Special Council Meeting · September 10, 2025 · Item 3.1
City Clerk be authorized to publish and serve notice of intention to designate the Frost Building at 328 Victoria Road South pursuant to Part IV…
Main motion under the agenda item 328 Victoria Road South (Frost Building) Notice of Intention to Designate - 2025-416
Carried (8 to 5)
8 in favour, 5 against
What was voted on
The motion in its exact words, as recorded in the minutes.
That the City Clerk be authorized to publish and serve notice of intention to designate the Frost Building at 328 Victoria Road South pursuant to Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act. That the designation bylaw be brought before Council for approval if no objections are received within the thirty (30) day objection period.
How the room voted
In favour (8)
- Allt
- Busuttil
- Caron
- Caton
- Downer
- Goller
- Hauser
- Klassen
Against (5)
- Billings
- Chew
- Gibson
- Guthrie
- Richardson
What council was given
The staff reports and correspondence attached to this item. The summaries are written automatically, so you can tell what a document is without opening a ninety-page PDF.
- 328 Victoria Road South (Frost Building) Notice of Intention to Designate - 2025-416.pdf
Heritage staff recommend Council publish notice that it intends to designate the Frost Building at 328 Victoria Road South, formerly the Turfgrass Institute Building, under the Ontario Heritage Act. The building is currently listed but not designated, and provincial changes will drop all non-designated properties from the municipal heritage register on January 1, 2027. The site is part of a Guelph Innovation District block plan being developed with Fusion Homes.
- Attachment-1 Ontario Regulation 9-06 Criteria for Determining Cultural Heritage Value or Interest.pdf
- Correspondence - Andrea Bidgood (2).pdf
A summary is this site’s description of a document, not the City’s. Open the document before relying on one.
What was said
482 words from the meeting recording, transcribed automatically. Times are from the start of the recording.
Read the debate(click to open)
4:47:53building notice of attention to designate on consent does anyone want to pull because if not we could
4:48:01just vote on it up or down so you want to pull it oh i was gonna allow comments anyways yep because
4:48:12it's the last one i don't know the agenda anyways go ahead you have the floor well how about how about
4:48:16you move consent then sure i'll move consent okay thank you karan and clausen we'll move we'll move
4:48:22the consent on this go ahead yeah i just wanted to say that a lot of you know we we've heard here
4:48:28tonight um in delegations and among council that uh there's some question as to whether a modern
4:48:34building is you know worthy of of conservation um modern architecture is being lost at a rate
4:48:42faster than our heritage architecture and significant modern architecture is future heritage
4:48:49and the more we tear down of of significant buildings from significant architects um the
4:48:55last we will have to preserve uh later uh this building was specifically cited at this location
4:49:02for its prominence and it served the community as an institution of learning i think there's so
4:49:10many adaptive reuse options in this building in fact the way it was designed it's open it has
4:49:17classrooms it has meeting rooms it has even if it's structurally inside all of those things can be
4:49:24modified the adaptive reuse potential i think is is quite quite broad and so i encourage the building
4:49:30owners to either lease it or explore um you know as a spiritual uh yoga commercial restaurant
4:49:40cafe i just i could i could list about 20 30 different potential uses so i look forward to
4:49:47exploring what it can become in the future if conserved great thank you um is there anything
4:49:54further before i call the vote okay i think i already kind of gave my comments before i i have
4:50:00a difference of opinion it's okay that's okay i just think like a 1990s building no i think it's
4:50:1090s is not really it's the beauty in the eye beholder i guess it's not it's not a heritage building to
4:50:18me um and i know it meets like some of the criteria don't get me wrong but i don't know just maybe
4:50:27there will be a reuse of it and i can look back at this moment and be like uh okay but i uh i really
4:50:34think it should come down um quickly but that's just me so i will i'll call the vote anyone against
4:50:44the consent to designate raise your hand all right so chu and guthrey and gibson and billings
4:50:53and what about you richardton again okay so that's uh that passes still okay thank you
4:51:02all right thank you galler would you help us with the bylaws please it'd be my pleasure to worship
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The motion, the vote and the debate come from the City of Guelph’s published record, reproduced rather than interpreted. The document summaries above are the exception: those words were written for this site.