innovative employment

2:43:38opportunities employment and mix use areas with potential for jobs in innovation education

2:43:44hospitality service office r&d lots of opportunities this block plan process is largely a new process

2:43:51for us for staff for council we've worked collaboratively with staff and recognize that

2:43:56they are necessarily bound by certain policies that you as council and councils of the past have set

2:44:02this is your opportunity to modernize policies remove barriers and enable creation of great

2:44:07neighborhoods we thank you for consideration of this block plan we hope you are as excited as we are

2:44:14and we ask that you join us in embracing this opportunity endorse this plan and move one step

2:44:19closer to building gid this endorsement is critical to getting one step closer to building much needed

2:44:25housing during this affordability crisis it's critical as it's one step closer to expanding

2:44:31commercial services and retail options in the city and it's one step closer to providing valuable

2:44:35jobs we're eager and ready to continue working with you and staff to shape the future and fulfill

2:44:41the needs for wealth residents thank you okay thank you thank you very much ryan and let me see

2:44:47well we already know one question from councillor alts we'll start with him just to repeat it and

2:44:52then councillor Goller and quasen okay thank you mr scott and i apologize problem you should be so darn

2:44:58good looking um and i've actually got two questions for you now as well uh but the first question is i

2:45:04understand that you have explored possibilities with the university but have not worked directly

2:45:10with the university yet possibilities being a direct quotation uh what are some of those

2:45:15possibilities if you could elaborate and could you comment on hopefully well whether yes or no

2:45:21that might include residence spaces or not thanks for the question he doesn't think you're good

2:45:34looking that's the problem can't be everything uh through you bring out through to the councillor

2:45:39yes so one of the one of the first calls we made when we acquired the lands after leave was as

2:45:43least spoke about was to the university to understand our surroundings even better the

2:45:47university's next door you got the arboretum uh you've got the new honeybee facility uh you've

2:45:53got college which is proposing to be extended into this site and we said we have to talk to the

2:45:58university to understand where they're at and also looking at the innovation nature of this and the

2:46:03employment nature of this it makes sense to talk to university so one of the first conversations

2:46:07we had that that conversation focused a lot around agritech around innovation around the

2:46:13opportunities that might be before us the university has taken that away to think about

2:46:20revenue models to think about their own land and their own needs and their own visions i know they

2:46:25have their own master plans ongoing right now to understand where partnerships may be possible

2:46:30um you know i the first public engagement event uh open house that we had in July of 2023

2:46:37at the time president charlotte yates was there she was talking to us about her vision of a global

2:46:41innovation top and how could we do this year um again just to be clear those have been discussions

2:46:47those have been uh kind of exploratory there is no partnership in place at this time and thank you

2:46:53thank you very much for that you actually raised another question that i've been struggling with

2:46:57that is the principle of innovation innovation district i look at the university of guelph and

2:47:02compare it to the university of waterloo where we have a tremendous high tech campus uh probably

2:47:08the best example if there is open source although they have googled right near the pharmacology

2:47:13college as well um that's why i'm concerned about the innovation district and those particular

2:47:21lands being reduced i can't square that one i was wondering if you could comment on that

2:47:27absolutely we and we see innovation through america three we see innovation in many different

2:47:31ways so there's the the example i believe you're referring to which is some sort of innovative

2:47:35job right an office building an rd center something with innovation i think that's an

2:47:40amazing opportunity that we see uh 100 fitting on these lands i think there's innovation not to

2:47:47belabor it i think there's innovation in what we're proposing in other ways through the parkland

2:47:51network and an innovative approach to parkland that goes beyond what's typically done um

2:47:57i think there's innovative ways to look at how we've connected and how we want to continue to

2:48:01evolve the natural heritage space um with river crossings with uh street ends with those linear

2:48:09parks that lead to it uh innovation in an urban square uh with technology to ensure that it's

2:48:16usable for seasons of the year and all year round um so i'm going off on a bit of a tangent uh but

2:48:21back to the employment lands in the university uh the hectares of land available there um we feel

2:48:31our ample to be able to provide innovative spaces uh through the right partnerships to

2:48:39deliver jobs and deliver um maybe even more importantly retain university of golf graduates

2:48:47to create something memorable in golf and stay here and evolve um and uh and put that and really

2:48:54continue to embrace wealth's um education power in this our house but my words are filling you

2:49:03but get the idea and finally the the other question is linear parks uh as i've been listening to this

2:49:09i've been thinking would fusion be prepared to consider linear parks within a condominium development

2:49:16that are maintained similarly to some condominium corporations maintaining similar uh similar parks

2:49:23elsewhere therefore not being assumed by the city uh so we would be open to discussions on all fronts

2:49:29i think one of the one of the key features that we want to ensure is that there's enough publicly

2:49:34accessible green space uh so you know the last thing we want to do is create a really privatized

2:49:41community where the public can't get at that green space um i think from a financial model

2:49:46perspective there's a few ways to look at it one there's um an enhancement that we feel

2:49:53strongly about in linear parks that we would be prepared to work with the city on in terms of

2:49:57budget resources so how do we work in collaboration and partnership where fusion as part of its

2:50:03development actually contributes to the programming of those parks and maintenance beyond just

2:50:08here's here's your piece of sod we did our part now you go do your part so continuing that partnership

2:50:13both uh financially um from a condo perspective or potentially like a homeowner uh association

2:50:22perspective i know that model's been explored in west minister woods previously that's another one

2:50:26that we would be absolutely willing to explore to see how that model could shape obviously being

2:50:31conscious of operating costs put on the homeowner later as well um but a couple of models that we

2:50:39would be happy to have for the discussions on thank you thank you boston baller downer yes thank

2:50:50you for you mr. marriage the delicate um thank you for your presentation um i know it's a long

2:50:57evening and you're the last one up so i'll try to be brief i just want to say thank you to

2:51:02councillor Allt for that question around sort of like the public private intersection i think

2:51:06wherever we can explore and this has been alluded to in other parts of the presentations

2:51:10wherever we can explore like use of of land in different ways so that you know in the evenings

2:51:15we're using land one way and in the day we're using it other ways i think is is really interesting

2:51:20sharing sharing spaces i think is a smart and innovative way to look at these things um so i

2:51:27just i quickly want to shift into you know you talked a little bit to councillor Allt about innovation

2:51:32and one of the things that i'm going to try to bring together a few points here um

2:51:38council cron talked about uh the frost institute as a potential you know it was built for education

2:51:44and you know can we look at it um as a potential adaptive reuse um opportunity and so i pulled

2:51:52two things as we were talking this evening from the gid secondary plan and i just want to read

2:51:57them not to be boring but i'm going to just read them out um the first part was the retention and

2:52:01integration of the turf grass institute into the gid community is encouraged so that piece

2:52:05straight from the gid secondary plan the second piece um and this is around innovation and sort

2:52:11of some of the work that the city continues to do around waste innovation and the circular economy

2:52:17and looking at things like waste is going to be a big issue looking into the future and and for me

2:52:22when i think about building and new buildings and old buildings i think about all of the waste that is

2:52:28potentially going to be created um and i know that that is a problem for the city of gualph but

2:52:33it's also a problem across all of north america um and there's building materials are sitting

2:52:38landfills and there's very little to do with them and it's a problem that we're going to be having

2:52:42to deal with as we move into the future and so with that in mind um there's this is pulled from

2:52:48the gid secondary plan as well which is support the reduction of waste from construction debris

2:52:52as a result of the demolition of buildings by promoting and encouraging the adaptive reuse

2:52:57of existing building stock so that applies to the whole of the gid and i i recognize that most

2:53:02of the buildings are on on is it block three on the on the on the but however this this you know

2:53:10this covers the whole the spirit of of the gualph innovation district so i guess my question for

2:53:16you is when we look at the frost building um is that something that you could see yourself you know

2:53:23applying these principles to is it something that you could potentially work with as part of

2:53:27adaptive reuse could it be looked at uh through that lens yeah thank you sir thank you for the

2:53:33question through you margothry i think that adaptive reuse minimizing waste um circular economy all

2:53:40very important principles um that have been on the forefront of our thinking in terms of

2:53:46what does the future of this look like what does the sustainability program look like

2:53:49um on the retention i think what we've tried to do with the park at the frost building location

2:53:57is create flexibility we tried to put something there that's meaningful at the high point of the

2:54:02site retain those views retain those attributes that are also outlined as being really important

2:54:09with respect to the building itself i think that we have to explore all options when it comes time

2:54:15to depending on what the decision is around it so i know that there are talks of designation of

2:54:21course that's next on the agenda should that building be designated then we have to look at

2:54:26what do we do with it is it adaptive reuse of some sort is it salvaging materials is it commemoration

2:54:33through a plaque not not saying not not suggesting and i'm just saying what are the options right and

2:54:38we have to go through a heritage impact assessment to understand what all that means that's probably

2:54:42going to involve a structural review of the building what what is it capable of how energy

2:54:46efficient is it a lot of things to look at to to understand if that actually makes sense uh fiscally

2:54:53for us as a developer or for the city as a potential partner with it um so uh at this point i don't

2:54:59want to close the door on anything it's a matter of following process right now uh look for that

2:55:05approval so we can get into more detailed planning discussions so we can get through the heritage

