Committee of the Whole

3:29Okay, good afternoon everyone and it's February 6th, 2024.

3:34It's one o'clock and we are gathered for our committee of the whole meeting.

3:38Welcome.

3:39I'd like to call the meeting to order and right off the bat on the open agenda,

3:43it talks about an opportunity for us to move into closed setting to discuss two

3:49matters and they are titled, Claire Mulpey, secondary plan,

3:55Ontario land tribunal update.

3:57That's under section 239 to E and F litigation or potential litigation,

4:02including matters before administrative tribunals, affecting the municipality or

4:07local board and advice subject to solicitor client privilege,

4:11including communications necessary for that purpose.

4:14And the second one is the 2024 Chief Administrative Officer Performance

4:18Objectives, section 239 to B and D of the Municipal Act related to personal

4:24matters about an identifiable individual, including municipal or local board

4:28employees and labor relations or employee negotiations.

4:32Those are the only two matters in front of us here.

4:34And before I go any further, I did get official regrets from Councillor Ault for

4:40today.

4:41And so with that noted, could I have a member of Council look to move us into

4:46closed?

4:46Councillor Quasen is moving, seconded by, let's go, Councillor Keran.

4:52Is there anything further on those two items before I call the vote to move into

4:55closed?

4:57Hearing and seeing none, I'll call the vote.

4:59Is anyone against moving into closed on those items?

5:03Hearing and seeing none, we will move into a closed session and when we return,

5:08I will give a high level summary in the public setting on those items.

5:12Thank you very much.

44:11Okay, I'd like to call the open session back into order, please.

44:38And as my high level summary for the in-camera, we went in for two items and the

44:44first one was on Claire Mulpey's secondary plan, the Ontario Land Tribunal

44:48update.

44:49And so Council did receive a legal advice along with some recommendations and so

44:56we did give direction to staff on those.

45:00And that is my summary on that item.

45:04On the second one, which is titled 2024, Chief Administrative Officer Performance

45:08Objectives, we had a quick discussion on those and it's now an opportunity for us

45:14to actually report on those in open.

45:18And so I would like to ask Councillor Keran to just bring forward the motion from

45:24in-camera and after that vote, we'll go to the next stage of the objectives.

45:31Sure, I will do that.

45:31I don't have the motion before me though.

45:34It'll be up on screen.

45:37Moved by myself, seconded by Councillor Klosson that the 2024 Chief Administrative

45:42Officer Performance Objectives as presented and discussed at the February 6, 2024 closed

45:48committee of the whole meeting be approved and that the Chief Administrative Officer

45:52present a public presentation on their 2024 performance objectives at the February 6

45:57committee of the whole meeting, which is now so once this is passed, I'll turn it over to our

46:02CEO, Mr. Stewart.

46:04Thank you.

46:05Is there anything further before I call the vote?

46:07Hearing and seeing none, is anyone against the performance objectives for 2024?

46:13Hearing and seeing none, that's unanimous.

46:15Thank you so much.

46:16So CAO Scott Stewart, I will turn the microphone over to you to present publicly what the

46:22objectives are for this year.

46:24Great.

46:24Thank you very much, Mayor Guthrie and members of Council.

46:26Thanks for the chance to present them publicly.

46:29And also thank you to the guidance of the subcommittee that got us here today.

46:33As well over the last couple of months.

46:35So thank you to Councillor Caron and downer, Oroch, Alton, of course yourself, Mayor Guthrie.

46:41There's a couple of slides I've got just before I jump right in with the objectives.

46:47So the, this is just to set up a bit of context.

46:50So as I just pull up, that's the slide I'm looking for.

46:53This context is important here because I think it helps set the context to the objectives

46:58for you.

46:58But I think equally as importantly for any of the audience that might be watching today,

47:03the connection to our future Guelph strategic plan continues to serve as the north star for

47:10the organization as we work to achieve our community's vision for Guelph's future.

47:15So with that and our desire, our vision is to be an inclusive, connected,

47:18prosperous city where we look after each other and our environment.

47:23So that's not new to you, but I just, that's a bit of context.

47:25The next slide as well on this one here, this is our strategic plan, the priorities you've

47:30seen them before, but they're represented by these four themes that you're seeing on the screen.

47:36So our foundations of course is that's the responsible and accountable civil service,

47:41being the strongest organization we can to be, to better serve our community.

47:46And then city buildings, supporting, housing growth and fast and infrastructure and transportation

47:51networks and community places and spaces.

47:55So whether that's, that's libraries or community centers or parks, you know,

47:58that all fits into that theme.

48:01And then the environment where we support community climate change action,

48:05doing our part to reduce greenhouse gas, our greenhouse gas emissions,

48:10protecting our environment for future generations.

48:12And again, that just lays out the sort of course of time that you often think about,

48:16but this is just context for audience.

48:19And then people in the economy and proven economic prosperity, safety and community well-being.

48:24And again, these are just to reemphasize that the 2024 CEO objectives are informed by and

48:30directly connected to these themes.

48:33So jumping right into the first one, maintain the city's healthy financial position.

48:38And that's all about exactly what it says, maintain in the city's financial health

48:43and our commitment to responsible fiscal management.

48:46That's not new, of course.

48:48And that's why we've got triple A credit ratings.

48:51That's why we're in a good place in terms of debt capacity and what's in our reserves.

48:57But that's not happenstance.

48:59That's, this is your way of saying to your CEO, you need to have your eyes on that along with

49:04all the, all the staff that look after these things.

49:06And so you'll see that we'll effectively execute on the multi-year budget.

49:11And it allows us to explore other opportunities within that in terms of holding companies

49:16and those sort of things.

49:17So there's a lot of components to good financial health.

49:20But that really speaks to the details on that one.

49:24And then our second one here as we move through, also under foundations really,

49:29involve the way we advocate for our city.

49:31So the, the subcommittee felt this was a good discussion to have and involve was the important

49:36step there.

49:36We have been doing advocacy.

49:38So this isn't a brand new piece of thinking.

49:40It's the evolution now.

49:42And so it's really about enhancing and elevating the advocacy.

49:46There are strategy to continue to demonstrate leadership and tackling complex issues that we

49:51face as a community.

49:52So whether that's housing, mental health, addictions, community safety and well-being,

49:57or climate change and many more, we need the ability to move.

50:02And, and you know, there's a great example on the agenda as well.

50:06The half, the, the, the funding that we've received there, that, that advocacy that took

50:11place behind the scenes from your staff, that's the change.

50:15And they don't always arrive with a $21.4 million check, but that advocacy is going to

50:20be a difference maker.

50:22And we think this is, how do we evolve that so that as we interact with other orders of

50:28government, but equally importantly within the community, how do we prioritize, collaborate

50:33and influence, so not with the other, only the other levels of government, but also with

50:38our partners in the community.

50:40And so this will allow us to clarify where the city's accountability lies, where, and we can

50:45identify where we should lead.

50:47But there's many times where we can support, and then there's other times where can we influence

50:52on that holistic approach, sustainable solutions to critical issues facing our community.

50:57So it's a significant, but a nuanced change to advocacy.

51:03And then on this next one, enhance our organization culture of inclusion and belonging to attract

51:09and retain talent.

51:10So, you know, we are preaching to the converted to when we're talking to each other about this one.

51:15You know, this allows us to mirror things that are happening in our community plan around

51:20sort of vision around equity, diversity, excuse me, inclusion, and of course, well-being.

51:28But this is foundational work here.

51:30This is everything that we do.

51:32They, our staff, your staff, they're part of the community.

51:36They live here.

51:37They work here.

51:38They pay taxes here.

51:39They enroll the children in programs here.

51:42And so they have got a good sense of what it takes to deliver services for this community.

51:46And when they're happy employees, you know, you get great, happy services.

51:51So that's nothing new to any of you that are being involved in the business sector at all.

51:55That's just the sense of the responsibility that you're saying we should take and care for our

52:00employees as we do.

52:01And it's not always just fiscal and monetary.

52:03There is other pieces to this.

52:06And that's where that attraction and retention happens.

52:09You get great staff.

52:10You want to retain them.

52:11And that great staff have an echo chamber of it's a wonderful place to work.

52:16You should come and work here.

52:17That's an important piece for us, other than just another posting on a social media blog somewhere

52:22about a vacancy.

52:23It's so much more than a vacancy.

52:25And it's that passion that your staff are bringing to the table.

52:28So this one will build on that so that we can continue to see that.

52:32And we're seeing some great changes in the last number of years built on our successes.

52:37And you'll see a little something later today on the two o'clock agenda in terms of

52:42being a top employer.

52:43And that's a reflection of your staff, but it's a reflection of your leadership.

52:47And that's a great combination for sure.

52:50The next one, advance the city's role in achieving the housing pledge,

52:56including policy work that supports both housing and enabling affordable and supportive housing

53:00initiatives.

53:02So housing remains one of our core issues facing this community, of course,

53:06right across the entire continuum.

53:08And that, again, is not new to you.

53:11But we are continuing to advance work related to our housing pledge.

53:14And this objective here will allow us to leverage the expertise of community partners.

53:20We're going to take that holistic view of these.

53:22This is a very complex issue related to housing.

53:25We play a strong and significant role, but at the end of the day, you don't, we don't build homes.

53:32Today anyway.

53:33And I don't see that in the immediate future.

53:35But we can do lots of things in the housing accelerator fund that you hear about later

53:40today is a great example of that.

53:42What can we do to make it easier for housing to appear on that continuum somewhere,

53:48whatever the type of housing is.

53:50So we spent a lot.

53:51We've spent a lot of time last year on this.

53:52You've spent, I think 2023 was the year of education and orientation and all those other

53:59wonderful things up into including last week's symposium with the county.

54:04And this is just a reflection of that work that will continue in and throughout 2024 and beyond.

54:12And then the next one here, of course, oversight of the advancement of downtown projects

54:17that support a vibrant downtown community for everyone.

54:20Oh boy, did I skip one already?

54:23Well, let me go, let me go to, what if you, yeah, there it is.

54:27Sorry, Andrew, I'm buggering you up here.

54:29Um, so execute investments in 100% renewal that enable the city to reduce corporate greenhouse gas

54:37emissions, conserve energy, advanced water protection and conservation and support,

54:41race to zero community, energy objectives.

54:44This one's a little lengthy to just to say it out loud because there's, it's lengthy work.

54:49It's good work.

54:49There's a ton of things that we're doing here and that we're delivering on our corporate

54:55commitments to reduce our energy consumption and of course greenhouse gas emissions.

55:00We need to continue to work with the broader community on what they're doing, how they're

55:04doing it and encourage alignment to our progress as well.

55:08And I think one of the key things for the subcommittee is can we share our goals more often?

55:14Can we put the flag up, the flagpole a little bit more about the work that's taken place?

55:20The good end, not so good.

55:21Mostly it's all great work, but let's talk about that in the community so that they hear it a

55:26little more often so that you're not stuck with not being able to address it.

55:30So if that part of the challenge behind the scenes is how do we report this so that

55:35A, it moves beyond, we see it on a dashboard, but you see it as community leaders and equally

55:41important, the actual community can see it as well.

55:43So look for more things in the coming year on these files and it's across the board.

55:49This isn't a particular department or service area, it cuts across quite a number and really

55:55this is the moment that you're starting to see this is in our DNA and it's coming into life in

56:00terms of your direction to us and how we implement these things.

56:04So whether that's in transit or in facilities or in our environmental services group,

56:09you just want to hear a little bit more about that and that's reasonable and that's something

56:12that you should expect from us.

56:14And it's codified now so you have more than high expectations, this should be

56:20some deliverables for that one too.

56:22And I must have been excited to get to this one.

56:25Oversight of the advancement of the downtown projects that support a vibrant

56:28downtown community for everyone.

56:30So I think the key here is it's for everyone.

56:34We've got our strategic investments that are now underway in the downtown.

56:39We're investing in housing, we're infrastructure renewal, place making,

56:43that benefit people, our businesses that call home, go out home today and of course into the

56:50future.

56:50So it's who isn't here yet as well in terms of that housing file.

56:55You know there's a college that's setting up here so what does that look like for us?

56:59What does it look like at Baker Street?

57:00How is it all coordinated?

57:02And we get a once in a lifetime opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity that these

57:08pipes are old and they have to be replaced and if we're going to go to all that trouble,

57:11how do we engage with the DGBN in an appropriate way that also sets up the table for what this

57:18will look like?

57:19So we don't have to argue as we tend to do with projects in the downtown.

57:24Let's get everybody on board.

57:25And so this was committee's way of saying as the CEO we expect that office to keep an eye on it.

57:31And you know that we've moved the economic development and tourism

57:36shop into the CEO's office recently.

57:38Within that is embedded is the downtown folks as well.

57:42So this is where it will come together.

57:43It's so that's appropriate that there's a CEO's eye on this.

57:46But there's expenditures across the organization.

57:49All four service areas are committed here to this work.

57:52This is the heartbeat of the city.

57:54There's lots of beautiful places in the city.

57:57But this is one where we've got big investments happening now.

58:01And so make sure it's coordinating.

58:02We don't miss an opportunity and then we're 15 years from now.

58:05We're still debating something in the downtown.

58:08We get to do this once.

58:10And this might be where we'll also have to have some compromise for folks along the way.

58:14So that you know there's an old saying that half a loaf is better than no loaf.

58:19So some of the activities we're going to see in our infrastructure work will take place.

58:24But perfection sometimes gets in the way.

58:26And then we have to get this thing moving because the pipes have to be replaced.

58:30And that will be the driver then to allow sort of growth as we come from Wellington

58:35and head north.

58:36And you know the boundaries of downtown.

58:38So that quickly Mr. Mayor was a bit of an overview.

58:41And I think the last slide just says thank you very much.

58:44And if there's any questions, it's my pleasure to answer them.

58:50Great.

58:50Thank you so much to the CAO.

58:52Is there any questions at this time on the objectives being presented?

58:57No.

58:57Pretty clear.

58:59Great.

59:00Well then with that I'll just say on behalf of council thank you very much Scott.

59:04Appreciate it.

59:05And to how you're delegating this out to the executive team and to others.

59:10So we really appreciate that.

59:13And we'll move on.

59:16It's two minutes to two.

59:19And that's when our open session starts.

59:22So I am going to call literally a two minute break.

59:26Okay.

59:26So two minute break and then we'll come back for the agenda in front of us.

59:32Thank you.

1:02:57All right.

1:02:57Good afternoon everyone and welcome to our committee of the whole meeting for February the sixth.

1:03:032024 it is two o'clock.

1:03:05So I'll call the call the meeting to order and kick things off right away.

1:03:10I'd like to ask if you could stand if you're able to recognize our national anthem.

1:04:46Great.

1:04:46Thank you.

1:04:47And as we continue just a moment of silent reflection.

1:05:00Thank you.

