Public Meeting and Decision Report for Proposed Rental Replacement By-law and Enabling Official Plan Amendment as outlined in report 2026-351, dated July 14, 2026…

1:18:57It makes sense to do that for our staff time too. So

1:19:00is um, is Kushla here?

1:19:03Oh, yes. Okay. That probably helps. So that's good.

1:19:06Okay. So I'm going to just jump to 6.3 very quickly. It's the public meeting and decision report for the proposed rental replacement bylaw and the enabling official plan amendment.

1:19:16We're just going to have a quick presentation and then we got the recommendations right in front of us here. Okay.

1:19:21So, kusha, if you don't mind coming down, clerks, if you could just get the

1:19:25presentation ready. Thank you.

1:19:27All right. Look at that. I had good evening. Uh, America three and members council, but it gets to be good afternoon. So, um,

1:19:56uh, this is a statutory public meeting and decision meeting for the official plan amendment.

1:20:01Uh, number 117 that would able the rental replacement bylaw.

1:20:06So, uh, really what the rental replacement bylaw is, is a new tool that would let the city protect existing

1:20:12affordable rental housing when someone applies to demolish or convert it, uh, to another use.

1:20:18Kushla, I'm very sorry to interrupt you. Yes.

1:20:22I just need to make sure of something

1:20:24before you continue. Sure. I need to confer with the clerk for a second.

1:21:01I'm just making sure about timing for something that I just remembered about. So I'm very sorry.

1:21:06I'm just going to confirm, Martha Krista,

1:21:08the public meeting notice that would have gone out said that this meeting started at four

1:21:13for all of the agenda items.

1:21:16And so we're okay here. I just want to make sure that is correct, but you will have to open up for a calling.

1:21:21No, I know that part. That's not a problem. I just wanted to make sure we weren't

1:21:25we weren't jumping something on that. So we're okay on that part.

1:21:28Kushla, I'm very sorry. I wanted to make sure that I was dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's there. So, um,

1:21:33I heard good afternoon. Start from there.

1:21:36Okay. I will go. Good afternoon, everybody.

1:21:40So yes, this is a statutory public meeting, a decision meeting, um, on official plan amendment number 117,

1:21:46which has to do with the rental replacement bylaw, um, as well as demolition control bylaw. Um, and really what the rental placement bylaw does is

1:21:54help us protect existing affordable housing. Um, when someone tries, uh, would like to apply to demolish it or to convert it to another

1:22:03house.

1:22:04So the purpose of the report generally, um, is that we're asking council to approve three connected items, the draft rental replacement.

1:22:14Um,

1:22:15the draft rental replacement bylaw itself, an official plan amendment known as opa 117 that gives us the policy footing to administer it

1:22:23and a companion, uh, amendment to our demolition control bylaw.

1:22:28The rental replacement bylaw is consistent, which is attachment one is consistent with the policy direction provided to staff

1:22:35at the june 10th committee of the whole meeting.

1:22:39The three pieces in this report move together. The official plan sets the policy direction

1:22:44and the two bylaws that are included in the report, uh, are the practical mechanisms that carry it out

1:22:51approving them as a package. It's what makes the entire framework, uh, enforceable.

1:23:01So the specific decision in front of you, um, is on the amendment is to approve, as I mentioned, the city initiated opa number

1:23:09117 so that staff have the clear policy authority to administer the rental replacement bylaw and everything that, um, follows builds on that single enabling step.

1:23:20So the first policy, um, proposed amendment is to policy 7.2.4

1:23:25in the official plan and really you could consider this almost the heart of the amendment.

1:23:30It states plainly that the city will act to retain, maintain and where units are demolished or converted replace rental housing.

1:23:38Um, it adds the text that you see on the screen and it ties together the tools that we already rely on, which are our condo condominium conversion policies,

1:23:47our demolition control under the planning act, our property standards bylaw for upkeep and would now add the, um,

1:23:54reference to the rental replacement bylaw alongside them.

1:23:57The goal of this is to simply, as I mentioned earlier, to keep our existing rental housing stock in good shape

1:24:03and to make sure that lost affordable rental units are replaced.

1:24:10The second proposed amendment is to policy is to add new wording to policy 7.2.5

1:24:17which deals with converting rental housing to another use.

1:24:20The new provision says that we are building, um, says that we're a building has six or more dwelling units and that's, um,

1:24:27it converting it away from rental must follow the rental replacement bylaw.

1:24:32That six unit threshold is deliberate and it is aligned with the municipal act and it focuses the rule on the sort of the

1:24:39larger buildings where the loss of affordable rental units might have the biggest impact on residents.

1:24:48The third proposed amendment is to OP policy 7.2.6 so that we track results, not just our intentions.

1:24:57It requires us to record the number and types of affordable rental units lost through demolition and conversion.

1:25:04Um, and that have actually been replaced.

1:25:07In practical terms, this gives council and the public a clear ongoing picture

1:25:12of whether the bylaw is doing its job and it also aligns with our commitments through our housing affordability strategy to report and monitor on this particular item.