2:55:10impact assessment have those discussions and likely at some point end up back here again

2:55:15that's on the assumption that's even designated on the waste front sorry just i wrote it down so i

2:55:22wouldn't forget um on the waste front uh hundred percent waste is a bad day for everybody when it

2:55:29comes to building materials um our director of construction has actually been involved with the

2:55:34city on numerous fronts in waste reduction programs and working with the circular economy staff

2:55:39as to how do we reduce waste where can we divert it to um working with different

2:55:48garbage bin um companies in terms of let's not just get a big bin and dump everything in it then

2:55:54it gets hauled off and forgotten about how do we get use the better bin system uh to actually

2:55:59reduce that so i'm not an expert in it but i know that our company has been exploring ways to reduce

2:56:03waste thank you i do appreciate both of those answers um i have one more if you'll please indulge

2:56:10me and and this is a new one because i saw it in i think part of the definition of the block plan

2:56:15and part of that was the river crossings and the future of river crossings and that's been sort of

2:56:20spinning in my head and i i'm not sure if i i've heard a clear answer if i missed it in the block

2:56:26plan um is that coming later or is that something you could elaborate on a little bit for me today

2:56:31yeah so the river crossings are obviously yes stupid by the river um where part of the purchase

2:56:39of the lands that we purchased include conservation lands along the river right so there's an element

2:56:43that that's going to stay that way uh and we would be more than pleased and i it's probably a question

2:56:51for staff because i think i've seen it but i can't remember where in the capital budget that those

2:56:54river crossings are budgeted at some point um that might be something we can work with staff on

2:57:00to advance um i know the gulf hiking and trail club is very interested in river crossings to

2:57:06make sure the trails can get across that river um so that's we would be happy to continue working

2:57:11with the hiking and trail club uh they are actually in partnership with them they kind of maintain

2:57:16the trails at this point um so long story short that's something that we would work on with staff

2:57:23to ensure uh gets accomplished i appreciate that and i'll talk to all staff about that as well

2:57:29thank you go ahead and down thank you and through your worship to mr scott thank you for your

2:57:37presentation one of the things that you mentioned was approval but what we actually have uh on the

2:57:43staff recommendation is a denial and then um approval should uh some conditions be met

2:57:50could you tell me a little bit you know would it make a difference if council were actually to

2:57:53approve it conditional to some things being being adjusted i just you know would it make a difference

2:58:00yeah three margoth re we're we're ready to move forward and endorsement of the block plan as you

2:58:05heard from staff and as we've been told endorsement of the block plan is critical to getting into

2:58:10planning act applications there is then a long process of working through planning act applications

2:58:14in detail um which would need to result in a plan of subdivision that's in general conformance

2:58:20as i understand it with the block plan so when it comes to things like storm water management

2:58:25and engineering details absolutely that has to work right design um sizing all of that is

2:58:34we would never be able to build this development without engineering approval

2:58:39what i what concerns me about a refusal naturally is putting us putting a halt on momentum putting

2:58:47a halt on the work going back to the drawing board a little bit and uh and you know throwing our

2:58:53timelines off and most importantly throwing off the delivery of services and homes to the city during

2:58:59this crisis okay thank you for that and three worship my follow-up to that i believe that one

2:59:05of your colleagues mentioned things starting to get going by you know 20 27 or later uh yesterday

2:59:11we had an application tell us that they could potentially be building in the next 10 to 30 years

2:59:16so the time is can i just confirm when are you expecting you know we we give a approval now

2:59:22there may be some adjustments in the coming months when would you expect that actually

2:59:26shovels are hitting the ground yeah endorsement now would allow us to get in with our um the

2:59:33planning act applications uh in due course uh we would look for approval of those next year

2:59:40fast forward a little bit we have to go through again more detailed engineering design

2:59:44and phasing to get that right we would hopefully be starting to move dirt by the end of next year

2:59:53it's a big undertaking to get this graded properly and then servicing putting pipe in the ground

3:00:00building roads in 20 27 building homes closing homes in 20 28 thank you thank you worship thank

3:00:10you and downer please thank you through you mr amerik so um i just i'm wondering i'm curious so

3:00:19you know you want to get going but you haven't brought forward a plan that that that staff can

3:00:24agree with so um is there like i i i see that you know the the sustainability and innovation is

3:00:33is really important to you and and that's i know that's been all a part of your discussions i just

3:00:38i don't know how much some of the things that staff are requesting really compromises sustainability

3:00:46and innovation if that's what you really wanted to do so can you comment on that like the lid i'm

3:00:53concerned about the linear parks i think it sounds nice it looks like a lovely little video but

3:00:58i don't know about the functionality of those so you know when the city's going to have to pay for

3:01:03the the programming on that i mean you may be able to do some kind of partnership but ultimately

3:01:09it'll rest with the city and and what the needs are for that community of 9 000 people um is did you

3:01:17do any other plan that was more inconformity with the types of things that that staff were asking for

3:01:23yeah thanks for the question i threw you mayor we have looked at a number of plans

3:01:28um what really troubled us when we plotted a large community park was it interrupted our

3:01:37initial vision from day one our initial vision when we sat in the board room after we won this

3:01:41auction was how do we make a connected community that comes together how do we make an inclusive

3:01:45community that people want to be a part of how do we make a community that people um

3:01:54don't look out their window and say keep the noise down but look at the window and say hey i

3:01:57want to be part of that and we saw a way to do that by embracing our surroundings by embracing

3:02:03the arboretum by embracing the natural heritage lands by embracing what could be an urban national

3:02:09park across the river i don't know where that's at um and creating those flow through connections

3:02:15and we saw that as an innovative approach and we talked to staff about that at length

3:02:20um out of the reason as to why we're here with a list of unresolved matters is because staff said

3:02:27look this is a council matter we understand the idea and i don't want to put words at anyone's

3:02:34mouth but we understand what you're going after it requires further discussion um and we've frankly

3:02:41had discussions where we said maybe we should just abandon this and not try to do more not try to do

3:02:46better and just do the typical parks and typical subdivision uh we felt that we deserved better we

3:02:53felt that wealth deserved better and so we've pushed forward with that block plan and are here

3:02:58tonight to get your feedback on that um ultimately the decision tonight one way or the other will

3:03:03tell us where we need to go thank you councillor downer i think we're good thank you very much thank

3:03:14you ryan we appreciate it okay i promise to break and so we're gonna do a break i think everyone is

3:03:23signing just in a positive way there to stand up for a second so it is 8 49 we will start back here

3:03:32at 9th on the dot okay everyone have a break and i'll see in 10 minutes all right this is your 30

3:16:07second warning okay i'm gonna call us back to uh back to order everybody thank you i think that was

3:16:41a well deserved a little break but now we gotta we gotta focus and and figure out what our next

3:16:48steps are here so yeah yeah for sure yeah so uh what i would like to do is as our process is

3:17:01normally let's get the recommendations moved just are you moving them could i could i finish

3:17:09would that be okay thank you my friend um let's get the recommendations moved in second so they're

3:17:15on the floor okay what and then uh okay everyone just let me finish i love you all okay just let me

3:17:25finish moved and seconded on the floor then we'll do some questions if you have some of staff okay

3:17:30and uh and you know please ask questions maybe you haven't asked already or you need clarity on the

3:17:37ones from from a staff position okay well let's not continue in the same vein that you it did before

3:17:42if you've done that um and then i've already been asked to have the motion separated out which is fair

3:17:50um and then conferring with sort of staff and clerks uh we might need to just kind of because

3:17:57they're separated with me to change the order a little bit on how we do it so it's more methodical

3:18:02okay but uh we'll we'll do it that way so just i'll get to that part and i'll explain as we as we

3:18:07move forward okay um look everyone too i i didn't do the math but you know i've been doing the whole

3:18:15five minute allocation time frame under our procedural bylaw there's a lot of you that are very

3:18:19a lot that are very close like already and i don't want you know i don't want to cut anybody off

3:18:25i'm going to give a little bit of grace because this is a special meeting on the important thing

3:18:30like okay so a little bit of grace but i just just be aware okay everybody some of you are like well

3:18:35over three minutes already um in time so uh with that i saw two hands go up over here boost a till

3:18:43and downer is going to move in second all the recommendations is that right okay so that technically

3:18:49they're on the floor now we're going to open it up for uh questions and i'll just start here again

3:18:54so i'll go downer alt and then oh i'm sorry i forgot to go to six one second downer just one

3:19:00second sorry i forgot to go back to you guys i i my apologies what what is it i had sent an email

3:19:06before this meeting to everyone requesting that we have an alternate um motion put on the floor

3:19:12that just changes the wording so instead of saying we refuse we say we approve conditional to these

3:19:19changes which i think at the end of the day gets us to the same place but it actually tells the public

3:19:27that as council we approve this we just need these adjustments and and i don't know it has been

3:19:33tabled but i just i don't know if that no it's okay i think you know what councillor go I promise you

3:19:39we're going to get to the exact same place no matter what the outcome is in exactly what you're

3:19:43asking for but i think by methodically doing it the way that i'm doing it we will be okay

3:19:49to still make decisions either way as we move through it and especially late especially with

3:19:53like number one as example it's a receive only you know what i mean like i think everyone's