1:05:00And now for our indigenous territorial acknowledgement.

1:05:03As we gather let us take time to reflect on our privilege to live and work in Guelph.

1:05:08A city that's built over rich indigenous histories.

1:05:11We're guests here and we should reflect upon the responsibility to care for this land.

1:05:15The people who live here today and the generations to come.

1:05:18For actions to take and move us towards reconciliation we should take pause

1:05:23and make those decisions with intention and gratitude.

1:05:26This place we call Guelph has served as traditional lands and a place of refuge for many peoples over time.

1:05:32But more specifically the Aniwond Rock and the Honolunoshoni.

1:05:36This land is held as the treaty lands and territory with the Mississaugas of the Credit

1:05:41First Nation and Guelph lies directly adjacent to the Haldeman track and is part of the long

1:05:46established traditional hunting grounds for the six nations of the Grand River.

1:05:51Many First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples who have come from across Turtle Island call Guelph home today.

1:06:00Thank you.

1:06:00And with that is there any disclosure of pecuniary interest or any general nature thereof

1:06:05for the items in front of us today?

1:06:07Hearing and seeing none I'll consider that matter closed.

1:06:12And as I said at the beginning of the one o'clock meeting just to state here for the record as well

1:06:19I did get regrets today from Councillor Ault.

1:06:23With that we're going to kick off some staff recognitions.

1:06:27We have several today of very worthwhile ones to acknowledge.

1:06:32And so kind of pass between me doing a little bit of introductions on some of these over to

1:06:39Councillor O'Rourke as well.

1:06:41So we'll tag team on that.

1:06:43Kicking off with me first is the presentation here for the Waterloo area's top employer

1:06:51along with the South Western Ontario top employer awards.

1:06:56And so today we're taking a moment to celebrate two awards for our organization

1:07:03and they'll be officially accepted by CAO Scott Stewart and Deputy CAO Trevor Lee.

1:07:09I was very pleased to learn that the city was named one of Waterloo's

1:07:13area's top employers for a third consecutive year by Canada's top 100 employers.

1:07:20This year we also get to celebrate being named as one of South Western Ontario's top employers.

1:07:26And this is a brand new category and we're very proud to be named alongside

1:07:32other South Western Ontario top employers from Guelph which include Skyline as an example,

1:07:37Sleam and Breweries, Homewood Health.

1:07:40From a Council perspective these awards are great news for our organization as we seek to

1:07:46attract and to retain the talent that we need here not just in these walls but for the people

1:07:51that were serving outside of these walls as well. In fact that was just brought up as one of the

1:07:55objectives that our CAO just presented to us. So in delivering those best services and developing

1:08:02the great programs and policies and providing the very best value for taxpayers' dollars we need to

1:08:08have the right people in the right jobs. And this is really important in an environment that we know

1:08:14that they can thrive. And so city staff really are the heart of everything that we do.

1:08:19So on behalf of Council I really want to congratulate our CAO Scott Stewart and Deputy

1:08:25CAO Trevor Lee as they accept this award along with our general manager of human resources,

1:08:31Mark Ellis and his entire team for the success. And I also want to thank and congratulate every

1:08:37single city employee for the role that you do play in making our city a fantastic place to work.

1:08:44So with that I just want to hand it over just for a moment to Scott to also say a few words.

1:08:50Great thank you very much Mayor Guthrie and as you've expressed this is an honor for the

1:08:54City of Guelph to be named one of Waterloo Area's top employers, the third year in a row,

1:08:59and to be named one of Southwestern Ontario's top employers for the first time. This new category

1:09:05that's exciting as well so we are certainly pleased to accept these awards on behalf of the

1:09:09organization. The recognition reflects our dedicated and engaged employees and our progressive

1:09:15employee programs and benefits that you saw on the screen that certainly set us apart.

1:09:20And after all the city doesn't get to be a top employer without great employees who support

1:09:24each other and collaborate across service areas and departments and for me it's really as simple

1:09:30as that. So being an employer of choice is a key part of our foundation themes in the future Guelph

1:09:35strategic plan and being designated a top employer in both Waterloo and the wider Southwestern Ontario

1:09:41region it's a clear indication that we're making a good showing in the arena. So it's not by chance

1:09:47that we're selected for these three awards for these awards over the three years in a row and

1:09:52earned this new designation in its inaugural year. We've truly become a top employer in the area and

1:09:59I'm excited to see what's next for this amazing organization. So on behalf of the executive team

1:10:04I thank our employees for bringing their passion their creativity and dedication to public services

1:10:09that excellence in everything they do. Making the top employers list is a major accomplishment

1:10:15and it certainly is a reason to celebrate. So thanks very much council.

1:10:19Great well let's give a huge round of applause right now for that and we'll do you know we'll do

1:10:30something in a little bit but we'll just get all the kind of recognitions done in one swoop here so

1:10:35I'll hand it over to councillor O'Rourke. Thanks very much Maricopa. On behalf of council it's my

1:10:41pleasure to recognize the following city staff members both from our engineering and transportation

1:10:46services department on their recent professional development achievements. I'd first like to

1:10:52congratulate Samy Mohammed one of the city's construction contract administrators in the

1:10:57technical services division of the engineering and transportation services department for

1:11:02achieving his project management professional certification the PMP. This is one of the world's

1:11:09leading project management certifications. Project management professionals have demonstrated

1:11:14experience knowledge and outstanding performance in achieving organizational objectives through

1:11:19defining and overseeing projects and resources. This industry recognized certification is based

1:11:24on project lifestyle leadership from initiating to planning executing monitoring and closing the

1:11:30project and boy does the city have a lot of projects so congratulations Samy on this milestone

1:11:36achievement well done. We are also recognizing Crystal Kaminski today manager of business services

1:11:47in the city's engineering and transportation services department for her attainment of the

1:11:51university Waterloo's leadership certificate. This certificate focuses on the practical aspects of

1:11:57working with individuals and teams to obtain their maximum commitment to organizational and personal

1:12:02goals covering topics including strategic and business planning leading people to effectiveness

1:12:07and coaching for success so congratulations Crystal as well. Great thank you councillor

1:12:18Rourke. I've got one more here and this one is this one's phenomenal for really recognizing the

1:12:26hard work of staff in leading the development of the submission of the application for the housing

1:12:35accelerator fund with honestly without the hard work that I saw in the hallways the hard work

1:12:44that staff was doing in regards to the housing accelerator fund and it does not go unnoticed

1:12:50it has to be said out loud the work back and forth that consistently went into this application

1:12:58was immense and the outcome was twenty one point four million dollars from the federal government

1:13:06for helping us with increasing our housing supply and you know it was many people might not know this

1:13:14but this fund is oversubscribed meaning you know it was it was a challenge to try to try to get this

1:13:23in fact the success rate was less than 20 percent for us to be able to achieve this funding

1:13:31it just goes to show like the positive work and the positive outcome that has come

1:13:36to produce this for us but the leadership as well of the staff team and I want to also like of course

1:13:43acknowledge members of council that like helped advocate and amplify the messaging around this

1:13:51this type of intergovernmental work and advocacy is so important so as we know the

1:13:59prime minister swung on by Guelph there on July sorry January 12th and to announce this partnership

1:14:07and as many will remember he actually announced this whole program choosing Guelph as well earlier

1:14:15last year and and so a huge a huge thank you to staff for their work I really want to just

1:14:23highlight you know there are there are some names and they have to they have to be said out loud so

1:14:29Kushla Matthews Kim Krosky I'm saying that right yes yes yes yes thumbs up good for leading this

1:14:41for leading this the charge on this yeah like I just I really did see the work that you put

1:14:48into this so thank you so much I also want to thank Jason Downham and Tisha Kali Balgrove for

1:14:59their technical expertise and support and lastly to Jody Sales to Krista Wauke and to Tara Baker

1:15:08for your continued guidance and support throughout the process

1:15:13and we're gonna we're gonna take some time for pictures of the other awards but for this one

1:15:19you know Kim and Kushla are going to take us through just after the pictures a little bit of a

1:15:26slide presentation and just an overall like hey what is this all about moment because you know

1:15:33there we're you know I don't know about some members of my council colleagues but we're getting

1:15:37some questions about like so what does this mean like it's like it's like a rah rah yes moment but

1:15:41it's also like and what does it mean and so I think it's a really good opportunity to have a

1:15:45presentation to kind of lay that out for what it exactly means to us when we go to actually implement

1:15:51the housing accelerator funding that that we received and the commitments that we have as a city

1:15:56back to the federal government for that money and what it's going to translate into so we're

1:16:00going to get that presentation as well um yeah you know this isn't in my notes but you know

1:16:08ten years of doing this now whenever I'm sitting across the actually whenever any of us on the

1:16:13kind of the elected side are sitting across the table uh to our other elected officials whether

1:16:18it's provincial or federal um it's so often that I hear about all your staff are great all your

1:16:27staff did this um oh yeah I know your staff are they helped me with this or like it honestly it's

1:16:33constant uh and I see the interactions at a lot of these conferences and stuff like that that I go to

1:16:39and um like we we bode very well for the staff relationships that they have created with other

1:16:47levels of government and the work that they do to to help our city be successful so anyways just

1:16:53wanted to make sure that that was really highlighted and um thank you so much for the work so let's

1:16:58give them a huge round of applause let's thank you and we will uh we'll come down and we'll

1:17:08we'll do those pictures for everything that's here uh and especially for the housing accelerator

1:17:13find wine I want all of council to please this is a council moment um so I really appreciated if

1:17:19council could uh could gather in a spot here we'll figure that out um maybe in the middle or something

1:17:25so that our people online can be on the screen behind us so we can see their smiling faces uh and uh

1:17:32because uh you know I was I was disappointed I was to be honest with you that the council wasn't

1:17:38allowed to be at that housing accelerator fund announcement I get it there's all this protocol

1:17:43stuff um but I you know this is a council moment um for your leadership too so uh we'll we'll figure

1:17:51that out so here is uh we'll put the mic on down there to kind of figure it out so the people online

1:17:55can hear what's going on but we'll come down now and get uh get that done say cheese everyone okay uh

1:23:29let's uh bring us back to order here as I said we're going to now have this presentation from

1:23:34staff on the housing accelerator fund and so come on up yep come on up and uh I will turn it over to

1:23:45both you uh Kim and Kusher all right good afternoon uh mayor and council I am here today with my

1:24:04colleague Kusher Matthews who is the development advisor for the city of Guelph and we are so

1:24:09pleased to be able to share the details on the city's successful application to the housing

1:24:14accelerator fund today we will provide context on the fund itself and information regarding

1:24:20how the funding will be used to accelerate housing here in the city of Guelph as members of council

1:24:26you might already be receiving comments or questions from members of the community or

1:24:31community partners on how the money will be allocated our hope is that after today you will

1:24:37be better prepared to answer some of those questions there should be a little perfect so while the

1:24:46half program and all of its components come together to form a unique and complex system

1:24:53of targets funding calculations and initiatives Kusher and I are going to try our very best to

1:25:00simplify it as much as possible and break down a lot of those those components and those uh the

1:25:05categories of funding throughout the presentation and you've probably already heard me mention it

1:25:11once or twice already we're going to be discussing an action plan and this action plan what's most

1:25:17important about the action plan is that it's made up of a collection of eight federally approved

1:25:23initiatives that will uh that the city is committed to undertaking that will incent 739 additional

1:25:31units above our current average over the next three years so that's 739 number that's essentially

1:25:38our housing target within this funding program uh just for a reference I'm just going to provide

1:25:44here I'm just going to show you guys this this is a visual representation of what our action plan

1:25:48looks like and if you wanted to reference this after the presentation or after today this was

1:25:54provided as attachment one on the information reports that were circulated last Friday there's

1:25:59a half summary report there and this is attachment number one so feel free to to reference that

1:26:04the main objective of the funding is to incent 100 000 units of range and mix of all housing types

1:26:11across Canada by the end of 2026 because this program is focused on transformational and systemic

1:26:19changes we do forecast and anticipate that we'll be able to see the positive outcomes and benefits

1:26:24of this program much further beyond the actual three-year lifecycle of the program itself so

1:26:30this is something we're going to see into the future as like a long-range benefit to the city of

1:26:35Guelph the 21.4 million of half funding that we are receiving will be directed to support the city

1:26:43in implementing each of the eight initiatives which Kushla is going to explain in a bit more detail

1:26:48in the following slides what's really important here is that our success is going to be measured

1:26:54in how well we achieve our action plan initiatives and how well we are able to achieve the housing

1:27:01targets that we've been assigned through the the half program so now I'm going to pass it over to

1:27:06Kushla to give us a little bit of an intro to some of those initiatives great thanks Kim so as you

1:27:17can see from the action plan there are some very ambitious timelines and milestones associated

1:27:24with each initiative and it can seem very complicated and it can seem very overwhelming if you're

1:27:30looking at it all together so we've tried to simplify the way to look at the action plan by

1:27:35organizing the initiatives into three buckets according to what they'll accomplish and these

1:27:42three buckets are initiatives that will either result in policy enhancements process enhancements

1:27:48or how housing enabling infrastructure and design and we've listed those under each each bucket

1:27:55and placed the initiative number beside each each initiative you'll also note that some of the

1:28:02initiatives fall into two buckets so for example the encouraging missing middle units and those are

1:28:09indicated by asterisks and that's a really good thing to see is falling into two buckets because

1:28:14what that means is that they're really supporting the half's goal of driving that transformational

1:28:20and systemic change in both the short and the long term so I'm just going to go over the three

1:28:28buckets quickly to give you more information about those and what they'll do and we'll just start with

1:28:33the policy enhancements so for those initiatives that fall into this category and they are listed

1:28:38on the right hand side of the screen there for you what that means is we'll be exploring changes in

1:28:44the city's approach to supporting developing affordable housing so for example right now

1:28:49we're working on the housing affordability strategy and that will result in some recommendations

1:28:54and those recommendations could be how to influence decisions around

1:28:57developing affordable housing for example it's also about supporting incentivizing

1:29:03and attracting development of housing types that are most needed in wealth and again that goes back

1:29:10to the housing affordability strategy and specifically the state of housing 2023 report

1:29:15that came in front of you in December which really identified those housing gaps and the core needs

1:29:20for wealth it's also about unlocking lands for development where infrastructure barriers exist

1:29:26and it's about refining and or enhancing approaches to reducing to further reducing those existing

1:29:33barriers so one example of an initiative that highlights the benefits of of half is the commitment

1:29:40to again encouraging missing middle housing and encouraging accessory dwelling units and more

1:29:47specifically if you drill down on that initiative a little bit that's that the work that we're doing

1:29:51right now on the four units or the four plus units looking at residential lots throughout

1:29:57growth where four units could work include where servicing capacity may be a constraint

1:30:03but also exploring the potential for five or more units so this milestone this four plus units

1:30:10milestone was of particular interest to minister Fraser and we have committed to coming forward

1:30:14to council in June regarding four units after a series of public information sessions starting at

1:30:20the end of this month and then into into April so the second bucket involves process enhancements

1:30:31and that means the initiatives will provide more incentives to fast track the construction of housing

1:30:36units and more specifically affordable housing units it will help the city reduce development

1:30:42application and processing timelines and finally it will increase certainty and predictability in

1:30:49the development approvals process such as something that we do here often in terms of

1:30:53how can the city help with that and support that so examples again of those initiatives that we

1:30:59have committed to through the half funding include an coming up within a value to framework for the

1:31:05disposition of city owned lands and also partnering on an affordable housing demonstration project

1:31:14finally the last example I wanted to bring up in terms of helping to process enhancements is

1:31:19that community planning permit system so that doesn't sound very exciting it doesn't the title

1:31:25doesn't give anything away in terms of what it does but essentially what it does is it's a system

1:31:31that collapses or brings together three development approvals process so zoning minor variance and

1:31:37site plans puts it all into one application and streamlines that so instead of taking a couple

1:31:42months it can bring it down to about 45 days and again that speaks to really increasing that

1:31:48certainty and predictability as well as lasting costs for the developers and then finally that

1:31:57third bucket relates to housing enabling infrastructure design so what we're looking to do here is

1:32:03really unlock not only existing but also future growth potential in two specific areas of Guelph

1:32:09and that's in the downtown and in the Guelph Innovation District lands we're also looking to

1:32:15support the assessment identification and prioritization of major infrastructure that advances

1:32:20that growth potential so I hope this provides some additional clarity around Guelph's action plan

1:32:27and really highlights that the money that we have received must be spent on the identified

1:32:32initiatives these are the ones that will incent the most building permits and put us in the best

1:32:37position to meet our half target of 739 units by 2026 so with that I'm going to hand it back to Kim

1:32:46for the last slide a quick wrap up on next steps. All right so moving forwards staff from

1:32:56across the organization led by the planning and building services team will continue to

1:33:01implement our action plan and report our progress to both CMHC and then back here to council as well.