1:25:24The fourth proposed amendment is to policy 10.14 which governs how we apply demolition control.

1:25:33Again, it's the addition of the text on the screen and it confirms that to preserve existing affordable rental housing,

1:25:39the city will use demolition control hand in hand with the rental replacement bylaw wherever it applies.

1:25:45And this makes sure that the two tools work together rather than in isolation.

1:25:50So an application to demolish rental units triggers the replacement requirements.

1:25:59The final change adds a formal definition of the rental replacement bylaw to the official plan's glossary.

1:26:07Part 12 glossary. The definition simply describes it as a municipal bylaw

1:26:12passed under the municipal act that lets the city regulate the demolition of rental properties and their conversion to other uses.

1:26:20So having a clear definition in the plan again removes any ambiguity

1:26:24about what the terms mean and as it's referenced throughout the policies of the official plan.

1:26:32And finally, this brings us to the recommendations in the report. There are five.

1:26:38The first is to approve the public meeting and decision report itself.

1:26:42The second is to approve the draft rental replacement bylaw included as attachment one.

1:26:47The third is to approve the draft official plan amendment bylaw.

1:26:52OPA 117 included as attachment two.

1:26:56The fourth recommendation is to approve the companion demolition control bylaw amendment included as attachment three.

1:27:06And the fifth and final recommendation confirms that under the planning act council has determined

1:27:11no further public notices required for these three instruments.

1:27:14Staff are recommending approval of all five and I'm happy to answer any questions.

1:27:20Great. What we'll do is we'll just I'll open it up now for anybody before questions. I'll open it up just to see if there's anybody

1:27:29in the room or for those online that would like to call in.

1:27:36Is there anybody in the room that wants to speak to this? No. Okay. So I'll just put a phone number up on the screen.

1:27:41And we'll just wait a couple minutes to see if anyone wants to call in on this. It's 519-837-5603.

1:27:50Again, that's 519-837-5603. And please just give us a few minutes as we wait to see if anyone wants to call in.

1:27:58And then we'll come right back to us. Okay.

1:28:00Yeah, we'll just we'll just wait. Councillor Allt and I think Councillor Katelyn wanting to move in second this.

1:28:10If that's okay with them. Yeah, thumbs up. So I think there's a lot of people that would be happy to move it. So

1:28:16we'll just wait for to see if there's anybody that wants to call in. Okay. I'm sorry. My volume.

1:28:21Are you guys having trouble hearing me? I see 50 of you. 50% of you say yes and 50% say no, which has been basically my whole 12 years of being mayor.

1:28:52That's how it feels. 50% are happy and 50% are.

1:28:55All right. So I will make sure that clerks are you okay maybe hitting the volume button there and we will project a little bit more.

1:29:03So thank you for letting us know. I'm going to call the meeting back to order here because no one has called in to speak to this item.

1:30:38If you just give me a 30 more seconds.

1:30:41Okay. There's no one that's called in and no one here. I do have Councillor Allt and Councillor Katelyn that was willing to both move in second.

1:31:12This, thank you very much for doing that.

1:31:14And Councillor Goller, you were just wanting to move it. So you're good to go. And is anyone else in the room at least good to go?

1:31:20Yes, I'm going to go to the screen now. Alt, would you like to go ahead?

1:31:24Yeah, if I could, I'd like to speak Mayor Guthrie. Is that all right?

1:31:29Yeah, go for it.

1:31:30Thank you very much. First of all, I apologize for not being there in person.

1:31:36I would have preferred to be there, but I hurt my back yesterday doing young people things, which I should learn not to do.

1:31:43But I wanted to thank Ms. or actually, I suppose it's actually Dr. Matthews and her team for the work that's been done on this.

1:31:53As I've been thinking about this more, I think that this is most fundamentally a significant element of consumer protection that we are offering.

1:32:03We have consumer protection for everything from bicycles to cars to food. And yet one of the most important things is housing security.

1:32:13So I appreciate that we are doing this and recognize that

1:32:19property owners who rent our myriad, this is not intended on hurting anyone. This is merely intended on recognizing that a large percentage of our property owners are not.

1:32:29And we as a city assume the responsibility of protecting those through protecting the supply and demand market. Thank you very much, Mayor Guthrie.

1:32:38Thanks, Councillor Allt. So with that, I think I would just say ditto, which makes it easy.

1:32:45And I'll call the vote then. Okay. Is anybody against these recommendations?

1:32:50And that's unanimous. So that's a big piece of policy work that I'm pretty proud of for this term of Council. So thank you to staff as well.

1:33:00And thank you for letting us jump on that at the beginning of the agenda. I appreciate it.

1:33:05So going back to the top of the agenda there, we are going to go under the public meeting option portion to hear the application.

1:33:13Under the planning act here. And the first one up is 266 to 280 Clear Road West, also 950 Southgate Drive, the proposed official plan amendment and zoning bylaw amendment.