3:19:57going to be a yes on that one so i think i think if you just let me let's get through the questions

3:20:02and then let me explain as we kind of mess with the order of this because we're going to have to

3:20:06change it up a little bit um i think we're going to get to the same place and if it's not how i

3:20:10explained it then interrupt me and tell me how you're doing at that point okay okay so questions

3:20:14i'm going to start with downer and then alt and then anybody on the screen up there want

3:20:20any questions at this time to staff nope okay and then i'll go to um mauler okay

3:20:26hey three mr. mayor to uh maverick lemon so regarding the um so my concern around the linear

3:20:35the linear parks um and programming how would you envision us doing like the kinds of programming

3:20:43that you could do there because for me looking at it from the size of it i it just sort of you know

3:20:49because you can tell by the size of the roads like what the size what might be is that it looks

3:20:53like it just might be a trail is what it feels like to me and then then that's that's not park or

3:20:59access to park or could be added onto the community park that space that's sort of my thoughts um so

3:21:08i agree um staff will have trouble programming that space in 19 meter width park our zoning

3:21:16bylaw requires a 50 meter wide frontage for parks and the reason for that is so that we can fit

3:21:21park amenities in our parks um we also you know you may see some facility fit plans in the applicant

3:21:28submission materials um setbacks haven't been considered in those and so um sports facilities

3:21:35we recommended 20 meter setback from property line to ensure that um there's no conflicts between

3:21:42uses kicking balls um light spilling over and um noise against uh against the neighboring

3:21:52properties um even playgrounds we require a 10 meter setback and so it's easy to do the map when

3:21:58you have a 19 meter wide park and a 10 meter setback you can't fit a typical park amenity if this is

3:22:06a neighborhood park uh generally we would our residents would expect there to be a playground

3:22:11available for their family um and that is not possible uh the way that these are designed

3:22:16i also see them as a nice trail block i have nothing against you know having a trail block

3:22:23i will say that our policies do not permit us to take trails as parkland dedication

3:22:31okay that's fine thanks thanks councillor downer councillor Allt please

3:22:37thank you mayor Guthrie i think i have about three or four questions uh really my my questions

3:22:42primarily focus around uh uh cost and whether in fact anything that we're dealing with is revenue

3:22:47neutral so i was wondering i i acknowledge that uh we're dealing with essentially the equal amount

3:22:52of parkland but is there a difference in our operating costs for maintaining parks as per

3:23:00the proposal versus linear parks uh so i would say that if council accepts the 19 meter wide linear

3:23:15parks it would be maintained as if a trail i don't think that we would be installing the amenities

3:23:21that you would see that you've seen in some of the images i just don't think it's possible and so

3:23:26maintenance would be as if a trail what does that consist of just you know fill me in general

3:23:34general mowing and upkeep of the trail surface okay so and that's it all right yes okay um the

3:23:41next one one of my other concerns that is is such features as as the cricket pitch and so on

3:23:48and i'm wondering what the long and the short term impact of reducing or eliminating playing

3:23:51fields is on the whole of the city will that mean that the cricket pitch that's at margaret green

3:23:57which i consider and i believe to be substandard will remain there or uh is there even a possibility

3:24:04that because it's being encroached on by tennis and by by uh baseball parks and so on that it will

3:24:12be eliminated i'm very concerned about this particular feature because of our changing demographic

3:24:17yeah um thank you and through the mayor um so we have many strategic documents our our parks and

3:24:27master plan our park plan that clearly tell the community and council that we we have a growing

3:24:32need for sports fields and as we add population we need to increase our our sports field offerings

3:24:39in order to um provide the surface level that that we're at right now um in terms of cricket

3:24:45specifically you're correct the only facilities that we have in guelph are overlapping other very

3:24:52very busy um sports fields and we are hearing through our ongoing sports field strategy from

3:25:00the cricket groups that they're having trouble booking time in order to play and so one of the

3:25:06reasons that we wanted to use the cricket um the the cricket item specifically for gid was it felt

3:25:14like this is something that we can improve in guelph um and so that's that's why you're seeing

3:25:20that on the uh on the plans so i hear that our facilities are overtaxed at the present time

3:25:28can you give any sort of a number or example or whatever where are we i know that when i play

3:25:34slow pitch you can sometimes not find a field yeah that's correct so very competitive to get into

3:25:41certain fields at certain times depending on the users obviously we know we have busier times

3:25:46evenings and weekends um and so it's it is something that we have identified as an ongoing

3:25:52problem and again we need we must um increase our sports field offerings in order to maintain

3:25:59the service level that we're at just now just last questions is there a domino effect if we veer from

3:26:06what was put in this proposal by by staff and has held up over time will it affect other areas of

3:26:13the city through the mayor to the counselor i think the risk that you can see is the achievement

3:26:19of the vision the current vision as laid out in the gid secondary plan i mean it talks about a

3:26:24compact mixed use community home of innovative sustainable employment uses and adjacent urban

3:26:30village and really the achievement of an innovation center and i think that that that is the risk is

3:26:36that if we move away from that we may not achieve the vision for the gid secondary plan and the last

3:26:42question are there other avenues for developers plural as i understand that this will not be built

3:26:47out entirely by fusion uh who purchase and develop this to seek changes to zoning and uh planning

3:26:53yeah through the mayor to uh counselor alt so currently blocks one into our own by fusion however

3:27:01that doesn't um stop them from selling any future phases or blocks to other developers in the future

3:27:07and so potential future owners would be able to submit um official plan amendment zoning

3:27:11bylaw amendment applications uh based on the land size of blocks one and two we would expect

3:27:17multiple subdivision applications and multiple official plan amendments and zoning bylaw amendments

3:27:22over the next 30 years to facilitate ultimate build out of these lands so to quote a baseball

3:27:28player it ain't over till it's over correct thank you which baseball player was that

3:27:37okay bear okay that's uh before my time okay um we have goller and then clausen and then busadil

3:27:52thank you three worship to staff um first of all thank you for the the report very helpful to

3:27:58understand the city's policies and where you're coming from with uh with the refusal recommendation

3:28:07i wanted to understand that a high level this is for block plans one and two of the gad right and

3:28:13then there's block three and four across the road and across the river is that correct okay so if

3:28:19we have overall targets for employment and and housing for the city but also for the for the gad

3:28:26if we were to uh approve the request that effectively has more um residential and less

3:28:34employment in this area would that mean that we're automatically allowing for more residential

3:28:40in the city so that by 2051 we're no longer targeting 258,000 we're targeting more people

3:28:46or does it get balanced out so we approve some extra residential here and then a future development

3:28:52will just not have the density available uh through the mayor to councillor goller so the

3:29:01province when they amended op80 did change the density targets by increasing the height on these

3:29:07lands um right now our water master plan our wastewater master plan do not include the additional

3:29:154,000 5,000 people that are contemplated on these lands so we do know we have a challenge here we

3:29:20i think that's been said to council since the official plan amendment came forward um so there

3:29:27is is definitely almost a doubling of the population on these lands so that will have to be accommodated

3:29:33in the future we may have challenges downstream as we talked about i think even as recently as last

3:29:38evening um to address some of these concerns staff will be bringing forward in the near future

3:29:44that kind of use it or lose it policies and you will be assigning capacity it'll be performance

3:29:49based and it'll be expired a certain amount of time um but yes we definitely will have challenges

3:29:55with long-term servicing thank you for that but what i'm trying to understand is when we approve

3:30:03higher residential development in one area do we increase our total buildout by 2051 or if we

3:30:12build that here does it just mean that it doesn't get built somewhere else uh through the merit to

3:30:18the councillor so on our next op update we will have to accommodate this additional population

3:30:24in that and then we will be with that official plan amendment update we'll be highlighting the

3:30:29the lack of long-term servicing capacity for the ultimate population so so what you're saying is that

3:30:38we won't yeah to be clear we will not take it away from someone else um it is it will end up

3:30:44being with the the policies we're bringing forward is a first come first serve for some of the servicing

3:30:49allocation but we will not take it away from someone else at this time okay thank you for that

3:30:54i appreciate that um with regards to the the frost building there's a staff recommendation to make it

3:31:01residential i'm i'm trying to understand why residential are supposed to to mixed use or commercial

3:31:08you know if we wanted to stay in the public realm and we have different uses yeah through

3:31:14the merit to the councillor so the the recommendation is residential on the block plan that when they

3:31:18come in for zoning it would be a mixed use residential zone so they could have um office or

3:31:23commercial in the existing building or have residential in that existing building um that

3:31:28could be either or within that building would be the mixed use commercial we would propose for that

3:31:32site okay okay so it by having it as a residential block for the staff recommendation it doesn't

3:31:39mean that it has to be homes that is correct okay okay thank you for that uh and my last question

3:31:45through your worship with regards to the storm water management uh we heard the delegates say

3:31:50that this is something that could be figured out at site plan because the engineers would not let

3:31:56them build if there was an appropriate capacity so recommendation f was to withhold the approval

3:32:04until the storm waters figured out why is it important to figure that out at this point and not

3:32:09down the road at site plan thank you through the matter of councillor and we'll call on the city

3:32:18engineer to respond to that question good evening everyone and through your mayor get three to