1:33:08We are also taking steps to create additional tools and resources that will help inform members of

1:33:13council staff and residents about our action plan and our progress in partnership with our strategic

1:33:19communications department we will be developing a communication strategy that includes a website

1:33:24that is connected to our existing housing page a series of short explanatory videos for each

1:33:30initiative to help give some context and progress updates as well as some social media posts just

1:33:35to keep the public informed as well this is all going to allow us to create connections to the

1:33:40larger housing affordability context in Guelph. As we close out our presentation we also wanted

1:33:46to take a moment to thank each of you for your continued support and ambition on addressing the

1:33:51housing needs in Guelph through our housing accelerator action plan so thank you. Great thank

1:33:57you. Is there any questions at this time due to the presentation? Councillor Busuttil please

1:34:04and then councillor Ororque. Thank you very much for the presentation that was excellent and very

1:34:11excited about this and the outcomes. I just had a question towards the end of your presentation

1:34:17you talked about partnering on an affordable housing demonstration project are you able to

1:34:22elaborate a little bit more what that is and then I did have a second question which is I think it

1:34:28was the last slide about servicing capacity you know infrastructure and just a question of when

1:34:37you scope that out do you also look at things like amenities like parks commercial areas things

1:34:45like that so that you have a whole community just just a question of who is at that conversation

1:34:50and that table thank you. Through you Marica, through you to Councillor Busuttil thank you for

1:34:59those questions the first one was regarding the affordable housing demonstration project so that

1:35:05one right now we're in the early stages of determining what that is who the partner's partner

1:35:11or partners may be so we're working on that in terms of the project charter and timelines for that

1:35:19essentially but it is linked to the evaluative framework that is one of the initiatives as well so

1:35:26potentially through identifying what city lands we have and coming up with a decision making

1:35:31framework potentially it could use city owned lands county owned lands we're not entirely sure yet so

1:35:35really early stages and we can bring more towards to council as we move on that but that's essentially

1:35:42needs to be done by the end of 2026 sorry and the second question sorry I didn't have my afternoon

1:35:54coffee the second question was on the infrastructure servicing capacity so that actually that initiative

1:36:02is being led by the infrastructure group I don't have a lot of information on that and I don't know

1:36:09if I can turn it over to someone in infrastructure but essentially it's looking at the money is being

1:36:16directed towards some of the design work for infrastructure in specific areas of Guelph so

1:36:22downtown and the GID lands and so sort of more directed towards the consulting work that that

1:36:28goes into it rather than actually sort of the capital projects like the pipes and and underground

1:36:34work there thank you just just so I'm clear through you through you Mr. Mayor sorry about that

1:36:41so it's it's not the actual planning it's the design and the conversations around the the design

1:36:48elements correct it's the yeah yeah thank you that's all Mr. Mayor great thank you don't I'm sorry

1:36:57councillor work thank you margaret so congratulations to staff thank you also for the information

1:37:03report just a housekeeping will we have the slides that were presented here today there's a lot of

1:37:09curiosity in the community so it'd be helpful to share those through your margaret through

1:37:16councillor work yes I think we definitely can do that and I think as Kim mentioned at the end of

1:37:21the presentation we can have that up on a website that we are planning for for the housing accelerator

1:37:28fund okay so that wasn't my real question through your margaret just to have just a quick question

1:37:33so this is totally separate really from the provincial housing target but related so can you

1:37:39explain to me how those work right so we're trying to hit the 18 000 units in 10 years to satisfy the

1:37:46provincial target this has a 738 unit target in three years so how do those work together

1:37:55so through you margaret to councillor work um they are well essentially it's that those 739

1:38:02have to be over and above what our average our current average is so it's in addition to okay and

1:38:10my last question really comes from the community through you margaret to our staff so people are

1:38:15asking me they understand there's infrastructure they understand there's enabling policies and

1:38:19those things but they have also asked how many really affordable units will come from this right

1:38:25beyond the 12 like what we'll be able to point to in terms of these are real affordable units

1:38:31do you have any sense of what that number is or how we'll achieve it yeah through margaret

1:38:37through to councillor work yes we do so in our application initially we have it's it's about at

1:38:42a 20 percent affordable housing units which can translate to about 150 units of the 739

1:38:51but then as we are working through the entire action plan we can also look for more opportunities

1:38:57to look into providing more affordable housing units on top of that great thanks very much

1:39:05great i don't see anything further or hear anything further so thank you very much

1:39:11really appreciate it and we'll we'll move on to the rest of our agenda thank you again

1:39:20okay right off the top is governance and we have a consent item

1:39:25which is the expansion of the governance section at the committee of the whole

1:39:29and wondering if maybe i could look to the vice chair of governance

1:39:35councillor abusa till would you mind moving that consent item yeah okay thank you and would someone

1:39:41else be willing to second councillor downer will second okay is there anything further on that

1:39:47it's pretty straightforward no okay i'll call the vote is anyone against that consent item for

1:39:52governance nobody that's unanimous and i'll consider the matter done at this point it's

1:40:00actually chair karine who um probably makes sense uh maybe you could just stay there in your seat not

1:40:07not to not to try to move you around with musical chairs too much but you do have some consent items

1:40:12yourself so maybe i'll just pass the mic over to you thank you uh mr mayor we have two consent

1:40:19items on the agenda today um and unless anyone wants to pull any of those items uh i think my

1:40:27role as chair will be very brief today i know i'm just pulling up the agenda right now so we can

1:40:35say what they are i've got my calendar open got my note yeah thanks uh two very important items

1:40:43by the way they are with related to the budget impacts on ontario regulation 284-9 and budget

1:40:52public sector accounting standards reconciliation 2024 and the recommendation is that we receive

1:40:59that or that those budget impacts be approved and then the second item is our physician recruitment

1:41:05initiative people may recall that this came up during budget and council allocated funds for

1:41:10physician recruitment um and that there was a provision um that there'd be matching funds from

1:41:17the gulf um uh chamber of commerce and we're recommending proceeding with that so there's

1:41:22a report from staff on that item anybody wish to pull any of those items and seeing none i would ask

1:41:29for um motion from my vice chair counselor katin seconded by counselor uh goller uh any

1:41:40any um dissent i'd see none so those two items are passed on consent perfect thank you and so now

1:41:49we are going to move into the infrastructure development and enterprise services portion

1:41:55with the chair or roark and uh it's a pretty fulsome uh agenda under that so i will just

1:42:04remove myself from sitting here and go hang out with my friends over there and just be 30 seconds

1:43:14welcome to the ide portion of uh committee the whole and uh there's been a name change in case

1:43:21people missed it it used to be infrastructure development and economy was the ide and now

1:43:27we are infrastructure development and environment services uh due to a small reorganization so

1:43:35want to get on the same page and in that environment and infrastructure vein we have one item on the

1:43:40consent agenda and that's the financial plan for water and wastewater services 2024-34 that's on

1:43:49consent that's all the planning about how we keep our drinking water safe and abundant uh did anyone

1:43:56want to pull that item from the consent agenda seeing none um i need a motion for to or to

1:44:06approve the recommendation counselor downer seconded by counselor richardson anybody opposed

1:44:13oh great in case you have questions about that our general manager was

1:44:17very helpful and you can always follow up on those really important documents okay so 14.1 is passed

1:44:25we have two items for discussion today uh that really align with the conversation around housing

1:44:31and the future of the downtown uh and and vibrancy in the city so the first one is payment in lieu of

1:44:37parking policy 2024-42 and we start with two delegations there's no staff presentation

1:44:49no okay so uh Doug Manette is he on the line or yes madam chair he is on the line just needs to

1:45:00just needs camera on okay hello mr manette all right you have delegated before but so you know

1:45:09the drill we'll put five minutes on the timer you will hear a chime when there are 30 seconds

1:45:14remaining and um and so that is your your clue and then you'll hear another chime when your time is up

1:45:21okay and then you want to stay on the line because members of council may have some questions for you

1:45:26thank you counsel arourke and the rest of council um uh yes i i'm going to do a power

1:45:32point presentation um and uh so we'll just we'll start at this slide right here uh i'm speaking

1:45:40today on two related issues passion lue and infrastructure redesign of windows street

1:45:46and st georgia square and i'm doing this on behalf of patrons of guelphs downtown and the

1:45:52businesses that they support think of my presentation as an important addition to understanding

1:45:59transportation in the city and how it should influence infrastructure policy i felt that

1:46:05decision making without thorough understanding about why and how people make transportation

1:46:11decisions these decisions um would be a serious impediment to good policy making uh next slide

1:46:18please so the study uh oh sorry leave it this this one here uh the study so this study uh i was emailed

1:46:29to uh 27197 recent uh bookshelf customers from all over the city um 1260 recipients opened the study

1:46:39email and 888 recipients completed that survey which was a pretty good response in addition to

1:46:48answers about transportation decisions participants were asked to provide age group gender and postal

1:46:54code the survey asked about trip decisions for different categories of trip food shopping

1:47:00retail and services restaurants bars and cafes entertainment employment professionals and the

1:47:07library questions were also asked about trip frequency and positive and negative influences

1:47:13for those transportation choices in other words things like uh taking care of children

1:47:19mobility issues heavy bags parking the environment and weather next slide please

1:47:27so who participated uh 75 of the the people who uh participated in the survey were women

1:47:3425 were men 61 lived less than three kilometers from downtown 39 lived more than three kilometers

1:47:43from downtown 43 percent were under the age of 45 38 were 45 to 64 and 19 percent were like me

1:47:5265 and older so a pretty pretty uh divergent group of people next slide please so what are the

1:48:00main factors that influence downtown's transportation choices so one of them is distance from the

1:48:06downtown uh if i'm if i if i was looking at that part of the survey uh the trip to uh destination

1:48:13and the constraints for transportation choice for that particular activity um so and different

1:48:20trips you will see in the upcoming slides really change people's transportation choices uh next

1:48:26slide please so uh one of the categories that i had in the uh in in my survey was visits to the

1:48:35library if you lived close to the downtown in other words less than three kilometers in this

1:48:41first slide you will see a repeating pattern of walking followed by vehicle use followed by other

1:48:46methods of transportation please note the green choices favored by by those who live near the

1:48:53downtown so we have lots of people walking we have a few people on bicycles um but uh

1:49:01down to people who live downtown going to the library they're pretty green next slide side please

1:49:08but notice the huge shift um when you you look at people living further away from the downtown

1:49:16all of a sudden it's mainly vehicular and you'll also notice there's a large orange element of

1:49:22which is the never and uh one of the things that was noted in a recent library uh survey that they

1:49:29did of their users was finding out why people didn't come uh and one of the one of the foremost

1:49:36reasons was parking next slide please so uh retail services so you'll see again downtown people are

1:49:44pretty green they really walk downtown um and i was surprised that even when you get out to the

1:49:52the uh the distance the three kilometer distance there were still people walking uh you'll see a

1:49:58little bit of bicycle use but then you'll see a chunk of vehicular use um and i suspect that has

1:50:04to do with um those ulterior uh issues that come up that i mentioned earlier next slide please

1:50:12so and then people when they live outside the downtown um look at the dramatic shift in how

1:50:19people get downtown there are some people who were never remember this was a bookshelf survey

1:50:25and we were doing delivery um so some of these people said they didn't come at all

1:50:29but the people who did come primarily came by car uh van or truck um you'll see uh bicycle use was

1:50:37almost non-existent next slide please so for food shopping uh so mr. Manette um that's the time for

1:50:48five minutes okay um i'm going to ask my council colleagues if they have any questions

1:50:55but i am going to provide direction that the questions really do have to be about the um

1:51:01park cash payment for parking in lieu policy that's in front of us we do have to treat each

1:51:05agenda item separately so i'll see i see a question from councillor Goller

1:51:11thank you very chair O'Rourke um mr. manette thank you very much for the presentation um

1:51:16and for letting us know what your customer said could you please help me understand how this relates

1:51:21to the uh cash in lieu of payment or a payment in lieu of parking policy absolutely yeah

1:51:27councillor Goller my apologies for running too long um it has to do with it because cash in lieu

1:51:35it's setting up a cash in lieu method act you know even if it's the proposed number of $60,000

1:51:41cash in lieu actually cash in lieu reduces the power parking supply so while the while council

1:51:48has been reducing the ratios of parking spaces for built units um and offering cash in lieu as an

1:51:56option for not doing it it basically puts additional pressure on the existing parking supply and

1:52:04referring to the the slides that i showed you um it shows you the importance of that parking

1:52:12for for people who support the downtown if you don't have that parking all of those people the

1:52:20the what was it 30 39 percent of the respondents to that survey um you're basically reducing where

1:52:26they can park when they come into downtown so cash in lieu is extremely important and the other

1:52:33point i would make uh councillor is that uh cash in lieu um it has to be held in an S grow up

1:52:40account if you're going to collect that amount from developers when they are under building

1:52:48which is fine if that's the way it's going to go but also i'm sorry can you repeat your last

1:52:54sentence replacing the parking that they are not with mr minette i'm sorry yes i will the audio

1:53:00was a bit garbled could you repeat your last sentence please yes i will so it's extremely

1:53:07important that cash in lieu be held in escrow for the specific purpose of of replacing parking

1:53:16that has been under provided by a developer um because otherwise we're basically uh robbing

1:53:26from the existing supply um and that's not good um and and so that's why it's extremely important

1:53:33councillor would you okay thank you for that mr minette now just so that i'm clear when i read

1:53:39this policy i see it as a way to unlock all of those second story uh spaces that could be

1:53:45turned into apartments but are currently maybe not not used as that so many buildings have

1:53:51second story commercial now there's an interest to turn some of those into units and if it's just

1:53:56one two three four units and then you know as as per the report uh they would be asked to pay and

1:54:02i'll ask staff to clarify about 7500 per unit per parking spot they're not providing uh instead of

1:54:10just not being able to build those those apartments so in that case i'm knowing that there is no on

1:54:16street parking allowed overnight in the downtown uh do you think that that would still take away

1:54:23from from the folks or if someone is providing um apartments on the second story would that really

1:54:29not be competing with the downtown businesses i i think um certainly sharing parking supply to me

1:54:39is always the smartest thing whether it's under the new library so in other words if that is a

1:54:44shared space between visitors to the residential that's going to be done in the air or in the case

1:54:53of those second unlocking those second floor apartment opportunities absolutely it's a smart

1:55:00way of doing it and and and to me yeah the important thing is is that we we we find a way

1:55:08regardless of what the nuance is to make it sure that we don't lose the parking spaces

1:55:15that are needed for retail and service customers thank you thank you for that thank you chair

1:55:21or okay were there any other questions from counselors for mr minette

1:55:28oh i see counselor billings go ahead counselor billings

1:55:33there uh one of your proposed recommendations for for council is that the funds we receive

1:55:41from the development community is reserved for adding parking capacity however the recommendation

1:55:48from staff is some of those funds to be used for transportation demand management initiatives

1:55:56so why do you have an issue with respect to using some of those funds for the transportation

1:56:02demand initiatives thank you counselor billings for that question the reason i would say that

1:56:11is because uh cash in lieu for parking is because it's an acknowledgement that you

1:56:18aren't providing the parking that would normally be required under zoning and planning and and to

1:56:25transfer it and and as you see from the charts because all of you on council have my complete

1:56:30presentation you can see the implications of that to people using the downtown and you'll see that the

1:56:38the amount of money that or the number of people that actually use public transit coming downtown

1:56:43is very tiny it's single digit and a small single digit and so therefore to me in some ways

1:56:51it would be flying in the face of what the cash in lieu is supposed to be replacing

1:56:57if if it is used for transit instead of being used for upcoming need to replace parking

1:57:04okay thank you for that okay i don't see any additional questions thank you very much your

1:57:13delegation mr minette okay we also have a delegation from chris grace and gato as well as

1:57:22correspondence mr grace and gato same rules apply you'll get five minutes you'll hear a time when

1:57:33you have 30 seconds remaining in a second time when your time is expired turn on oh it's on sorry

1:57:41this is my first time so great to be here thank you very much um see i'm chris grace and gato i am

1:57:46i've been a resident since um 2016 and i'm here on behalf of the glove coalition for active

1:57:51transportation um i'm going to focus my delegation on this issue of the payment in lieu policy um

1:57:57specifically i'll be speaking about the problems of using the money um from this payment in lieu

1:58:02just for municipal parking um so building more parking uh i will just encourage more people to

1:58:10drive and that's not what we want to do in this city so this is the principle of induced demand and

1:58:15what i mean by induced demand is uh normally induced demand is used is applied to adding new roads or

1:58:21new lanes two roads and so these new lanes and these new roads they just encourage more people to drive

1:58:28because the costs to driving are initially reduced um now adding parking also works exactly the same

1:58:36way as adding new roads or new new lanes so when there are more when there is more parking more

1:58:42people drive um but also induced demand also works for active transportation walking and cycling

1:58:49and public transit so if transit and active transportation are safe convenient and fast

1:58:56people will regularly just choose transit and active transportation over driving

1:59:01so again another thing i want to point out is thinking about this induced demand for transit

1:59:05and active transportation the tripped constraints that dog minette talks about in his presentation

1:59:11which were which uh those sorry those trip constraints um are not necessarily children

1:59:17mobility issues uh heavy bags or lack of time in fact there are many easy and relatively

1:59:23inexpensive solutions to those challenges so those include electric cargo bikes um tricycles

1:59:28mobility scooters and also just good transit um so in reality those trip constraints are that

1:59:36biking is really quite unsafe in the city um i i bike a lot and i don't particularly feel safe

1:59:42i would love more people to bike i want people to feel safe on their bikes um and also the transit

1:59:48system is not frequent enough in our city and it's still slow so what i'm asking in general is invest

1:59:54in transit and active transportation don't invest in more parking in the city in the city um and then

2:00:01i also want to point out that because investing in active transportation and public transit has

2:00:07the same effect as cars are transporting people downtown the necessity of building more municipal

2:00:14parking parking that is likely just to sit mostly empty is greatly reduced so to end uh because

2:00:21driving is so damaging to our economic health of our city and to the physical and mental health

2:00:26of our individuals and our community and the city sorry the city should be encouraging people to

2:00:31take public transit or walk or cycle and specifically uh the graph correlation for active transportation

2:00:38encourages the city to use the money from this parliament and new policy exclusively for transit

2:00:44and active transportation projects and with that thank you very much well you have time to spare

2:00:51that was impressive thanks very much uh are there any questions from councillors councillor chou go ahead

2:00:58thank you through you ma'am chair um thank you for the delegation uh can you just explain to

2:01:03members in the audience what induced demand means just in more simplistic terms yeah for sure so

2:01:09i guess what it means is so let's take the example of you add a new lane um what happens is what most

2:01:15people think is we add a new lane that adds more capacity so the existing numbers of cars kind of

2:01:20like water going through a pipe um will just run faster but that's actually not the case because humans

2:01:26are complex beings we make decisions like every single day and we make different decisions depending

2:01:30on the context within a new context so when we add a new lane what actually happens is people people

2:01:36who may have already taken a trip or who may not have taken that trip because it's slow

2:01:41because there's too much traffic are now like oh now i'm just going to take that trip

2:01:44also what happens is develop developers will change where they might place their um where they

2:01:50where they might place their housing and usually if it's next to roads it will have much more cars

2:01:55whereas that also works for kind of more active transportation and transit

2:02:00if we invest in that transit and in that cycling infrastructure people would be like oh actually

2:02:05this is a good solution this is convenient for me this is fast i'm going to choose this decision

2:02:09i'm going to choose this way of walking or cycling or um or taking transit and also that

2:02:14influences what the developers where the developers place their um where they want to be and what they

2:02:19use in terms of their storage for parking or for bicycle infrastructure or transit so essentially

2:02:26it's the induced demand is an economic term saying that um when we when we reduce especially when it's

2:02:31free um then that will change what that what people demand out of that and usually what happens is

2:02:37congestion is always there um so adding more parking adding more lanes is not going to solve

2:02:44our problems yeah okay any other questions looking on the screen to my right to my left

2:02:53thank you very much for your delegation sir all right council that is it for delegations and so

2:03:00it's back to us for questions to staff and i can start a speaker list any questions for staff

2:03:07mayor Guthrie and council cron well thank you would you like me to place the recommendation

2:03:15first on the floor before we start with questions we certainly can't sure do you have a seconder

2:03:22yeah i don't know if i'll support it but i'll put it on the floor

2:03:25council richardson will second thank you okay there you go just to be more formal about it

2:03:30may i just ask through you madam chair do you know approximately is there any way of

2:03:34knowing how much funding will come in is there is there any type of um amount that

2:03:43it's so hard with a crystal ball right i get it but if if you were to project out that x amount of

2:03:49units came and those x amount of units would be then paid for with the pill and we would get

2:03:57why money so through the chair to you mayor guthrie certainly to your point it does depend on the

2:04:03uptake from the development community in building sort of our financial models earlier on in the

2:04:07process we did estimate approximately six hundred thousand dollars annually okay and then as the

2:04:13record through you madam chair as the record as recommendation states um you're looking at

2:04:18demand management and parking did you have a split of what approximately that six hundred thousand

2:04:26would do is it is it five hundred thousand to parking and a hundred thousand to transportation

2:04:31demand management uh what is the split through the chair to to you mayor guthrie so no there's not

2:04:37specific output from the reserve at this point in time certainly as multi-year budgets are built

2:04:42out in the future and the funding sources um come to play for those particular projects or programs

2:04:47at that time that's how the money would be utilized thank you um however i guess it would be up to the

2:04:53will of council to decide where we wanted to allocate that if there's percentage of splits or

2:04:58to one specific thing i guess that's up to us if we wanted to through the chair to you mayor guthrie

2:05:02so that's correct through the reserve policies and the multi-year budget yeah okay um and then my

2:05:08final question right now is through you madam chair is just uh i don't know if i don't know if

2:05:14we all received the email but there was an email that came today from somebody that said that they

2:05:19were um i didn't actually read the whole thing yet but it was basically saying that they were here

2:05:24they they were involved with this issue months ago and when were we here last september i think it was

2:05:32and yet they had no idea that this was happening today at all and they were a downtown developer

2:05:39trying to revitalize an old commercial space and um there was no engagement with them

2:05:45they didn't have any idea this was happening at all and yet they were very involved with this

2:05:50issue prior can i just ask how you did engagement on this how far of a net did you cast to try to

2:05:58gather feedback on this so through the chair to to mayor guthrie so with respect to the the

2:06:07parking payment and lou a couple things in terms of engagement one um certainly staff relied on the

2:06:12the engagement work done through the downtown parking master plan so much of the feedback was

2:06:15obtained through that process in the interest of the housing crisis and the speed at which we

2:06:20wanted to be able to bring this policy forth to council there wasn't substantial engagement since

2:06:24the time of the master plan we have informed some of the key groups including the the development

2:06:29community through our work for our downtown revitalization advisor and so um that's the

2:06:35process that staff took in the interest of getting this to council as quickly as possible okay thank

2:06:40you madam chair okay council crown thank you i have similar question following up on the on the

2:06:48commitment to use some of these funds for transportation uh demand management in the report

2:06:55it just talks about possibly about being an incentive do we have we committed that that is

2:07:02where some of the money is going to go and at what point would we would we do that similar to

2:07:06to mayor guthrie's is i know we haven't determined a percentage but at what point would we make that

2:07:11commitment in terms of timing um through the through the chair to council crown um so as we

2:07:21go through and see what developments are are happening in the downtown to continue to study

2:07:28parking and traffic movements in the downtown we will be putting forth projects as part of the

2:07:33multi-year budget and through that and through um and consultation with finance deciding on how

2:07:38which projects are going to be funded and which ones aren't and ultimately that will come

2:07:43in front of council for approval okay thanks okay any other questions for staff

2:07:51um i would oh council billings sorry about that that's okay through you madam chair

2:07:58back to the engagement so so we don't have any comments then from the downtown board on this issue

2:08:09through the chair to councillor billings um we have certainly advised the downtown wealth

2:08:13business association that this was coming forward most recently at their board meeting last week so

2:08:18they are aware um that this was coming forward yes okay and then back to the financial modeling with

2:08:26the with the tiered structure um a couple of the lines there that were providing pretty deep

2:08:32discounts um for a lack of parking so forecasting out so that's that's a source of revenue but when

2:08:40it comes time to building um a parking uh infrastructure um how much are we do we know

2:08:48by the financial modeling how much of a percentage we will be short and so and then that would be

2:08:56picked up by taxation or or what user fees like what does the financial modeling show

2:09:04um through the through the chair to council billings um so again as we we are trying to

2:09:16forecast when we will need say new parking or to put in some new traffic management strategies

2:09:23we'll keep an eye on that as as time goes on because as you can imagine there's going to be

2:09:27developments in the downtown that come in at different times um there's going to be the cost

2:09:33increase um so we are going to be able to um to keep an eye on that and make adjustments as required

2:09:40through the um through the uh through the multi-year budget um so we're in terms of will we have enough

2:09:48right now as you recall this is actually a new revenue tool so before we did not have this revenue

2:09:54coming in so this will certainly put us in a better position than would we be otherwise

2:09:58but should you madam chair it's it's not full cost recovery so when would we have an idea

2:10:05when would council have an idea of how much the shortfall would be then

2:10:13so through the chair to councillor billings so with respect to to additional parking supply in

2:10:19the future certainly the downtown parking master plan looks out to 2051 and indicates that there

2:10:24ultimately could be a shortage in parking supply but it is a long-term thing and so what what's

2:10:30intended at this point in time is um certainly to just monitor the changes over time as it relates

2:10:35to parking in the parking ecosystem as it relates to changes in downtown growth development etc

2:10:41at this point there's no intention to build a new park aid or anything like that in the near future

2:10:47and so it's difficult to answer any sort of detailed financial modeling on a park aid at this point

2:10:54but in the long term we know through you madam chair will be required some more supply

2:11:00so if we're going to collect this revenue and then we put it in a reserve later down the road

2:11:07when it's required it's guaranteed to be there if we're going to take some of that money out for

2:11:14transportation demand management initiatives then there's there's no guarantee then with respect to

2:11:22that we will need less parking and we won't have as much money there in the reserve to pay for the

2:11:31future parking so through the chair to council billings um well as we go through our active

2:11:39transportation master plan as we try to move um our residents to a different kind of modal split

2:11:46I'm not quite sure what parking we're actually going to need in the future again it depends on a

2:11:51lot of different things we are trying to move people out of their cars so at this point it's

2:11:56really hard to determine when and how much we're going to need for parking for cars in in the future

2:12:03we do have updates coming to our transportation master plan in 2028 so we will have a chance to

2:12:11take a look at that again and and adjust our plan accordingly at that time okay thank you

2:12:19Madam Chair when you call the vote can you split the clauses I certainly can yep thank you Madam

2:12:26Chair Councillor Klassen has a couple questions uh yes through you uh Chair O'Rourke to staff um

2:12:37a previous question actually made me think of this question so I'm just curious because I did a bit

2:12:42of the math calculation um yesterday when I was going through just to understand the math a little

2:12:49bit better and from what I understand without you know speaking the calculation out loud this is a

2:12:54significant reduction in cost for the developers like it is potentially hundreds of thousands

2:13:01if you know I won't again won't go through it um but I just you know out of curiosity and this can

2:13:07be high level and you know as cam says I won't hold you to it um but how many units could this

2:13:12potentially unlock downtown in the short term because I'm thinking of places like Conestoga

2:13:17College that are coming online in the short term and I think there's going to be a lot of students

2:13:21who probably won't necessarily have cars um so you know retrofitting a number of second and third

2:13:30story buildings um could really be great for for folks like them uh do we have an estimate of

2:13:37or an idea potentially thanks so through the chair to to Councillor Klassen so certainly

2:13:45you know it it's difficult to predict in one hand because it depends on the uptake of course and who

2:13:50decides and we don't control the timing of development and what developers will choose to do however

2:13:55the intention of the tool is certainly to to um provide more tools to help development come to

2:14:00life faster and so that more units can be built quicker um there's an affordability element with

2:14:06respect to um how those units get built and it also helps those who are potentially in a more

2:14:11difficult situation with respect to the properties and units that they may already own

2:14:15downtown and the ability to build parking and so this this is really intended to get at that to

2:14:20help unlock those units as quickly as those developers will come to the table. Okay thank you

2:14:29um and you know just out of curiosity do we have a few developers who have you know expressed their

2:14:34interest in doing this since uh since we've started looking at at writing this policy? Through the chair

2:14:42to Councillor Klassen so if Councillor recalls in September when we came down with the parking

2:14:47downtown parking strategy we had the property owners representatives from the T bank for example come

2:14:52and talk about wanting to convert their upper stories of their existing building. This would

2:14:58help them and enable them to move forward quicker and that's really who we're especially

2:15:03trying to target in the next couple of years with that reduced rate for the smaller conversions

2:15:07so it's really an attempt to get at those smaller scale projects as quickly as we can.