3:32:35councillor Goller yeah the reason why it's important to to try to address the storm water

3:32:39management requirements at this point in time is because um the proposal is setting sort of the

3:32:45sizing requirements for the storm water management blocks so some of the information that has been

3:32:49provided to city staff at this point um is a little bit inconsistent in terms of maybe the

3:32:54sizing of the facilities that is required so staff are concerned that um the facilities might need

3:32:58to be substantially larger than what is being proposed at this point in time and so it's staff's

3:33:04preference to get that resolved uh up front at this point okay okay that that makes sense thank you

3:33:10uh and through your worship my my last question i'll go back to um the question of parks and

3:33:14linear parks um one of my my favorite parks to visit was the spur line park which is along the

3:33:20royal city recreation trail and i believe that that you know that has a nice little playground

3:33:24i believe that it is about 20 meters edge to edge um so when you say that that we you know can no

3:33:31longer accommodate parks like that is that because of a council decision and could council make a

3:33:36different decision and allow those biggable courts or the tennis courts uh or the the pingpong courts

3:33:43as presented uh by by fusion in a future parks and master plan um for the city um okay so there's

3:33:53a few questions there so spur line park specifically um it's about 21 meters wide so it's wider than

3:34:00you're seeing in the fusion proposal and then at the playground entrance it's actually 40 meters

3:34:04wide so the only way to get a playground in that specific park that you're referring to

3:34:10is to have a 40 meter wide frontage um and as i mentioned before the zoning bylaw now requires

3:34:15a 50 meter frontage and again that's to ensure that we can actually get park facilities in

3:34:20in our parks and then sorry can you repeat your second half of that question yes uh those those

3:34:26setbacks um because the playground there is within a couple meters of the home right there

3:34:33so is that something that you know council could change in the parks master plan and say

3:34:38moving forward you are allowed to have pickable courts with you know a closer setback to residential

3:34:44yeah so um you will see many examples of 200 years of planning a city where you you know examples

3:34:52of where things exist for example something that's a little closer to a property line than we would

3:34:56design now um i would say pickleball on a property line would be very disruptive to the neighbors we

3:35:06receive a ton of complaints about pickleball noise in a regular park where it's sort of centralized

3:35:11in in the park itself so i don't believe that it is good practice to try and squeeze facilities up

3:35:18against the property line there's noise there's lights bill there's just conflict of uses and so

3:35:26it's not to say it can't be done i'll also flag some of the images that you've seen don't necessarily

3:35:32show um you know what the size of a gulf's typical facilities are so um generally a pickleball court

3:35:41that has the full runout size on the short end is 10 meters wide and so again that's taking up half

3:35:49of that of that corridor and then by the time you put in your accessible pathway and the grade

3:35:56change needed in your soft spaces there's there's very very little room there to do anything so so

3:36:03so that i understand properly if staff were to endorse a linear park system you were saying that

3:36:09it would need to be instead of the 20 meters provided at least 50 meters wide to be a viable

3:36:15linear park is that so from a very technical perspective because this park because those

3:36:21linear parks have two road frontages they go from road to road to meet the 50 meter minimum

3:36:27the they could be expanded widened to 25 meters wide and then there's 25 meters on two roads

3:36:35i still feel that that is very difficult to program in a way that the community is going

3:36:40to expect their their parks to look and feel and provide the amenities they need but it would

3:36:45technically meet the zoning by the requirement okay okay thank you for that thank you worship

3:36:55thank you a class and please and then uh busatil uh yes thank you uh through you mr. marriage staff

3:37:02i think part of my question was answered it was around the linear park so i just i realized that

3:37:10i'm running out of time and councillor Goller has already touched on it i just wanted to like

3:37:13gently push back on the linear park thing for a second um i there are linear parks that exist

3:37:19like i think that there's one the high line in york when when we when i was looking at this i kind

3:37:23of started to think about some of those really narrow spaces where they're you know it is programmed

3:37:28there's tons of people go walk near obviously we're not in new york city um but there's there are

3:37:32some interesting examples and i'm just wanted to ask one question around programming as far as recreation

3:37:38space goes like i appreciate that you know recreation in parks is you know soccer cricket

3:37:44softball but what about older adults you know they're walking they're you know or or in wheelchairs

3:37:52and and then there's also a whole population of people who are trying to work out when they're

3:37:55outside and i think you know a few years ago at council somebody was asking us about workout

3:37:59equipment along the spur line there used to be some but it's it's gone and that was potentially

3:38:04an idea that was floated at some point so are those types of things that could exist in a spur

3:38:10line or sorry in a linear park type space um also are there alternative ideas for recreation that

3:38:17could happen you know like more natural looking playgrounds and things like that i'm just i don't

3:38:22i don't want to totally throw out the baby with the bath water but i can appreciate that you know

3:38:25putting a we couldn't put a pickleball court there and have enough space around it um but just

3:38:31trying to think a little differently in some of the spaces um certainly there's lots of examples

3:38:36of linear parks usually very urban hard surface type of um of facilities um very expensive to

3:38:45maintain um there are opportunities to include some of the amenities that you've noted however

3:38:54i would say what we're trying to do is is action our parks and rec master plan which has specific

3:39:01objectives in it which is based on what the community has told us they need and so i

3:39:07don't think that we've heard a ton of um people saying that the seniors are not getting enough

3:39:17you know amenities in in the park spaces um so that that would be my my reaction to that we're

3:39:24trying to action our parks and rec master plan that has specific objectives okay um just trying

3:39:37to be mindful of my time with my words um maybe i'll leave it at that is what my question though is

3:39:45is there a way to do some aspects of the linear park um and and work you know there was some talk

3:39:51you know if councillor Allt brought up the idea of working with the developer there's the river

3:39:56walking gualph which is i think it's a it's a developer city joint venture are there some

3:40:04opportunities to do things like that um with these spaces certainly it can be done if that is

3:40:11what council wishes to do again i will flag that it will take away from the community park and i

3:40:17will also flag that you will not see another community park dedicated to the city of gualph a

3:40:23large community park until we get to clear mulby you have two times uh in the rest of the you know

3:40:30the the future here in the city so this is a really unique opportunity to actually get a large

3:40:35park and so it's not that i dislike linear park and the fact that sure we can throw a shuffle

3:40:40board in there but is it what the really the community really needs okay thank you i appreciate

3:40:48that that comment in the same line the 300 parking spaces in the community park is that something that

3:40:56can be we could the school potentially could there be some negotiation there uh yeah i totally

3:41:04agree with that comment we often share parking lots with schools unfortunately the way that it's

3:41:09designed the school block and the park block are not directly you know side by side they're across

3:41:13the road from each other um and then the other thing i i do want to flag for council is these

3:41:19amenities are not set in stone so these are just examples of a suite of of amenities that could be

3:41:27put in a community park and so the exercise was just to say build a community park

3:41:32in theory with these with these elements so okay thank you so then you brought up another

3:41:40point for me which is the elementary school and the park could the blocks just join together

3:41:55yeah through the mayor to the councillor they they could um i think the certainly the concern

3:42:00raised was the collector road between the two and but they could join together okay thank you

3:42:09and then my my question my last question is around those river crossings and sort of how are they

3:42:15planned in our our future budget are they within the 10-year capital plan um and uh they were alluded

3:42:22to in a couple of presentations but i i'm not sure about like when and where uh yeah so through the

3:42:29mayor i can answer this question as well so um the the river crossing is identified in our dc

3:42:35background study it hasn't made it into the budget yet um and so don't have clear timing on on when

3:42:40exactly that would be be happening and it will depend on fusion's progress as well okay so it's

3:42:50yet to be determined uh based on okay their work thank you thank you up boost boost it till please

3:42:59yes thank you um thank you to staff um i have i think two two questions um thank you malorie i want

3:43:07to start first with the programming in these linear parks because i think the you know animation for

3:43:13me creates a picture so when you talk about playgrounds not fitting i assume then splashpads

3:43:18ice rinks community guards no okay thank you straight to my second question so this is about

3:43:24schools i do know something about schools same school or old planning um so uh i did look at the

3:43:31long-term accommodation plan for the schools there's no no capital plan for gulf wellington

3:43:37or dufferin and it's not a priority right now for schools but my question is if it doesn't become a

3:43:43school actually there's two parts in determining if there's a need for school there are the yields

3:43:49so depending on the kind of development you know if it's condos or if it's single family homes or

3:43:54things like that there is a yield total expected number of children watson associates does the

3:43:59calculation and out of that they say so many will go to the catholic system so many so it's not 100%

3:44:05of that yield that automatically goes to the public school private schools parochial schools and so on

3:44:11so my question is you've got a site here that's being proposed what if there is no school because

3:44:19it doesn't make sense because of the development doesn't yield enough so my question is does that

3:44:26property or does that site go back to employment lands um through the mayor to councillor bousentill

3:44:38there's a couple ways we could look at it so at this stage this is really the block plan stage and

3:44:42through further planning act applications such as plans of subdivisions official plan amendment

3:44:48zoning by law amendments we would be circulating the the school boards as part of our as required

3:44:55under the planning act and then we would be getting comments at that time and it's my understanding

3:45:01with discussions that the school board has had and they did provide us comments in the second