2:15:13Thank you. Okay any other questions? Oh Councillor Buzetill.

2:15:24Now through the chair to staff just some clarifications it it dovetails what Councillor

2:15:29Caron and Councillor Billings were asking. I'm still a bit confused around the process I I

2:15:35understand for example when planning brought the TD request for conversion is that the time

2:15:42will where we will have the conversation is it by single development application that we will

2:15:47approve the implementation of this policy and I assume I remember that application had also had

2:15:54some alternative transportation considerations in their development application. Is it a one-off

2:16:04by each development that we then apply this policy or is it on hold looking at the impact

2:16:13when it goes back to budget or to the downtown master plan? I'm trying to understand around

2:16:19if we make these decisions incrementally when do we take stock of what the overall impact is.

2:16:27Thank you. Through the chair to the Councillor so if Council supports this policy today

2:16:35it can be implemented right away and we can start having those conversations and having

2:16:41developers take advantage of this policy going forward. There's still the opportunity for developers

2:16:46to reduce their required parking through affordable housing, bike share, car share and other initiatives

2:16:52to get their initial number that they require down and then apply the cash and lew of policy as well.

2:16:57So there's a couple of different options but the policy could go forward right away.

2:17:07Sorry and then just through the chair the follow-up around when do we take stock? Is it not until the

2:17:13master plan review or is it at budget time when do we take stock of what the impacts

2:17:21are of these decisions? Yeah through the through the Mayor to the Councillor so

2:17:31parking is a delegated approval authority item so it will be reported to Council annually.

2:17:38As part of the half funding that was talked about earlier one of the projects was our

2:17:42program and looking at parking again and helping create that parking menu which would

2:17:46reduce the parking overall as well. So you're going to continue to hear about parking you're

2:17:51going to continue to hear about downtown parking as we continue to evolve and look at other

2:17:57opportunities to reduce it further in substantial ways. Thank you and through the chair thank you.

2:18:05Thank you Councillor. Mayor Guthrie do you have a motion or a question? Okay Mayor Guthrie.

2:18:14Thank you and through you yes do you know how much parking justification

2:18:18studies cost approximately like as an added cost now to development what is that looking at for

2:18:24a developer? Yeah through the chair to the Mayor you know I can't say exactly and it depends on

2:18:37the scale of the parking study. If they're not asking for any reduction and they're simply just

2:18:43asking for cash and lieu it's it's probably not required just a letter asking why but if they're

2:18:48wanting to for example some of the options of going above and beyond then we'd be asking for a

2:18:55parking justification study but those are often for larger developments and not the smaller conversions

2:18:59that we're hoping to see happen quicker. Okay but we don't know how much they would normally cost or

2:19:06how much like of another hurdle that someone has to do on an application process. So yet

2:19:13another thing they have to provide do we know how much how long it takes? Is it a six month study or

2:19:18something that they have to do? I'm just not sure what to be expected. Yeah it can it can go

2:19:26fairly quickly depending on the scale of the item and what's provided. So we do have some

2:19:33background data as well that we'll be looking especially to help the smaller conversions

2:19:37along but the bigger conversions will have to look at their own needs assessment if it's market-based

2:19:41is it rental is it affordable is it student like there's a lots of different parameters that they'll

2:19:45have to look at and depending on consulting's time and how quickly they can produce a report.

2:19:52It could be as quickly as within a couple of months it could be longer. Okay and then how

2:19:57much are you charging them for the fee for you to look at it? Through the chair to you Mayor

2:20:05Grotthier we are still undertaking that work with exploring other municipalities what they charge and

2:20:10sort of the cost to the city to process these applications but we would expect that the application

2:20:15fee would be somewhere between $750 and $1,000 and there's an update to the development applications

2:20:22fees and charges bylaw coming to you next month so it'll be consolidated with that so that we're

2:20:27only amending that bylaw one time. Okay thank you and one of the calculation pages that you have in

2:20:33the attachment you've picked that the building height where the justification comes into play can

2:20:40be no more than six stories what's the justification of that like what's the scientific reasoning that

2:20:46you picked six stories why not five why not seven why not eight for conversions I think if I recall.

2:20:59Yeah through the chair to the mayor so that's current the current height limits the most of

2:21:04the downtown so that's the the number we have right now as you know we're undertaking work

2:21:09later on so we may be amending this policy as the year goes but right now our OP is generally

2:21:15the low density designation in the quicker conversions that we could see happen is the up to six stories.

2:21:22Thank you and quickly may I just ask if you could explain a little bit better for me about those

2:21:28that are trying to build supportive or affordable housing do they still be charged well they'll still

2:21:32be charged to try to justify through a justification report why they don't need it again it seems like

2:21:38a little bit of a hurdle to me for the exact type of housing we wanted to have.

2:21:45Through the mayor so our supportive housing policies are currently under appeal

2:21:50in a comprehensive zoning bylaw so for affordable housing right now they would have to meet the

2:21:57parking requirements for the site we have seen sites that have produced a parking justification

2:22:04to go at less we've also seen those same sites come back and ask for more parking so it would be on

2:22:10them to take a look at and through the housing affordable strategy and the parking work that

2:22:15will come out later this year the city will be bringing forward a number for a parking for

2:22:21affordable housing but at this point in time it's the the current rates that are in effect.

2:22:27Okay I just know I don't want to put them on the spot but Councillor Goller really raised that the

2:22:32last time we were here and there's a lot of heads nodding by council that we wanted to try to help

2:22:36with that specific type of housing to be done so that's concerning. My last question is just

2:22:43what would happen if council agreed to change the ratio at this moment instead of 0.75 to change

2:22:51it to 0.5 would it just be a strictly a math a mathematical equation then that everything would

2:22:58apply but to a lower parking rate? Through the chair to the mayor so before you today is a cash

2:23:06and lieu policy and not a zoning bylaw amendment so we don't have a zoning bylaw amendment in front

2:23:11of council if we were directed to bring back a zoning bylaw amendment that would be a separate

2:23:16process that's public we have to provide notice for before we pass a bylaw for that and I do note

2:23:24our comprehensive zoning bylaws under appeal as a whole as well and even the parking reduction that

2:23:29we did in September is under appeal so any parking bylaws that we have are the $19.95 and there is

2:23:36nothing else that is in effect at this time due to the appeals we've had to both the comprehensive

2:23:41zoning bylaw and the downtown parking reduction bylaw which is also under appeal. Thank you and

2:23:48sorry I just want to follow up then so if councils will today as an example was to state we like

2:23:55everything here except we want it to be zero parking requirements for supportive and or affordable

2:24:01housing just just as an idea are you or staff suggesting we can't go that route because of the

2:24:09appeals or are you suggesting that we still or are you not suggesting but would you validate

2:24:15that if councils will was to do that give you that direction that it could still be implemented today

2:24:21even though that appeal is ongoing. Through the chair to the mayor I'm suggesting that if we brought

2:24:28that forward it would be caught up and wrapped up in the appeals that we currently have ongoing so we

2:24:34would not be able to implement it until we had resolved those appeals. But the direction could

2:24:39still begin if we chose and then it would be wrapped up in the appeals. It would be wrapped up in the

2:24:43appeals we'd have to bring back a separate report on that because we still have to do a process

2:24:51and pass a separate bylaw which would be caught up in the appeals for that if it was council's

2:24:55direction to do that. Thank you Madam Chair did you want me to move an amendment or actually I

2:25:02would imagine my my amendment might be a separate motion perhaps. Just to come back just to come back

2:25:10on a consideration of changing the ratio if that's your intent then I'd like to confer with the

2:25:15clerk to see if that needs to be a reconsideration because that was a decision previously previously

2:25:19taken by council I believe. No through you through you to you Madam Chair I have no intention of

2:25:25doing that based on the fact that it would require a meeting of a zoning conversation

2:25:30and that's not what we're here for today. So as much as I don't like it I understand the process

2:25:36and we'll respect that. Okay I just want to know what's coming. Thank you. Any additional questions?

2:25:45Okay then I am ready to call the vote on the two recommendations that are on the floor.

2:25:52Councillor Billings asked to split that vote and then Mayor Guthrie has an additional motion.

2:26:01Madam Chair and through you to that last point on Mayor Guthrie's potential

2:26:06motion the question I would have is we've received it at the clerk's table here and

2:26:12we've shared it with staff. I would defer to staff at the bench whether or not that would be seen

2:26:18as an amendment to the policy. The last clause in or the last section of that policy speaks to

2:26:24allocation of funds. I don't know if that's something that they believe would need to be included in

2:26:29that last section of the of attachment one to the staff report but I'll defer to them. I just

2:26:35wanted to give the opportunity to consider whether or not it needs to be an amendment in that regard

2:26:47and just while they confer for for council's benefit we've received that that motion it could

2:26:52where we've structured it now is it could be an amending motion that could be tabled

2:26:56voted on and then you would vote on the final clauses of the staff recommendation as amended

2:27:00to clause one but again I think staff would would probably benefit from weighing in on

2:27:05whether or not that is something that could be encapsulated in the last clause of attachment one.

2:27:11Okay so here's how we'll proceed. Mayor Guthrie has an amendment to propose for recommendation one.

2:27:17Mayor Guthrie. Thank you Madam Chair. Yeah well yeah we can just deal with the amendment if it

2:27:22fails then it just goes back to the split vote that Councillor Billings wants to do that makes

2:27:26sense. I don't know if I have a seconder for this but it is that 100% of the funds collected through

2:27:31the pill be allocated to support future Guelph transit service enhancements so not the sort of

2:27:39split of money that would go towards parking and or other demand management but have it 100%

2:27:47go to transit enhancements. So Councillor Goller your seconding okay. Mayor Guthrie we'd like to

2:27:54speak to your amendment. No I'm not really just just it's straightforward. I mean you know even

2:28:02if we give this a try for a while I just feel like I just feel like we we we could help boost a little

2:28:08bit with this revenue into the very thing that a lot of people are saying needs some some help

2:28:16and there seems to be this degree Madam Chair of you know people that want to just have the cars

2:28:22accommodated and then there's this other degree of like bicycles and walking but that sort of

2:28:28common denominator where everyone would feel like some enhancements and services could be is

2:28:33around transit because that can help people a little bit differently than just walking or biking

2:28:37as an example so I would prefer that we at least for now have the money directly allocated to

2:28:44transit enhancements and and that would boost just boost the options of transit in that manner

2:28:52by this new revenue that comes in so that that's it and you know if it's an idea if people like it

2:28:58so be it if not totally fine. Okay I'd like to go to DCAO Holmes first please. Through you Madam Chair

2:29:05to Mayor Guthrie it's when we're looking at the Planning Act so we weren't sure we didn't know this

2:29:12was coming so we need a chance to take it away but we'll just caution that you know the Planning

2:29:18Act is very clear about what you can use the reserves for and what you can't if I just read

2:29:23just one of the one of the sections here it talks about the money in that account shall be

2:29:27applied for the same purpose as the Reserve Fund established under the Municipal Act 2001

2:29:32or the City of Toronto Act 2006 as the case may be so it it's pretty clear what you can use

2:29:39the reserve money for and so we just we just caution that before you send us away because

2:29:46it sounds pretty clear to us but there's some rules that we have to follow in regards to the

2:29:51Planning Act and Reserve policies. Yeah Madam Chair if I could. Yep. I will remove my motion

2:29:59my amendment not because I want to but because I now specifically remember a very fulsome

2:30:08discussion about that back in September when we were originally talking about that and I think I

2:30:13might have asked some of the questions in those kind of scoped council or kind of

2:30:18discussions that we had and I completely forgot so I apologize for wasting that five minutes there

2:30:25and again I wish we could do it but you are 100% right and it was pretty clear months ago so I'll

2:30:32happily remove my amendment. Councillor Goller do you agree? Yes I see Councillor Goller is nodding

2:30:40his head. Okay. Oh yes I need the approval of all of council to remove the motion any opposed?

2:30:47Okay I see none opposed so we are back to the vote on the main motion any comments before the vote?

2:30:53Councillor Chew. Through you Madam Chair I just wanted to quickly clarify so

2:31:04when the pill payment is made you talk about it being a lump sum you just

2:31:11paint a picture there's no strings attached after the payment is made like there's assurances that

2:31:17um that like it's said and done like if you catch my drift. Through the through the chair to

2:31:29Councillor Chew there's no strings attached if I'm understanding I'm still thinking I'm understanding

2:31:36your question. Okay I'll leave it that for now and I'll circle back with you. Maybe maybe I'll

2:31:43just add through the chair to Councillor Chew we do have a parking agreement so there is an agreement

2:31:48between the developer and the city that they're paying a certain amount of money but also there's

2:31:54an agreement in place to make sure that both parties are in accordance with what the agreement says

2:32:01in terms of parking. Is that okay? Yeah that's better yeah okay yes so we they're not just giving

2:32:06us money and hope that they do it there's an agreement that they have to sign to make sure

2:32:09they're complying with what they what they promise to do. Okay any other comments before I call the

2:32:19vote? Okay Mayor Guthrie you've got three and a half minutes left. Yeah don't worry I'm gonna be 10

2:32:24seconds. I'm gonna hold my nose as I vote for this. I this is complicated and you know no parking

2:32:36minimums is really easy and clear and I think that would have been a better way to go but I

2:32:44I will I will hold my nose to vote for this and we'll give it a try for for a few years and see

2:32:50what happens but you know I even between September and now Madam Chair there's full states in the

2:32:58city like actual states in the city that are going no parking minimums and more and more

2:33:04cities are moving in that direction so I still think we kind of missed an opportunity to grab that

2:33:09as a city but here we are and I will I will support it at this time even though I don't I

2:33:16don't 100% really agree with where this is going so thank you for bringing it back as quickly as

2:33:22you did those staff to get it done thank you. Great before I call the vote I'd just like to add I

2:33:29actually really endorse the policy I think it's going to free up some capacity for building and

2:33:34at the same time I really support having the funding go to both parking and alternatives

2:33:41because we have some capacity now but we've got Conestoga College coming online potential for more

2:33:46employment downtown a lot more residential and the two-way all-day go means that people may not

2:33:53necessarily be coming from within the city boundaries I've driven to Georgetown or Burlington to

2:33:58take the go train and I think we should expect that will happen and and be building up that parking

2:34:03reserve $600,000 year over year it takes a long time to get to another $30 million so I'd like to

2:34:09have that cushion to make sure that we can provide that capacity if and when it's needed we have a

2:34:15tourism strategy to attract people from outside and while it would be ideal for them to take transit

2:34:21or to cycle here we have to expect that a lot of folks will still be using personal vehicles so

2:34:27I think staff have reached a really good balance okay I'll call the vote then on the first clause

2:34:39and it's in the agenda so we don't need to read it any opposed Councillor Billings is opposed

2:34:49and so that motion passes okay if I can have the second recommendation on the screen please

2:34:57this is that schedule a of the development application fee bylaw be amended to include

2:35:01the estimated cost of a parking space and the payment in lieu of off-street parking application fee

2:35:08any opposed no one opposed and so that is unanimous and it passes great thank you very much

2:35:17thanks to our delegates and to those who sent in correspondence all right the next item is 15.2

2:35:26Wyndham street north cross section and st. George's square intersection so a lot's going on in the

2:35:32downtown this is exciting an exciting conversation about significant investments in our downtown core

2:35:39and we will start with a presentation from our manager of design and construction red rush room

2:35:45and also terry gayman who's our general manager engineering transportation services and stacey

2:35:50lachlan who's our downtown revitalization advisor so take it away folks okay good afternoon mayor

2:36:06guthrie and council i'm terry gayman the city's general manager of engineering and transportation

2:36:11services and city engineer and with me today are reg rush worm the city's manager of design and

2:36:17construction who's leading the downtown infrastructure renewal program and stacey lachlan the city's

2:36:22downtown revitalization advisor and we're excited to be here today so that we can present to council

2:36:27the results of the windham street and st. George's square environmental assessment or ea and before

2:36:33we dive in i'd like to take a moment to help us focus today in terms of the scope of our conversation

2:36:39so the material in front of council is about a decision to make regarding the form and function

2:36:44of the windham street corridor which is a key decision point in the downtown renewal journey

2:36:49but today we are not discussing or seeking council approval of non-ea items like streetscaping

2:36:55construction pacing or strategies to mitigate construction impacts to businesses residences

2:37:01or other facilities and of course there will absolutely be time for those conversations which

2:37:06i will outline for you today but again the decision and discussion for today is focused on the ea in

2:37:12the selection of the preferred ea options to get started i want to point out the project context

2:37:22in terms of all the great work the city's achieving downtown the city's downtown renewal efforts

2:37:27encompass many projects that are underway or are planned as we work towards creating a place for

2:37:32everyone the downtown infrastructure renewal program is just one component of the city's

2:37:37overall downtown renewal efforts and to build upon past efforts and deliver on a compelling

2:37:42vision that set out in the downtown secondary plan the city is making significant investments over

2:37:47the next 10 plus years the overall downtown renewal efforts will transform how downtown looks feels

2:37:52and functions making it future ready to support growth 2051 and beyond and we're working towards a

2:37:58common goal of renewing and revitalizing downtown resulting in a vibrant and thriving urban center

2:38:04it's certainly safe to say that the downtown 20 years from now won't be the same as downtown 20

2:38:09years ago we're getting ready for the future this work the downtown infrastructure renewal program

2:38:22advances our strategic theme of city building and people and economy and is reflected in each of our

2:38:28strategic objectives under these themes in particular the objectives of improving housing

2:38:33supply making downtown a vibrant place for everyone and making it easier to get around and

2:38:38greatly are greatly advanced by the downtown infrastructure renewal work the program under

2:38:44pins the strategic initiatives for our foundation themes as well as we prioritize infrastructure

2:38:48needs and schedule rehabilitation and construction activities in alignment with our asset management

2:38:53plan and certainly council direction around this program lays the cornerstone for community

2:38:59partners to help address our housing crisis unleash downtown's economic potential and realize

2:39:04council's vision for golf's core this program is also a part of the city's commitment of achieving

2:39:11more units under the housing accelerator fund and finally i'd like to highlight our work here is

2:39:16fully aligned with our CAO's council approved objectives to advance downtown projects that

2:39:20support a vibrant downtown community for everyone with the strategic considerations understood

2:39:29a common question we hear is why now so simply stated downtown golf has aging infrastructure

2:39:34such as water and sewer pipes and roads most of which are at the end of their useful life and need

2:39:40to be replaced before they fail dramatically this picture gives a sampling of the infrastructure

2:39:45challenges we're facing downtown and what we'll see if no action is taken this is exactly why the city

2:39:51has an asset management plan and policy and while there's an absolute need to replace the end of life

2:39:57and undersize essential infrastructure the renewal program provides the city with a once in a

2:40:02multi-generational opportunity to revitalize downtown golf and build on the character that

2:40:07makes downtown one of a kind investment in this critical and essential infrastructure will support

2:40:13the existing downtown community the growth in our housing pledge and we're working through the

2:40:21planning of the program as it relates to the downtown secondary area to implement our future

2:40:25ready downtown vision it takes a well coordinated multi-year program and works that minimize

2:40:30disruptions to citizens businesses and visitors we're planning so we optimize city resources

2:40:36and expenditures to achieve the intensification in golf's downtown while maintaining its cultural

2:40:41and historical assets and to do this community consultation and engagement is ongoing and will

2:40:46continue as we develop the capital implementation plan that best fits the broad range of needs

2:40:51in terms of our approach to construction the program team is actively reviewing best practices

2:40:56and experiences at other municipalities to make sure we consider innovative approaches

2:41:00and learn from others on what's been done elsewhere our consulting team is very experienced in this

2:41:06work and together we're developing a list of potential innovation excuse me innovative tools

2:41:10tactics and techniques to mitigate disruption on people and businesses that can be implemented as

2:41:15we go this along this journey so with that background and strategic information in mind

2:41:21i'm going to turn it over to reg rusk warm the city's manager of design construction

2:41:25who's overseeing the overall downtown infrastructure renewal program and reg is going to walk you

2:41:29through the findings of the ea good afternoon council thank you very much terry it is a pleasure

2:41:40to present to you today the findings of the windham street north and st georgia square

2:41:46environmental assessment in this study we considered technical social economic cultural

2:41:51heritage and natural environment factors and looked at options for the reconstruction of the

2:41:55corridor and the square the study area outlined on the map was that portion of windham street north

2:42:02between cardin street and willow wood street includes the st georgia square we often refer to

2:42:08this project area as windham street or the the corridor but keep in mind it always includes

2:42:13st georgia square as terry mentioned the study focused on the big picture form and function of

2:42:19the roadway for users of all ages and abilities and modes of travel and keeping with previously

2:42:25approved council policies and plans we will be maturing those specifics during final design

2:42:32to commence this year the program team is very much aware of the impact downtown construction

2:42:41will have on residents visitors and businesses throughout the study a concerted effort was

2:42:46made to consult engage with a wide range of members of the community and stakeholders

2:42:51both internal and external the highlights of these efforts are provided on the slide given the ride

2:42:57ranging impact on all departments and areas of operation in the city we have an internal list

2:43:03of over 40 subject matter experts that can be called upon specific to this staff report these

2:43:10experts were involved as a group and individually to create a short list from the long list of

2:43:16options we had the same group was also convened to provide input on the selection of the preferred

2:43:21options we'll continue communications engagement efforts as we advance the reconstruction from

2:43:28planning into design and ultimately onto construction since the program is not a typical project

2:43:35we'll not see typical communications staff are developing and will roll out an enhanced

2:43:41communication engagement plan over 2024 in particular we're developing a campaign to help

2:43:47the community envision and anticipate our future downtown we're not forgetting about the realities

2:43:55of this construction either we'll be asking about those challenges and how we can best help residents

2:44:02and businesses get through the coming disruption so four windham street itself four options were

2:44:12shortlisted the do nothing option doesn't mean we do no construction it means that the road is

2:44:19put back together in the same form as function as today with parallel parking on both sides

2:44:25after the underground works are completed the temporary angle parking on the north end of

2:44:30windham installed to offset the loss of the baker street parking is not planned to be reinstated

2:44:36option two is the proposed cross section from the 2024 streetscape manual with shared use

2:44:42cycling and a mix of parallel and angle parking options threes and four that we consider our two

2:44:49means to achieve the downtown secondary plan and other council approved policies regarding mode

2:44:55cheer targets all ages and ability cycling facilities and vision serial goals both options

2:45:01provide parallel parking on both sides option three provides protected cycling in the direction of

2:45:08traffic while option four provides bi-directional cycling on just one side of the road just to the

2:45:20recommendation after considering council approved policies and community input put

2:45:27staff are recommending option three two lanes with unidirectional bike path a concept drawing

2:45:34is provided here this option will see windham street reallocating four lanes of traffic to two

2:45:41lanes with parallel parking loading zones protected bike paths enhanced protest pedestrian zone

2:45:47activation and facilitating flexible uses such as the patio program equally on both sides of the

2:45:54road i mentioned this option satisfies the downtown secondary plan and fulfills the transportation

2:46:01master plan requirements for the corridor particularly regarding accommodation of

2:46:06pedestrians and cyclists of all ages and abilities i could pause here because we've heard concerns

2:46:13regarding implementing cycling lanes this concern is understandable especially since it's different

2:46:19from what is known and affects convenience parking fortunately we have economic study after study

2:46:26that it demonstrated that introducing protected bike lanes does not negatively impact sales and in

2:46:33many cases increases sales and patronage statistical evidence validates that adding

2:46:41facilities in town in urban cores means more visitors and more frequent trips even when the

2:46:47amount of on on street parking is reduced the city's planned intensification use of downtown will

2:46:54only increase the need for pedestrian activation zones cycling lanes and other local short trip

2:47:02options to attract and keep customers in the downtown area we have many case studies from

2:47:08across north america to draw upon but i do want to highlight a few ontario cities close to home

2:47:14kitchener has seen an increase of 218 percent in use of cycling lanes since they introduced

2:47:20dedicated cycling lanes similarly downtown oakville's transformation project reduced space for

2:47:29motor vehicles and expanded the public realm for pedestrian cyclists and small businesses

2:47:34the result the retail vacancy hasn't been lower and customer traffic is up 23

2:47:44an industry journal analyzed the local economic impact of reducing on street

2:47:50parking with bike lanes along bluer street in toronto and found monthly customer spending

2:47:55and the number of customers both increased now on the other end of the scale from bluer street

2:48:02is backworth street in town of smith falls a small rural eastern community town recently won

2:48:10taxis small municipalities achievement award for their project which included adding cycling

2:48:16facilities switching from angle to parallel on street parking and customs designed accessible

2:48:21parking spots a project video featuring the chair of the downtown business association

2:48:28stated that the project is going to bring new businesses and tourists and is enthusiastic

2:48:34about the future of their downtown i'll note that there were positive but no negative comments on

2:48:40this youtube video well done smith falls with respect to parking facilities downtown as we

2:48:48know from our downtown master plan it is key to remember that that the plan found public parking

2:48:54only 50 utilized during a typical weight work day there's ample public parking available it

2:49:02requires a change in behavior away from convenience parking and importantly we're also reimagining

2:49:10the pedestrian realm to make pedestrian experience better the recommended changes will increase the

2:49:17pedestrian activation zone and programmable space by at least 20 and with the seasonal patio program

2:49:24this space is increased to 80 percent through intensification change is coming in how the

2:49:32community accesses and uses downtown we need to build the infrastructure to maximize the potential

2:49:38that comes with having a lot more people living working and going to school downtown while change

2:49:44is filled with uncertainty all reliable evidence points to a net economic benefit the downtown

2:49:50community from the recommended works we've not forgotten about our successful seasonal patio

2:49:59program either the recommended design enables the flexible reconfiguration of the street by

2:50:06shifting the bike lanes into the parallel parking spaces that were installed this maintains the

2:50:11integrity of the protected cycling lanes for all users and during final design the project team

2:50:17and in consultation with the community and internal subject matter experts will determine

2:50:24the exact means and logistics to enable the reconfiguration the final design of the separation

2:50:30barriers is yet to be determined however those barriers will be that that are needed for warrant

2:50:35in separating a cycling lane from a lane of traffic the st. George's square is gulf's community hub

2:50:47the core public space in downtown and was a major component of the original john galt plan

2:50:54the city's goal is to enhance the space for a balanced use by all users of the topics discussed

2:51:02during the study none generated as much interest and debate from the community involvement as the

2:51:08future of the square although each option listed on the screen has their individual pros and cons

2:51:15the project team felt on balance each of the options was equally functional and technically

2:51:21feasible so there's no strong factors pushing one way or the other pointedly the project team

2:51:27was not able to make a preliminary recommendation for the public information session we had last

2:51:33september and felt that as part of that p.i.c. we required additional community feedback on the

2:51:40square the studies considered these three options that i'll step through there is the standard

2:51:49intersection improvement so option one provides an intersection very much in keeping with the

2:51:55current configuration of the square with open community space provided in three primary locations

2:52:01to the outside of the intersection pedestrian movement is in the areas outside of the roadway

2:52:06protected cycling lanes continue through the square the roadway will operate very much

2:52:14as like does today with some operational improvements such as left hand turn lanes pavement marking

2:52:20current radius etc the public realm is not changed this option provides a slightly larger area for

2:52:28special events over the other options however it is not contiguous and the cost of this option is

2:52:35the lowest option to realign's kubect street and dug with street into a conventional four leg

2:52:44intersection with community states still provided in the three quadrants the key difference is the

2:52:50intersection improves multimodal safety and operations from option one the offset intersection

2:52:57we just looked at and like option one protected cycling to carry through the intersection option

2:53:05two will require moderate adjustments to the public realm community and space but provides

2:53:11similar space as option one now this option is in the same cost range as our previous option

2:53:22option three the traffic circle this is the configuration very much in keeping with the