3:45:06submission as well with regards to phasing and if there was an identified need there would be

3:45:12they would require it in phase one but there would be a whole board process at that time with

3:45:18regards to getting like provincial funding you would know more about it than I do so this is

3:45:24just based on my discussion with the school board at that time but if if in the event that the school

3:45:30for some reason wasn't needed or based on the population we we could zone it in a way that has

3:45:39like flexible zoning that would say like it could be a school zone for institutional use or if it's

3:45:46not actually needed then it could go back to the employment land use designation that so it would

3:45:53be like a employment zone whatever that would be like it could have flexible zoning I know that's

3:46:00how it's done in other municipalities dual zoning and there's sometimes um clauses and some or

3:46:07or clauses and subdivision agreements that basically say you have to withhold this property this block

3:46:13for like five years or ten years from registration and that and then the school board can have like

3:46:19first right of refusal and if they don't want it then it you know the option to purchase then it

3:46:23can go back to the developer to do whatever with so so your answer is it's flexible that it's

3:46:33automatic so we're talking about employment lands and the and the delegations have talked about

3:46:40schools are employment they provide employment so my question is is that block is that little pink

3:46:47area there is that going to be designated as employment lands first is is that

3:46:58through the mayor to the councillor so it is currently designated employment mixed use two

3:47:03which is a employment designation in the gid secondary plan okay thank you thank you

3:47:14uh I think did you have your hand up cron yeah so you're you're next on my list yeah and then

3:47:20and then I'll go to katin on the on the screen there next okay great um question has to do with

3:47:26the the very first question we talked about potential adaptive reuse in a residential zone

3:47:33and I think I heard staff say that that could be changed at a later date if a if a non-residential

3:47:40use or that there are non-residential uses that are allowed in residential areas so I want to explore

3:47:46that because um commercial um if it was used as a say yoga center restaurant cafe or um an

3:47:55institutional use like education or even a church um those are non-residential uses that are not

3:48:02allowed in a residential zone so I'm exploring an amendment I know I understand why staff don't

3:48:08want it in a park zone but I'd like to give more flexibility to a much broader possible

3:48:20range of non-residential uses that could be in mixed use could be in commercial could be

3:48:27institutional and I just wondered uh and I have an amendment if I could to item 3d or do you want

3:48:33to wait until later right now 3d just simply says um in a residential zone and I think what I'm

3:48:42hearing staff say is you just don't want it in a park zone and so I just want to I want to get clarity

3:48:48on that through the mayor to the counselor so to give you an idea of the uses currently permitted

3:48:54in the residential designation in the gid secondary plan so we do permit multiple unit residential

3:48:59buildings but in addition to that convenience commercial uses limited to a maximum size live

3:49:05work units community services and facilities child care centers schools and park space including

3:49:12urban squares those are the uses currently permitted but at the time that is zoning by law

3:49:16amendment application or official plan amendment application comes forward we could look to expand

3:49:21those list uses to cover a variety of different uses okay and would one of those uses be like

3:49:28a church or a religious establishment or um other institutional uses or would that that would be a

3:49:35zoning specific through the marriage the counselor it would be dependent on what the applicant puts

3:49:41forward and in their application but it it could potentially be thanks thank you council coran

3:49:52katin please thank you through you mr mayor um I was just wondering in terms of our economic

3:50:01development and how we've been talking back and forth about the issue with tariffs I know that's

3:50:06not been going on a long time so you may not have had these conversations but has there been any

3:50:11indication of the types of employment that we need to increase locally to help meet those needs

3:50:39um through the mayor um we haven't had those discussions necessarily in the response to

3:50:44the tariffs but I want to be really clear the employment uses that are contemplated in this

3:50:49innovation district are very limited they're not the types of uses that um you're going to see

3:50:56I guess in response to tariffs we're not going to see manufacturing heavy manufacturing

3:51:02no warehousing no logistics those types of things aren't envisioned for this this um

3:51:07this area anyways it's it's not along a major travel route or anything like that

3:51:13but what we're going to do is um work with the proponents to really help them market those lands

3:51:20you know partnership with the university or college and really focus on that innovation

3:51:25and r&d space and office uses but um I think these aren't kind of the lands when we're talking about

3:51:32reshoring and manufacturing in in Guelph, Ontario, Canada this isn't going to be this isn't the type

3:51:39of location for that kind of development through the mayor what would be restricted then that would

3:51:46be normally intended with their proposal um but maybe uh somebody from planning would like to

3:51:57answer that but when I was going through the list of permitted uses um there isn't warehousing here

3:52:02there isn't logistics type uses um there's late assembly but only related to if it's tied to r&d

3:52:09and those sorts of things I think one of the positive things that has come out um from the

3:52:14province in terms of protecting employment areas like you think about along the Hanlon is that um

3:52:22cooperators for example they left the downtown core to build a standalone office building in

3:52:28employment lands in Hanlon Creek Business Park that's not permitted anymore so I think you know

3:52:35this area could attract larger office development maybe hotels convention facilities those sorts

3:52:40of things on those employment lands but not not really it's not a manufacturing area thank you

3:52:50I appreciate you walking down for that one you can go home now um and I have one more question

3:53:03for staff yep go ahead so um is there any when we're talking about the parkland but we're just

3:53:11talking about the minimum that we require right there's there's no nothing stopping folks from

3:53:18creating linear parks and doing the big community park at the same time uh that's correct um the

3:53:30linear parks don't meet a lot of um policy but if we're talking about quantity of parkland you

3:53:37can do both and in fact staff agree with the fusion that the parks can be distributed better

3:53:42throughout throughout the development area we do still want our big park but we we encourage um

3:53:50smaller neighborhood parks that are better distributed throughout throughout the areas so

3:53:54um seeing two or three different neighborhood parks that have a regular type configuration

3:54:00where we can fit park amenities would be would be very welcomed great thank you thank you councillor

3:54:11kate and uh downer just wants to circle back on something yeah just one more question to you

3:54:16uh mr mayor this is to uh christa so we've heard about the innovation and sustainability do you

3:54:24do you believe that with the things that um the items that staff are requesting that that that

3:54:32their innovation and um sustainability would be compromised or are there ways to do innovation

3:54:39and like i would think that a community park it doesn't have to be a linear park to be innovative

3:54:45i think you could still do a community park grab 6.7 hectares and still have some kind of

3:54:51innovation like in it within it um so i just wanted to stop what your thoughts are on that and and how

3:54:58um around their vision for this land yeah through the mayor to the councillor so when we get to the

3:55:06you know the the final design details of the official plan and zoning we'll find out exactly

3:55:11those details and what's proposed for zoning as far as those sustainability elements and if

3:55:15they're considering um you know they talked about uh sustainability features in those buildings and

3:55:21planning to net zero so we'd be looking to that as part of the the zoning application i think they've

3:55:25made that commitment to that this evening so that's exciting for us um i think the only part what it

3:55:32really doesn't meet is that mix of uses and having the the employment and population potentially all

3:55:39in the same the same area so i think that's where it it does not meet kind of the the vision and goals

3:55:45of the plan but certainly through their specific site specific zoning and what they've indicated

3:55:50tonight we'll be looking for those as they bring it back to council for consideration to have some

3:55:55of those innovative elements and sustainability elements captured in site specific zoning

3:56:05thank you i don't have anybody else on the list for questions so i guess it comes to me lucky you

3:56:14um and forgive me if maybe some of them are similar uh i don't mean to repeat but sometimes

3:56:22it just needs to be camisized so i understand a little bit better in the answers okay so um

3:56:33i want to pick up where councillor kate and i think was just asking about the size of parks so uh the plan

3:56:43council could indicate a desire the will of council for um adding another community not a

3:56:53community park but a neighborhood park or or two or something okay okay thank you so it's

3:56:59wanted to understand that um and did the school board ever connect with staff like we heard about

3:57:10fusion and fusion and the school board but has there been any reach out between you and school

3:57:15board with school board to you to the mayor um yes so we did get comments from the school board on

3:57:24this the circulation so we got second submission comments and then um we did provide them to the

3:57:30applicant and asked them to go talk to the school board um and then the third the email that was

3:57:36provided by by the planning department at the school board is where they had said that they um

3:57:44are basically fine with the location they want it to be in phase first phase due to like provincial

3:57:51funding and timing and everything um however in the second submission comments there were concerns

3:57:56about um like the original location of the school was has shifted slightly from the original submission

3:58:05so um the second submission comments essentially said um we would prefer the actual school to be

3:58:14located like more in the residential area away from the employment uses and then

3:58:18you've been talked about some co-location with like the park blocks um but so yes the the school

3:58:27school use is permitted in an employment mixed use um land use designation but it's also permitted

3:58:32in a residential land use designation and it could also go in a residential land use designation so

3:58:38okay I just needed thank you but I just needed to know if the school board had connections to you

3:58:43and you've you've you've indicated that you did okay thank you um I might have a question for my

3:58:52colleague over here Councillor Caron when the time is right to vote what you're thinking about tabling

3:58:58for the amendment for the cross building but uh so I'll leave that for for then um

3:59:05I am uh I'm just looking at um the time frame as Councillor Goller had brought up earlier with

3:59:14the development you know looking for looking for some kind of direction tonight

3:59:21and I need to somewhat send out a hypothetical to you because I can't this is the problem with

3:59:27some of this process stuff here is that I can't now have I can't ask the developer this question

3:59:32that it's come up later so but I'm just trying to understand if council does large amendments

3:59:39tonight or if council refuses sort of the fusion way um do like how committed is staff to work with

3:59:47them on expediting whatever the whatever the feedback is here to try and get that stuff done

3:59:55as quickly as possible so they can continue to try to get this done so I just want to know what the

4:00:01capacity issue is of staff to be working with them if there are amendments that come out of tonight

4:00:09thank you mr mayor for that question as was indicated at the beginning of the process

4:00:13for this application and for this project we initiated a technical advisory committee

4:00:18we don't do that on standard development applications so that is a commitment across

4:00:21the organization to put resources to to reviewing this proposal because it is important to the city

4:00:27and we do want this to go forward so that framework has already been established we have the staff

4:00:33who comment on this and who who review the applications that will continue whatever the

4:00:38direction is of council tonight I think both staff and the developer will be aware of what the changes

4:00:43are and I think simultaneously we can work on the update to the plans if that's any direction that

4:00:50staff receive as well as initiate and start kind of the review process of the draft plan and official

4:00:55plan amendment zoning so I think the commitment to this project has been already established and

4:01:01we'll continue to do so from the staff perspective okay thank you so much okay um these are my

4:01:10these are my questions thank you very much I appreciate that okay well let's I told you I

4:01:18was going to try to walk us through sort of the flow and then do you have a question of staff on the

4:01:23before we get to this no problem go ahead councillor gov through worship and I apologize for

4:01:29for going back to this um I'm just I'm just really conflicted because you know I've listened to my

4:01:34constituents I've listened to you know like the gulf coalition for active transportation

4:01:39strongly supporting the linear parks and I really want to see them but understanding that the set

4:01:45just would not allow for any of the things that have been presented to us as as what you would

4:01:50put in those parks I'm really struggling because I really want to support particularly the active

4:01:56transportation so so how do we get to a point where where you can have those active transportation

4:02:02connections um in that you know linear park as per line fashion um and still provide the the

4:02:11amenities and and my question for staff is to have a functional park if we were to direct for those

4:02:19um linear parks to be that 50 meter wide would it pretty much eat up all of the parkland in those two

4:02:30parks and then there would be pretty much nothing left over for a community park uh it's hard for

4:02:38me to to guess um without without being to being able to plan and what that does to the area of

4:02:45those parks um yeah I don't think I can give you that answer um I'm right now so I will say yes if

4:02:53in general in a general sense if you widen those those linear parks then of course um that

4:03:01reduces the ability to contribute to to the community park and make it larger so right right

4:03:08yeah um and and we do not have the ability to request any more than the minimum that that that

4:03:16what is it 6.67 is that the what is being uh so the parkland dedication requirement under the

4:03:24planning act based on the population proposed is 7.7 hectares um that's the most that the city can

4:03:30can require from fusion to contribute um and so the way that we were asking for that to be distributed

4:03:36was a 6.7 hectare community park to be able to support sports field use um and then several

4:03:44neighborhood parks with sort of regular configuration um throughout the rest of the site to ensure that

4:03:50we do have walkable parks throughout the community okay and and that is based on a population of the

4:03:549000 that they're proposing uh so actually parkland dedication is based on dwelling units um and so

4:04:03it's based on the the dwelling unit count that they they provided to us okay and if no and that is

4:04:10with the increased um residential if they were to increase um say employment zones and reduce

4:04:18residential we would get even less parkland than that uh so yes if if so parkland will fluctuate

4:04:26with the population uh data or with the dwelling unit count okay okay thank you okay so i'm gonna

4:04:36i'm gonna walk us through okay and um and we do need to kind of go methodically through this okay so

4:04:43it's already moved and seconded everything's on the floor okay what we're going to do is

4:04:47let's just take care of number one right now okay before i even go into everything else

4:04:50number one is to receive okay i'm gonna call the vote is anyone against that nobody now

4:05:01councillor richardson uh if you just could unmute and just make sure that you're you're okay yep star

4:05:15six on your phone is what you have to press or send up there we go i think i'm good now

4:05:36yet we can hear you now michelle can you you're you're you're not against that

4:05:41no okay perfect i'm just gonna continue to always go back to you a little bit so

4:05:46just be prepared thank you so much no problem okay um so now the the best way to do this is we

4:05:54are going to skip number two for now i think this is where you're going councillor okay we're gonna go

4:06:01to number three which with the clerk's indulgence has said we'll make number three number two it's

4:06:07just an order thing okay because number number three is sort of like a menu of the things that

4:06:14we're talking about right so we can we can go let's let's let's have a vote on a okay we're

4:06:22going to split it split it out on a which is a community park of at least 6.7 hectares in size

4:06:29and people can amend that if they want to they can vote yes and they can vote no like whatever

4:06:34you want and then we'll go B on the employment mixed use portion you can amend it yes no and

4:06:40we'll just go through the list because based on what we do on three a b c d e f f that reflects on

4:06:53number two which is wrapping all that up okay everyone with me okay so we're gonna go we're

4:06:59gonna skip number two we're gonna go to number three that city council authorized the general

4:07:04manager of planning and building services to issue final block plan endorsement after the

4:07:08applicant modifies the block plan to the satisfaction of the city staff to include a so i'm gonna ask

4:07:16does anybody want to amend a you want to amend a adding is an amendment

4:07:27yep go ahead you have the floor okay thank you just so everyone's clear i will ask everybody if

4:07:33there's an amendment if there isn't then i just know it's a yes or no vote then we can just move on

4:07:37right so go ahead you have the floor okay so um i don't know if i have a seconder but i would like

4:07:44to amend it to include just something that staff said that they agreed with um which was

4:07:51better park distribution so i was wondering if we could amend to a community park of at least 6.7

4:07:56hectares in size comma and to encourage better park distribution throughout the block plan is that

4:08:05separate yeah so i think if you if i'm sorry i don't want to put words in your

4:08:11hypothetically if you agree that the plan should have 6.7 hectares in size then you should just vote

4:08:20yes or or no on that whatever you want to do if you also think that there should be another

4:08:27neighborhood park or more distribution of parks that could be a separate motion okay

4:08:33okay so so let me ask again does anyone have any amendments on a community park of at least 6.7

4:08:42hectares in size and remember if you vote yes here um you're endorsing the staff position okay if you

4:08:51vote no you're by default you're sort of defaulting back to the fusion the fusion's plan okay just want

4:09:00to make it clear okay all right any comments before i call the vote on this one uh go ahead

4:09:07thank you worship just my comments um i think that active transportation is really important

4:09:12and it's really important to get people um active and walking and cycling and i think that on the

4:09:19balance having those linear parks will be a net improvement to the community uh we've heard that

4:09:24smaller amenities could be included not you know the the pickable courts but you know smaller features

4:09:32and i think that for the walkability of the community um i will be voting against this recommendation

4:09:39okay thank you so yeah i think i'm glad you kind of said that so just to be really clear when i when

4:09:45i say when i say anyone against that means if you are against you are kind of for the the fusion

4:09:53position okay all right so is there anything further on a comment boost until

4:10:00yes thank you and i will be supporting the staff recommendation i think the concentration is

4:10:05cost effective and i don't think that um endorsing this and supporting the staff recommendation

4:10:13precludes the development of trails and active trails it doesn't preclude it's not an either or

4:10:19thank you okay thank you okay well i i will just make a comment uh i know that it is new

4:10:29for us to envision what's been presented to us tonight i i totally recognize that but it actually

4:10:36really excites me for something like this and i know that there is a trade-off so i'm not suggesting

4:10:42i'm not suggesting it's uh it's not relevant but i think um in my in my view people people will

4:10:51know what they're getting when they're going to buy in this area okay now i know people could

4:10:57argue well parks are for everyone in the field you know where i live i could go to that park i get it

4:11:02but people will know what they're getting in that area i think the division and design that's been

4:11:07there coupled with the engagement that has happened um is very forward-looking and very unique

4:11:17and and and i think that in itself is an extreme benefit for the city so i will be voting against

4:11:27this because i would like to see this new way actually implemented for for our community so

4:11:33so with that i'll call the vote is anybody uh against the six points okay you need to jump

4:11:41into a little bit more before i do sorry marigat three i will be voting in support of the community

4:11:46park uh similar reasons as council boosted teal but also because this is a culturally sensitive

4:11:51issue as well and i think that we need to be mindful of culturally sensitive issues on the

4:11:56record i completely support trails but because cricket is a is a is a sport that is engaged in

4:12:03by southeast asian and caribbean communities in guelph more than anyone else we have to be mindful

4:12:08of that as well um and i think that that's incredibly important in this area especially bar

4:12:14point of order there's a point of order to go ahead councillor costa has has it been

4:12:21pre-decided that the park will contain a cricket pitch it's in the master plan

4:12:27yeah it doesn't mean it would go there but a community-sized park like that could accommodate

4:12:32could accommodate it so would it be a culturally culturally sensitive decision then i am making

4:12:39my decision based on culture and economics you may make your decision on other things let's let