2:53:28recommendation from the 2014 streetscape manual this option consolidates the majority of the

2:53:34public space into one location the center of the circle that can support a broad range of potential

2:53:41programming there's concern however that pedestrians moving to the center of the circle need to cross

2:53:47traffic however that would be mitigated by geometrically slowing traffic movement and using

2:53:52signalized pedestrian crossings this extra section would not function like a high traffic roundabout

2:53:59we are maybe more familiar with a continuous bike path around the circle would be provided for the

2:54:08movement of cyclists by consolidating space in the circle there is reduced public realm area directly

2:54:14in front of businesses for pedestrian activation and patio space this option however provides a

2:54:21unique feature compared to other downtown areas for event gatherings the cost though is three million

2:54:28dollars higher than the other two options so to our recommendation after carefully reviewing internal

2:54:38and community feedback no option was a clear front runner the project team in consultation with the

2:54:45pro-jink steering committee selected option ones the standard intersection improvements as a recommended

2:54:51solution the primary reasons being the option has the lowest cost range and has characters similar

2:54:58familiar to the downtown community both options one and two are in the same cost range of around

2:55:0613 million three three million dollars less than the traffic circle option while option two checks

2:55:13more boxes than perhaps option one both options were considered equal on balance option two the

2:55:21realigned intersection may also impact the enjoyment of the family fountain since the road will be

2:55:28slightly closer while option one is in keeping with the previous vision of the squares functionality

2:55:35therefore staff considered the public preference for the same character as the current road

2:55:41configuration as the deciding factor between options one and two this solution will see

2:55:47similar operations to the existing condition with improved geometric design and optimized

2:55:52signals with the added safety improvements making it easier to drive walk and cycle through the

2:55:59intersections dedicated lanes for cyclists with separations from vehicles will be installed in

2:56:05accordance with the transportation master plan there will be marked crosswalks at all streets

2:56:10and with Douglas remaining one-way northbound the public space arrangement remains largely

2:56:17unchanged with the opportunity to build upon a familiar design now with council's direction on

2:56:24the preferred preferred road corridor and the st. George's square geometrics the program team can

2:56:33confidently move this project forward throughout 2024 i'm going to hand it back to terry to talk

2:56:40about what's next and do a wrap americastry would like these comments to be made as a wrap please

2:56:52mr. gayman okay i won't i won't quite go there but thank you reg all right so council you've heard

2:56:59you've heard about the ea and the preferred options um i'd now like to just take a moment to reiterate

2:57:03sort of where this milestone fits in the overall downtown uh journey and so as we've stated the

2:57:09great work to date has led us to the point of making a recommendation on the form and function

2:57:13of the windham street corridor once that decision is made this month staff will be back in front of

2:57:17council this coming april with a workshop to review the level of service for streetscaping

2:57:23and things like construction pacing after the workshop there are other milestones ahead

2:57:28that keep us on track for groundbreaking with construction starting in 2026 so that we can

2:57:33start rebuilding this thriving downtown for everyone and as you heard from reg earlier we're

2:57:39going to continue with communications and public engagement efforts as we advance through the

2:57:43construction journey from planning into design and ultimately onto construction since the downtown

2:57:48infrastructure renewal program is not a typical project we won't just be using typical communication

2:57:53efforts and in terms of in terms of the april workshop i'd like to give you a sneak peek about

2:57:59the scope so it helps you in framing and focusing your questions today in april we'll be leading an

2:58:05in-person workshop to discuss the streetscape investment alternatives that can be made in

2:58:09downtown the workshop will explore things like business disruption and construction impact

2:58:14mitigations as well as things like the pace of construction and after the workshop staff will

2:58:19bring a report to council in june that summarizes those findings and provides final recommendations

2:58:24for the streetscaping we'll use those recommendations and council direction from june

2:58:29to inform our multi-year budget confirmation process work and to close a few more details

2:58:37on the key next steps overall once april and june milestones are achieved the city staff will be

2:58:42preparing the capital implementation plan to be presented to council in fall the plan will set

2:58:47the stage for how construction will commence and be staged and phased in parallel we're also

2:58:51working on a macdenl and allen structure environmental assessment public engagement will

2:58:56occur over the remainder of this year with the staff report continuing uh excuse me expected coming

2:59:01to council in about a year's time and with the implementation plan in place we'll be able to

2:59:06work towards final designs utility relocations for those first stages of the program there's a

2:59:11significant amount of engineering work to do to get these projects ready for tender in late 2025

2:59:17so we can get started in 2026 and with that i want to thank the project team for their efforts to

2:59:22develop these options undertake the research engage with the community in innovative and

2:59:27interesting ways and recommend a solution for this environmental assessment this includes our subject

2:59:32matter and experts internally as well as our consultant team who provided their valuable time

2:59:36and effort in making this uh in front of you today so thank you thank you mr gayman okay we have six

2:59:44delegates and here's how i'd like to proceed uh we'll have the delegates come and present their

2:59:49delegations which take about half an hour in addition to some questions and then i want to

2:59:54take a 10 minute bio break after that before we table the motions and uh launch into our own questions

3:00:00okay so um ben cullen is a delegate from gulf coalition for active trans uh i think transportation

3:00:09i think the agenda might be incorrect there mr cullen you've heard me say this before you'll

3:00:17have five minutes you'll hear a chime at four minutes and 30 seconds and a second chime when

3:00:21your time is up at five and then stay at the podium because they're likely questions for you

3:00:25go ahead okay thank you councillor work um and just to clarify i'm a member of gulf coalition for

3:00:30active transport uh but otherwise just a ordinary citizen so my name is ben cullen i'm a business

3:00:36owner of father and daily user of gulf's active transportation infrastructure i am standing before

3:00:41you today to advocate for the implementation of bike lanes on windham street my wife and i had the

3:00:46privilege of settling anywhere in southern ontario when we chose gulf eight years ago and we chose

3:00:51gulf because we believe that this was a community where we could live our values we value a community

3:00:58that invests in accessible public life where sustainable lifestyle is made possible through

3:01:03good planning and smart public investment living this lifestyle is important to me for my own quality

3:01:08of life to lessen my impact on the planet to be a more engaged member of society and to model

3:01:13sustainable behavior for my children as such i'm a regular patron of various downtown businesses

3:01:19which i access access almost exclusively by bike year-round so that means since the beginning

3:01:26of january and i have the credit card statements to prove this i've made multiple trips to stone

3:01:30store where i'm on a first name basis flower barrel to market fresh in the farmer's market to meet

3:01:36virtually all of our daily grocery needs i've been to a legrette to pick up a poster for my

3:01:40business gulf tool library to borrow a carpet cleaner rbc for personal and business banking

3:01:46source for sports for skate sharpening rexall reeds in the dollar store in kebec street mall for

3:01:50medicine and valentine's canada posts to mail samples for my business windham tailors to have a

3:01:55jacket brought in and shorts repaired suffoke cleaners to have my shirts cleaned the bookshelf

3:02:00for two copies of the adventures of homer price my favorite book from childhood which i'm gifting

3:02:05to my nephews i've been to red brick planet being cornerstone common and jimmy jazz for the ample

3:02:10caffeine and beer the fuels this active lifestyle and to enjoy our vibrant downtown social life which

3:02:17is best enjoyed when i don't have vehicles belching exhaust in my ear what is often missing from these

3:02:24activities are the most important people in my life my wife and my son fact the most common

3:02:31reason people do not engage in cycling is for fear of personal safety as a fact at six two 250

3:02:38pounds my experience of cycling and traffic is vastly different than it is for my five three wife

3:02:44that is why she doesn't even though she works downtown at 211 and 45 pounds my son very seldom

3:02:51joins me downtown despite the fact we take the bike to take care almost every single day on a

3:02:56protected path creating an environment that favors vehicle infrastructure is an outstanding

3:03:01accessibility issue in our city fact one only canada is one of only seven industrialized nations

3:03:09where pedestrian deaths are increasing this trend is in contrast to the city of guelph's own

3:03:15vision zero goals argument users of active transportation are the most ardent supporters

3:03:22of downtown life and businesses on an average month i know that my hundreds of dollars spent on

3:03:26the downtown economy would be more easily spent elsewhere if i personally favored a car-centric

3:03:31lifestyle no amount of street parking would change that downtown in its business's greatest

3:03:37advantage against outlying strip malls and power centers is the density offered to non-automotive

3:03:42residents and i do own a car for the 20 or so parking spots in question which would only realistically

3:03:48provide parking for 20 to 30 shoppers at any given time the same real estate can accommodate

3:03:53many times more cyclists and pedestrians have you ever been seen downtown filled with cars yet the

3:03:59businesses and sidewalks are empty that is because cars simply do not command the space they occupy

3:04:06when it comes to animating our most valuable public real estate and i actually thought mr

3:04:11minnetz data really highlighted this that despite the fact that our roads are openly hostile to

3:04:16cyclists including right in front of his store and business a majority of shoppers locally still

3:04:23prefer to walk or bike now imagine if there was actually supportive infrastructure to do that

3:04:29fact investing in cycling infrastructure is an obvious low cast low cost an effective way to

3:04:35bring a larger and more diverse mix of guelph residents downtown to invest in and share the

3:04:40best vision of downtown life safely and sustainably so i urge council to take the

3:04:45anonymous view that this issue is shared as with city planners and our most concerned citizens

3:04:50now is our opportunity to build the city and planet that our children want to be a part of

3:04:56you got 32 seconds left excellent thank you stay where you are please you may have questions from

3:05:00council okay any questions seeing none thank you very much for your delegation thank you okay our

3:05:10next delegate is Doug minnet now it is mr minnet coming back okay great oh and for clerks just for

3:05:18our minutes i think that should be guelph coalition for active transportation it reads transit right

3:05:24now on the agenda okay we can note that mr minnet welcome back oh thank you councillor our work and

3:05:32the rest just before i give you the floor sir could you hear the chime at four and a half minutes

3:05:37i might have been talking too loudly to myself and therefore missed it would you like me to

3:05:42let you know when you hit four minutes and 30 seconds yeah that's okay i'm gonna be really quick

3:05:46because okay so i don't think we'll get near that thank you ben colon awesome presentation

3:05:54so um one of the things i'd like to say is downtown guelph customers far exceed the tmp

3:06:00targets the transportation master plan targets for green choices um when they can and that's a very

3:06:07important when they can you know my i tip my hat to ben that he goes through snow and rain and

3:06:13however the heck he gets downtown but but a lot of people can't and when you're talking about

3:06:18accessibility you're talking about older people you're talking about people with mobility issues

3:06:23and whatnot so it's really important um that those options be there and speaking to our mayor's

3:06:32comment about demand management demand management will not change transportation method it will

3:06:39change the destination it would appear that this is an intentional insult to the public who currently

3:06:46support the downtown retail community script constraints that i've mentioned earlier are real

3:06:53and these constraints will always make vehicles in a section part of the modal mix

3:06:59and induced command and demand an example is upper windham street angle parking

3:07:07really assisted people trying to support downtown business so my my main closing comment would be

3:07:14can guelph afford you ignore the clear advice of its customer base which i surveyed who live outside

3:07:21outside the immediate downtown and as our cio said wealth downtown is for everyone walking

3:07:29and driving predominate so you got to respect that and transit and cycling have an impact

3:07:36but it's minimal so those are my comments my closing comments and good luck to you all

3:07:42thank you thank you mr. man if you can just hang on i just want to see if there are any questions

3:07:46for you i see none so have an excellent evening thank you very much our next delegate is andrea

3:07:54biggood also with gcat all right you have five minutes you'll hear a time at four minute 30 seconds

3:08:14and the second time when your time's up go ahead hey good afternoon um council and mayor guthrie

3:08:22and city staff i'm standing here before you today as a representative of the gulf coalition for active

3:08:28transport you're gonna hear a lot from us today in gcat um essentially we're just committed to

3:08:33making sure that guelph is a place where every citizen can walk bike or roll around their city

3:08:39comfortably and positively contributing to their mental health their physical health in the environment

3:08:47so my name is andrea biggood i'm on the gcat board a newly vice chair to our advocacy committee

3:08:53and i run our social media accounts usually i'm behind the scenes so i'm a little shaky here

3:08:59okay um so over the past year i've had the privilege of engaging with our community members both

3:09:04virtually and in person at numerous events all over the city i've immersed myself in their stories

3:09:09both the good and the bad and i stand here not only today to represent them but also my own

3:09:15experiences as being a citizen guelph who's lived here for 11 years car free now in case i don't get

3:09:22to my closing statement i just kindly request that the community vote unanimously in favor of

3:09:27the well's researched and planned staff recommendations for our downtown so i want us to envision a

3:09:34downtown where people can enjoy events social gatherings a sense of community and achieving

3:09:40this goal requires prioritizing transportation equity ensuring that everyone regardless of

3:09:45income race age ability has access to safe affordable convenient and reliable transportation

3:09:51options every member of our community should have the freedom to choose and this is on choose

3:09:58or access their preferred method of transportation or use the options they have available to them

3:10:04and still make it home happy and safely at the end of the day transportation equity is not just a

3:10:10buzzword or something we check off our boxes because we spoke into a few who have been

3:10:15affected we must acknowledge the barriers that they face such as limited access to public

3:10:22transportation bike infrastructure and sidewalks people with barriers whether it be physical financial

3:10:28or perceived an actual safety matters face challenges that we don't often think about in

3:10:32our day-to-day lives and they don't deserve to be left behind because of it growing up in Ottawa

3:10:38i've always been car free i possess the confidence and skills to go on almost any roads and

3:10:48downtown is a great example of where i find myself vehicular cycling so that is where

3:10:54i put myself in the middle of the lane and have to assertively keep my own space for my safety

3:11:00us and this is particularly essential with the dangerous angled parking as a five foot three

3:11:11woman who also occasionally has some mobility issues vehicular cycling possesses a different

3:11:18general challenges it is perceived as bold and many like me would not choose to do so and i don't

3:11:26blame them our goals should be an inclusive infrastructure accessible to people of all

3:11:31ages and abilities and not just those with a personal vehicle or individuals like me who

3:11:37summon the courage to be able to do assertive cycling or have to be aggressive as a pedestrian

3:11:45for golf to be an active transportation connected grid proper bike infrastructure is crucial to

3:11:50downtown gossum station serves as a great example of connecting our citizens to intercity travel

3:11:57where transportation would benefit or active transportation but would benefit as a last mile

3:12:02trip our suggested solution is reserving the convenience on street parking for those who

3:12:10need it the most such as increasing accessible parking spots proper loading zones and strategically

3:12:16placing 10 to 15 minute convenience pickup spots at businesses who require it this would enhance

3:12:23the turnover and facilitate quick stops for businesses and this is drawn from successful

3:12:29examples from Kingston's princess street in essence this approach seeks to balance the diverse

3:12:40needs of our community providing accessible options for everyone while optimizing the use of our