4:12:44him just finish thank you okay my ruling is i'm not gonna finish okay awesome all right so i'm

4:12:51gonna call the vote now and so anyone against that please raise your hand that would be me

4:13:00so goller and clausen and guthrie and chew and gibson and billings and richardson

4:13:13i need to have you unmute and let us know if you're against yes i think you're unmuted now

4:13:35i've been told uh michelle i'm council richardson would you just are you against

4:13:45should have the clerk pick a name out of a hat councillor richardson she is unmuted oh council

4:13:58richardson council richardson can you hear me mayor got three just for your your benefit it appears

4:14:30that council richardson is muted muting and unmuting herself so okay council richardson it

4:14:36seems like you might be muting and unmuting yourself let me confer with the clerk for a moment

4:15:36i'm unmuted can you hear yes we can we can hear you council richardson so we just want to know if

4:15:42you're against again okay so that fails all right thank you so we're going to go to

4:15:50sure my point of privilege councillor buschel yes thank you i'm just trying to understand

4:15:57and i don't have the procedure of i-law in front of me but when someone is participating virtually

4:16:02i'm just curious why you didn't invite council richardson to question the delegations or question

4:16:09staff it it just feels very i'm just feeling a little bit awkward here that her engagement has

4:16:14been for the vote but not in the discussion in the questioning is that something in the procedure

4:16:19that if someone is participating virtually to ensure that they're part of the engagement in the

4:16:25process that it validates it validates kind of i'm just curious uh because i know that is something

4:16:32again my borneau's rules of order and the school board uh that we had to do was continuously

4:16:39checking and say go around the horseshoe go around virtually and then you know councillor

4:16:44downard you have anything are you there you can ask because that way it validates that

4:16:49the individual has heard the delegations has had an opportunity to ask questions has heard the

4:16:55questions of counselors and so on and so i'm a little bit confused by this if you could help me

4:16:59understand through you mr. mayor to council boosted those questions the procedure by the talks about

4:17:07electronic participation and it says that any member of council can participate electronically

4:17:13remotely via an electronic means the process of being involved in questioning or

4:17:20be it to a delegate or to staff is at the frogged of them of the member that's connecting

4:17:25per the bylaw and so if there was a want to you know ask commentary or ask questions of staff

4:17:33then it would be up to the member to raise their raise their voice and signal in that sense to the

4:17:39mayor who would then recognize them and so really electronic participation means any member of

4:17:45council participating by an electronic means and they have the the bylaw says quote they have the

4:17:50same rights and responsibilities as if they were in physical attendance in the meeting so sorry just

4:17:56for no councillor boost still i just wanted to ask up one clarification no no i'm not going to

4:18:01recognize you right now we got the answer we're going to keep moving uh be a minimum of 16.48

4:18:08hectares of employment mixed use land does anyone want to amend that

4:18:14no okay so i'm going to call the vote any any any comments no okay and is there uh so i will

4:18:25call the vote on that one again a vote against is to go with the fusion plan um for is the staff

4:18:33okay so i'll call the vote is anyone against again raise your hand if you're against

4:18:39so uh billings and Gibson and Guthrie and Klosson and and Richard then Richard sin thank you

4:18:49and hauser and uh chu okay so that fails as well and number c does anyone want to amend

4:18:58see about the school no okay um then i will call the vote on on do worship to amend this if i yeah

4:19:10good yeah if you want to amend yeah i have uh an amendment here um that i sent to clerks um

4:19:20i'm so sorry i didn't see it yeah that that's okay that's okay jump on yeah

4:19:28what it's the mohawks yeah if i may mr. maren through you to councillor gollum just while the

4:19:32the team here sort of re re documents this on the slides we had originally thought

4:19:38councillor gollum that your uh motion that you'd sent was for an additional clause a clause g so

4:19:43if you just give us a moment we'll yeah my apologies i believe it's intended to be now

4:19:46incorporated into what is now to see um okay and the wording i'll let councillor gollum expand

4:19:53upon it with your with your thank you mr. maren and um just around the yeah if i could uh we

4:20:08heard a lot about the location of the school and how it would benefit from being uh next to a

4:20:14next to a park uh without a road divide in it and i just wanted to to add that in there that

4:20:20um really that the school should be besides a park without a road on it and that's

4:20:36did any of my fellow colleagues up here what councillor gollum is tabling and

4:20:40before we continue is there a seconder for this one i'll give i'll give a moment just to just to

4:20:44read it just to make sure how's all right did see your hand just want to make sure you're you're

4:20:48you're good with the wording if you are yeah so that it's so now would read that the elementary

4:20:58school in a non-employment mixed use block provided it meets the sizing and phasing requirements of

4:21:04the upper grand district school board and that is located adjacent to parkland without a road

4:21:10dividing that parkland in the school area i said it properly for you how's there are you okay by

4:21:17seconding that okay is there any questions on that before i continue from anyone oh okay um i will

4:21:27yeah go ahead councillor clauser just um through you mr. mayor um to councillor gollum

4:21:33this is also this is to ensure that the parking can be combined too right is that addressed that

4:21:41uh no no this this i mean you can still have shared parking between the school this really

4:21:46addresses that there's no road i mean as as was mentioned the one school in in guelph that has a

4:21:51road between the school and the park is victory school and exhibition park and even there are some

4:21:56conflicts there so i think uh to to my other colleagues that mentioned that really a school

4:22:01should not be divided from a park park by road it is to address that commentary thanks for the clarity

4:22:10thank you for for asking that um if you don't mind everybody i just need a moment i just wouldn't

4:22:17mind i gotta go find the the map of you know where where that was yeah china my eyesight so bad

4:22:30school okay okay so they would so you're gonna have you're looking if your amendment passes

4:22:40they'd have to reconfigure the school somewhere adjacent to a park and your worship i'm not

4:22:47saying it has to be the community park just yeah some kind of yeah okay okay i'm just looking here

4:22:58okay i appreciate thank you for the time everybody i appreciate it um okay i will call i'll call the

4:23:05vote then on the amendment okay so all those again so please raise your hand okay billings and gufrey

4:23:13and shoo and michelle i mean richardson yeah you just muted yourself again okay so that still passes

4:23:30your amendment still passes okay so now i'll call the vote as amended okay so all those again

4:23:37raise your hand okay and richardson um what's your vote on that one sorry can you repeat it

4:23:51yeah so the amendment of councillor Goller's passed which is now making the school on like a park

4:23:57connected um and so um because that amendment passed we're i'm just calling the vote on the

4:24:03on that main motion now as it is amended uh would you like to vote against it as amended even though

4:24:09it passed um so it's i'm just calling the main motion on that school issue yeah that's fine i'm

4:24:17fine with that okay well guess what so is everybody else so so that's a unanimous vote okay thank you

4:24:23very much all right so we're at the uh the the frost building which is d i want to go to karan

4:24:30right so karan would you just because i know you want to make an amendment can you just describe

4:24:35that and then we'll see if there's a seconder sure i i put it up on on uh to clerks um just

4:24:41want to have the full range of flexibility and what i heard in all of the discussion that the major

4:24:46impediment is that it's not in a park block um and that it's not conferred to the city so but it

4:24:53could it and that ultimately zoning will determine its final use but i want to make it clear that

4:24:58there's so many that's not the amendment so that there's that there's so many more possibilities

4:25:06um so my amendment was that it be changed from the frost building in a residential residential

4:25:12block to the frost building not be included in a park block that was the amendment okay is it's

4:25:24yeah i don't think it's up there yeah i was just asking a question it's a change from two

4:25:33here i send it to you just didn't include clerks

4:25:37i got it i got you thanks uh councillor Klassen is saving me by sending it to clerks

4:25:43can i just ask you a quick question yeah and i sorry i had just applied to galler's amendments

4:25:48and didn't look to see who was copying yes sir and uh please forgive me if i question understand it

4:25:54so right now it's proposed by the applicant in a park correct okay and

4:26:03start recommending and so i'm just asking like is this are you asking like to pick up the building

4:26:08and move it somewhere no no you want to change that the the frost building be located in a

4:26:15residential block so that park i'm amending that to be the frost building yeah not be in a park block

4:26:23and i would be interested in staff's staff's thoughts on that but okay if i could just get

4:26:30clarification for me if you don't mind so what you're asking is that the frost building to stay

4:26:37in that area but not be a park and become a residential could be residential could be in a

4:26:43mixed could be an employment lands could be institutional could be it's just not in a park block

4:26:51okay it provides more flexibility for the applicant to go and find an adaptive reuse

4:26:58okay with a partner or a lease or a sale that gives them a maximum flux flexibility

4:27:07as long as it's not in a park block okay thank you thank you very much is there a seconder for this

4:27:11staffer in agreement though okay kate kate is that your hand up yep for a seconder okay thank you

4:27:18all right so now and i'm so sorry i kind of interrupted to get the clarity but staff

4:27:24councillor carron sort of asked for your opinion on on on the amendment yeah thank you through you

4:27:29mr mayor so the amendment would work it's not in the park block which was our primary concern

4:27:34at this point in time and then when they come through for official plan amendment zoning application

4:27:38we'll work with them for appropriate zoning to request of council

4:27:41okay thank you um may you throw the the motion back up on the screen for me i'm so sorry

4:27:53we're getting there everybody okay so to dumb it down for me basically the green around the map

4:28:02wouldn't be green anymore it'd be mixed used color yep okay so um thank you uh my comments on this

4:28:18are like i don't think that should be heritage i don't think that building should be there at all

4:28:22that's just my opinion like it's like 1990 whatever like i just that's just my opinion

4:28:29i like the idea of that like the hilltop like vista view of our city and having it in a park

4:28:35space to me it just feels very compelling and like beautiful um now you know devil's advocate

4:28:45that may still come about with some toying around with that in a mixed use part too so i

4:28:51so i'm not not trying to put the idea down too much but my main problem is that i just only

4:28:57want the building there at all so um so i will call the vote on the amendment all those against

4:29:07please raise your hand all right so guffrey gibson billings chew richard and what's that michelle sorry

4:29:19again as well okay so that passes so that's been changed to mixed use now okay what okay i didn't

4:29:33see it sorry go ahead i it's through thank you for the indulgence but my my question for clarity

4:29:40was does that now convert the block into mixed use uh maybe not just not park so do we need to

4:29:54have a follow-up motion to change it to mixed use no what would staff say to that that's up to you

4:30:01with your discussions with the developer yeah through the mayor to the the councillor so the

4:30:05overall arching condition at the bottom is if staff are satisfied and and i think we'll work with

4:30:09them so we're satisfied all right thank thank you thank you i'm going to call the vote then on that

4:30:33as amended okay so call the vote now is anyone against that's nobody richardson

4:30:46what say you no that's fine okay unanimous again uh now we're going to the single loaded

4:30:55road along the eastern edge of blocks one and two does anyone want to amend that okay i don't

4:31:04hear anybody yeah comments of course go ahead thank you through worship

4:31:14with this i i understand the the staff response and i i do agree that on some roads like

4:31:20riverside park we have one side that has houses beautiful views the park on the other side

4:31:26i i do believe that we can accommodate the the additional housing by having a better use of

4:31:31the infrastructure on that road and i believe that has provided the the openings through the

4:31:36storm water area and through the park provide great views and access to the green space so i

4:31:41will be voting against this recommendation okay thank you anything further before i can call the

4:31:48vote on that uh caron i look along our riverbanks um throughout the city and those that are cut off

4:31:59through development uh in height and massing um are not as inviting um septub principles and our

4:32:07river our river systems are one of the wonderful features of our of our city i'd rather see density

4:32:13on one side and open apertures on the other side and i think that we can achieve the same densities

4:32:20but shifting it to a one one side of configuration so that um so that there's full access to our

4:32:26riverbanks throughout this uh throughout this site okay thank you so much i'll call the vote then

4:32:34okay um is anyone against this one please raise your hand so galler and guthrie and gibson and

4:32:42chu richardson richardson and did i say billings and billings that's only six i believe so um

4:32:53so that one from the staff position is approved okay thank you uh and now we're going to the

4:33:01revisions necessary for the storm water management is there any amendments to that any comments on

4:33:12that one okay any final questions i think i i think i need one extra question on this one

4:33:22my apologies but i i know it was kind of already addressed a little bit but um terry i don't know

4:33:31is terry still here yeah sorry terry um your concern that you addressed earlier was in regards to

4:33:51just sort of i don't want to put words in your mouth but the magnitude of sort of what is proposed

4:33:57then as it reflects on the magnitude of what the storm water system

4:34:01and capacity pipes and such would be am i am i catching that right like some of the stuff just

4:34:07hasn't been addressed to the satisfaction of of of yourself and your team yeah to you margitha so

4:34:13the information and the level of detail provided at this time just um isn't something that staff

4:34:18would accept from a sort of technical perspective and the the underlying risk then is the the correct

4:34:24sizing of the required storm facilities which in the block plan setting you know could be

4:34:29substantively different as you keep moving through the process and so staff are seeking to have that

4:34:34addressed up front okay and may i just ask like sometimes when it comes to storm water there's

4:34:40like studies that have to be done and they they take forever which is fair but like is this is

4:34:47this the type of work you're asking the developer to do is is is lots of like a year you know a

4:34:55year study or i'm trying to understand yeah two years it's not so much that it's more it's more

4:35:00on the design sort of assumptions and the technical details i don't think that there are things that

4:35:05are insurmountable here i fully expect us to work through those details with um the developer

4:35:12but for example there's there's assumptions in there right now that wouldn't meet city standards

4:35:16in terms of like expectations on long-term maintenance so i'll give you an example

4:35:21plans to be cleaned out every four years well the city has 125 plus storm facilities we clean

4:35:26them out about once every 40 years and so what does that mean from a functionality perspective

4:35:29from a flood and environmental perspective and and those kinds of things and that's the

4:35:33type of stuff we need to work through um has the technical details keep arriving would you would

4:35:39you consider the changes that has just been made by council in the last 15 minutes

4:35:52then we're the of this motion that's in front of us right now because we've just changed like you

4:36:00know the councillor Caron's motion to maybe mixed use on that one area so that could be

4:36:05that could be something completely different which would impact storm water the i'm sorry which

4:36:11was the other one the single loaded road right um i'm sure there was no change on that i don't think

4:36:20but would that precipitate some more conversations anyways then do you make that three i do believe

4:36:27that that has the possibility of that yeah so so in a so in a way by default is what i'm trying to

4:36:34get at by default some of the revisions that we're making here is precipitating

4:36:42revisions that would be necessary to storm water anyways to you mayor guthrie i do think it's

4:36:49it's quite prudent to to keep the recommendation in there for the reasons you're suggesting

4:36:53okay i i appreciate that thank you for letting me just ask those questions of clarity alt um

4:37:00i'm there guthrie uh with apologies i think i have to ask the ceo this question uh because

4:37:07of our legal duty to protect groundwater does this potentially have any impact on that

4:37:14given the location of our wells uh through through the mayor to councillor Allt i i'm not in a position

4:37:26to be commenting on that tonight i mean i i rely fully on the the the staff here and if that has

4:37:33not been raised as a concern then i would suggest we do not have that concern i think i'm going to

4:37:38have to ask it if we change this or leave it out uh the only reason i asked you is that mr steward

4:37:44was the person who answered questions like this in the past through you may have got through

4:37:48the council certainly a staff review uh the development applications in front of them part

4:37:53of our requirement and the official plan policies is to ensure we're protecting groundwater and

4:37:56surface water resources it's exactly what we'll continue to do as we work through this plan and as

4:38:01stormwater management practices change the interactions between those types of water will

4:38:05be reviewed thank you all right i'm going to call the vote on this with an with an i'm going to

4:38:14support this because by default we've made some changes so i think it has to be done but i would

4:38:21just i was an encouragement again i'm just wanting to get stuff done get shovels in the ground so i

4:38:28would i would really like to see things move fast through through any type of necessary stormwater

4:38:34management i think staff and the fusion team can get that together quickly and get it done so

4:38:40anyone against that then and richardson and richardson we're just waiting for you to see if

4:38:47you're against it no okay that's unanimous then thank you and guess what everyone that was the

4:38:55last one so thank you for flowing through that um what we're going to do is now go back to number two

4:39:05and we're going to amend that councillor am i am i saying everything correctly uh to to the clerk

4:39:15yes mr mayor uh councillor Goller's original motion had proposed a series of amendments to

4:39:20number three which has now become number two and in addition he proposed an amendment to number

4:39:25three which was approval of the applicant yeah but as amended okay so galler you'll move that then

4:39:32yes so it's approved as amended all right thank you and a seconder for that then

4:39:38yeah how's her okay thank you um and i'll call the vote then on that is anyone against that

4:39:46okay nobody here uh richardson no okay so that's unanimous then thank you and number four

4:39:56is again almost like in my opinion it's mostly kind of like a default motion right it has to

4:40:01it's that the block plan which we just did as amended be brought back to council for endorsement

4:40:08if the above in other words the changes we just made um are not satisfactory to city staff okay

4:40:15so i'll call the vote on that is anyone against that no uh not here or richardson how about yourself

4:40:25no okay so that's unanimous as well too okay um we are at uh thank you that's that's the end

4:40:35of that so thank you very much um we do have to go into the council consent agenda though

4:40:41which has the which has the frost building on it as the as a designation um i am going to ask

4:40:52sure go ahead yeah we just did a vote on that one we added the galler and howzer added the words

4:41:04approved as amended because we made all those changes yeah but moving to the to the to the

4:41:11council consent agenda i just think now is a time because i think there'll be a little bit of questions

4:41:16here um we're going to take a five minute break okay just to collect ourselves be done with the

4:41:22previous item and um but before i do that just in case i and i don't want to i hope you guys are

4:41:30with me uh but just in case i do need a motion to go past 11 uh as part of our procedural bylaw so

4:41:39can i ask someone to move that thank you karan and galler thank you i'll call the vote is anyone

4:41:45against moving past 11 if we have to we might not have to but okay nobody here richardson are you

4:41:52against moving past 11 no that's fine okay so that's unanimous on that uh but we will take a

4:41:59five minute break it's 10 28 uh we're going to come back here in five minutes i know it's an odd

4:42:04number but we're coming back here in five minutes okay this is your one minute warning okay everybody