3:12:44limited space while change is often faced with resistance or collective effort can mold the

3:12:51downtown that is no longer merely a thoroughfare but a destination for a residence and a model

3:12:56for communities so once again i'm kindly requesting that we vote in favour of the

3:13:03recommendations placed by the staff today so that we can show that our values for our

3:13:10downtown includes inclusivity sustainability and community engagement that is perfect timing thank

3:13:16you good uh appreciate you being here and that was an excellent delegation are there any questions

3:13:22for miss bid good well thank you very much enjoy your evening thank you our next delegate is

3:13:29Alison Stewart mr clerk is that over the phone or is that in person madam chair it's video okay

3:13:41should we there we go yep hello um hello your gathry and members of the committee of whole

3:13:49my name is allison steward i grew up in this fine city of guava ontario and i am currently

3:13:57a resident of toronto and part-time resident of guelph uh what keeps me coming to guelph on a very

3:14:04regular basis and part-time living is my mother who is aging as we all do and unfortunately has been

3:14:15losing her mobility over the past few years um and so i am experiencing our streets in a new light

3:14:27while i have experienced some form of disability over the years including um losing my site for

3:14:34six months which was terrifying as well as significantly injuring my knee and having to rely

3:14:41on crutches um navigating a city is is you discover all the barriers that we put for

3:14:49people of all ages abilities and mobility forms um and so while i am speaking to you today as an

3:14:57able-bodied woman i'm a year-round cyclist and walker i when i'm in guelph i do occasionally need

3:15:05to drive my mother somewhere and one of the frustrating things regarding um going to downtown

3:15:12which normally my mother has walked to all her life and i continue to is that while there is

3:15:18significant amount of parking and the city staff report certainly mentioned that when you know the

3:15:25past couple of times in less than a month i have been you know trying to bring my mom to some of

3:15:31her favorite stores and there has been no accessible parking and so whereas you know cities around the

3:15:39world are moving to adopting active modes of transportation that doesn't mean that it's barring

3:15:48those that really need to rely on their car such as those who cannot walk or bike or take transit

3:15:56as well as deliveries we need to make sure that they're pick up and drop off areas that there are

3:16:02times where people can deliver their goods so that they can then sell them to people

3:16:07and so one of the things that i would really like to leave with you is that you know as a 53-year-old

3:16:15woman one of the things that shocks me the most is my trip from the guelph train station to my

3:16:22mother's home which is near um exhibition park which is a wonderful walkable area to the downtown

3:16:28there has been absolutely no change to the inverbent the urban environment with with the

3:16:35minor exception of a new apartment building downtown and unfortunately a homeless camp

3:16:40campment in the downtown square which is a blight for other reasons and so the fact that gordon

3:16:49and will it still does not have a protected bike lane and just a painted edge line is something that

3:16:55perplexes me and so a few years ago i began volunteering for gcat because i am a cycling

3:17:05advocate in toronto and in fact volunteered on the blur love bike campaign which led to the creation of

3:17:13the vibrant bluer street west bike lanes the most studied one and a half kilometers in north america

3:17:20and since have got to discover and continue working with the city of toronto to expand

3:17:25their cycling network plan so really please um i would like to echo the calls of the deputants

3:17:34before me um in supporting the city staff recommendations that will help move guelph to

3:17:41the current century which must include active modes of transportation for everyone um so that

3:17:48i can bike and guelph as freely and safely as i do when i'm in toronto um so please vote unanimously

3:17:57to show your support to council thank you for your time mr. it if you can just hang on in case

3:18:04there are questions from members of council just looking around um i would have a question for you

3:18:11just for clarification so i also had parents both of whom had significant mobility issues

3:18:16at different times and it wasn't clear to me whether you were saying we need we need more

3:18:22parking so that you can drop off somebody who who can't walk very far or so so can you clarify for

3:18:29me what what that advocacy piece looks like in terms of accessibility thank you for your question

3:18:36i really appreciate that what i am specifically calling for is that any on-street parking which

3:18:44represents the most valuable real estate in any urban center such as downtown guelph be you know

3:18:50prioritize accessibility followed by business and pick up and drop off so what we've seen this in

3:18:57toronto as well currently the toronto parking authority is needs to revisit their parking

3:19:03because their on-street parking is currently cheaper than it is um a block away at their

3:19:11parking park aides and so we need to spin that so that the able-bodied people that would like to

3:19:18but to drive downtown and have access to car ownership can park and walk the five minutes

3:19:23from the park aid to the stores downtown versus those that have no option but to drive get prioritized

3:19:30so that my mother and her weekly lunch friends can dine more often at the you know at gusto

3:19:36um or at the at la reina as opposed to driving out to where there are you know the malls have

3:19:44parking and she would also like to shop at mismary mac and unless there's accessible parking it's

3:19:51hard for her to do so okay i appreciate that clarification thank you i don't see any other

3:19:56questions so thank oh councillor downer has a question for you just so i just for further

3:20:01clarity through you madam chair so you also are advocating for the protected bike lane bike lanes is

3:20:07that yes absolutely it's for both okay and the pedestrian well i'm advocating specifically for

3:20:13the city staff recommendations which include the protected bike lanes and the improvements to the

3:20:18pedestrian realm um around the intersection of st. george okay and and increased accessible parking

3:20:26yes with the reduction i mean yes prioritize accessible parking but certainly follow the

3:20:33staff recommendation to reduce that and get rid of the angled parking which is very dangerous

3:20:38to prioritize accessible parking okay i get it thanks okay seeing no further questions thank you

3:20:45very much for your delegation mr. stewart and your correspondence next up is uh mike darman

3:20:50who's in the room with us also from gcat mr darman you have five minutes you'll hear a chime at

3:20:58four minutes and 30 seconds and uh then you'll hear a chime again when your time is expired

3:21:07i've got two slides but i just need one i think it's the pie chart actually

3:21:15that's it thanks uh good afternoon members of council maric got three and city staff my name is

3:21:22mike darman and i'm chair of the gcat advocacy committee as i was contemplating what i would

3:21:27present to you today i realized that your ultimate decision on the plan for the future of our down

3:21:32town and beyond is a pivotal moment moment in history do you want to continue to fully car

3:21:37centric downtown or design a complete street plan for our downtown that is more equitable and

3:21:42sustainable for all to enjoy the staff recommendation also aligns well with other city plans quote

3:21:49other city plans and policy documents such as the transportation master plan downtown master plan

3:21:55downtown secondary plan and race to zero direct staff to conduct city businesses in a way that

3:22:00supports growth modal share and modal choice the economy and the environment you've heard me

3:22:06delegate many times and the importance of expanding safe active transportation infrastructure to

3:22:11attract users to shift away from always using a car for everyday short trips this recommendation

3:22:17will will enable existing and new high density developments like the approximate 1500 future

3:22:22residents of the woods development from duke to here on street and the 6000 plus gid fusion

3:22:27residents to get downtown via safe active transportation but we all know this will never

3:22:33happen unless we enable it to happen and connecting downtown active transportation infrastructure to

3:22:39the planned grid is critical to success we all know that home ownership costs have risen sharply

3:22:45and one way to reduce overall expenses is less car or no is a less car or no car lifestyle it costs

3:22:51an average of $1100 a month to own a car according to a recent article for instance residents of

3:22:57montreal are embracing winter bike riding with 100 000 bike trips just in the first half of january

3:23:03of this year a big part of this amazing increase is their safe biking infrastructure and great winter

3:23:10maintenance along with the availability now of e-bikes and cargo e-bikes enabling a viable way

3:23:15to commute year-round i would also like to concentrate another important consideration

3:23:20mentioned and linked in the report a commitment to the un city's race to zero campaign this is also

3:23:26a pivotal moment to our commitment for real climate action on climate change and quote on the link

3:23:32in the staff report on december 20 21 council confirmed the city of guelph's commitment to the

3:23:38race to cities race to zero as part of the united nations race to zero campaign quote there's a

3:23:43significant alignment between the city of guelph's climate change targets and actions and the city's

3:23:48race to zero requirements cities race to zero requirements and the city of guelph climate change

3:23:53initiatives and action alignment to publicly endorse the following principle commit to putting

3:24:00inclusive climate action at the center of all urban decision making to create thriving and

3:24:05equitable communities for everyone so you notice on the slide that 26 percent trans transportation

3:24:11is the highest emitter of greenhouse gases so anything we do to reduce vehicle use and induce

3:24:16more transit and active transportation will be a positive move in the right direction

3:24:21um just last evening actually we had a meeting with the dgba at um the invitation of city staff

3:24:27our gcat chair and i met last evening with two members of the dgba to discuss the staff recommendation

3:24:33and see if we could come to some agreement on what is best for everyone we all want a thriving

3:24:38downtown wherever we do represent active transportation users and the staff recommendation

3:24:43with protected bike lanes including a flexible design that moves the position of the bike lanes

3:24:48depending on the season is a compromise we can agree to when the patio season ends parallel

3:24:53parking spaces return the current temporary added angle parking due to the loss of the baker street

3:24:59surface parking lot is a safety hazard to cyclists and pedestrians when the new library is constructed

3:25:04on baker with 154 additional spaces returned it will make up for the loss of angle parking and as

3:25:10within close proximity to upper windows street businesses we all agreed on a future vision

3:25:16of a much more pedestrianized and beautiful downtown the beauty of the current plan is its

3:25:22flexible design which could easily be changed for many uses sorry got to turn the page the

3:25:30inclusion of bike lanes adds adds a visual and noise buffer from the traffic lanes to

3:25:35pedestrians and patio users in conclusion the staff recommendation is a great balance to

3:25:41consider all users of the street more accurately it allows for safe enjoyable spaces for walkers

3:25:46cyclists patio users and car drivers it will also calm the street and make downtown an amazing

3:25:52destination where one will want to stay and definitely not just another way to get somewhere

3:25:57else more quickly there's also a pivotal moment for the future success of our downtown as a great

3:26:02destination for all street users while addressing our commitment to real climate action and for the

3:26:07record and report reporter Adam a dollinson a bike to the meeting today thanks okay mr darman

3:26:16sit tight we'll see if there are any questions for you counselor goller thank you and through

3:26:25your chair work mr. van rights i wanted to clarify just in the point did you mention that you had a

3:26:32meeting with the representatives from the dgba who did you meet with yesterday i met with the

3:26:39chair and the treasurer okay okay and i really i really appreciate you taking the time to do that

3:26:47one of the one of the concerns that that has been raised by by business owners in the downtown

3:26:55is the the loss of parking in the angle parking and and the question i i hear all the arguments for

3:27:03for for wanting to have those bicycle lanes in the downtown but i was just wondering from from your

3:27:12perspective is there any downside for for people you know with different abilities that may not

3:27:18be able to to cycle downtown by having those fewer parking spaces because of the other bicycle lanes

3:27:26sorry could you repeat that last part of the question i've been quite here yeah yeah um

3:27:30able-bodied people who are fit who are active can cycle year-round i'm wondering

3:27:38whether you know from from your perspective and then the folks that you represent

3:27:43whether there is any any downside to to having fewer parking spaces to

3:27:50grow up for those bicycle lanes um i think like our previous speaker who was also advocating for

3:27:58protected bike lanes we also want obviously some accessible parking spots and for people who

3:28:05with disabilities um we have the park aides all over the city um we just don't see them being

3:28:11utilized enough and asking for even more parking at this stage uh just doesn't make make any you

3:28:17can make sense to us either to be honest with you um it's just a short walk to most of them and with

3:28:22Baker Street returning we can put lots of accessible parking spaces on the street yeah

3:28:29and still have all the things we need you know to make it a complete street yeah yeah that is an

3:28:34excellent point thank you very much and thank you for your presentation thank you chairwoman thank

3:28:38you councillor Goller any other questions for mr darman okay thank you mr darman i don't see any

3:28:44additional questions thanks your delegation and our last delegation is charlie nash of the downtown

3:28:54wealth business association mr nash same rules apply five minutes you'll hear a chime at four

3:29:01minutes and 30 seconds letting you know you have 30 minutes 30 seconds remaining welcome

3:29:11thank you good afternoon council staff and friends uh the downtown business district

3:29:17i think we can agree is the center of commerce within that center of commerce we have three

3:29:22major categories those are services hospitality and retail between those three retail is the most

3:29:31important let me explain if we lost all our restaurants and services retail could likely

3:29:37fill the vacant spaces but if we lost all our retail spaces service and hospitality would not

3:29:45fill those vacancies this is important to note why but because it means that our downtown is first

3:29:52and foremost a shopping district our shopping district is not comprised of chains and national

3:29:58brands it is made up of small passionate and independent merchants while services and hospitality

3:30:05are not under the pressure or threat of the amazons of the world or every major chain and brand having

3:30:11an online store the retail merchant is that threat is enormous and it is growing we have recently

3:30:19lost several retailers and just last week on the verge announced after 26 years they will be closing

3:30:26on march the second many of our anchor anchor retailers are currently reporting record low

3:30:33sales small independent retailers simply can't compete on price selection or the convenience

3:30:40that a few clicks of a mouse can provide this applies to people who live in all ends of the

3:30:47city whether it's the south or west end as well we have to consider what is their incentive to come

3:30:53downtown when they have the same amenities and ample parking in a much more convenient location

3:31:01quite frankly whether you are a cyclist motorist or a transit rider it is more convenient for you

3:31:06to shop online or at the nearest mall to you so the question then becomes how do we compete

3:31:14and what is our competitive advantage in our downtown the answer is experiential we have to

3:31:23provide an experience that is compelling enough to visit downtown and that experience must consider

3:31:30and be be geared towards pedestrians first and foremost if a cyclist transit rider or motorist

3:31:41doesn't transition to be incoming a pedestrian then they add no economic value to our merchants

3:31:46and to our downtown therefore our only our one and our only competitive advantage is that of the

3:31:54pedestrian experience what leads to the best pedestrian experience is beautification there

3:32:02is no substitution for this big beautiful sidewalks with big beautiful patios coupled with facade

3:32:09improvements lighting is critical to that experience it creates an atmosphere and a vibe that draws

3:32:16people in best of all we know it works we created that with the patio program and the dgba recently

3:32:25created that with the spirit of the season weekend with beautiful european style huts and a lit up

3:32:30parade at night which created an atmosphere and experience which shattered all previous attendance

3:32:36records it is for this reason that the dgba supports the same plan that we currently have on cardin

3:32:42street big beautiful sidewalks that have flexibility in their use while providing up to 20 more percent

3:32:5020 more parking on windham street than the current plan being put forward has the city

3:32:57put forth a forecast that says the number of cyclists coming to downtown is set to grow from 3

3:33:04percent to 10 percent by the year 2051 this is a nominal growth and suggests that bike lanes will

3:33:13not have a big impact on bringing people downtown the force the forecast provided translates to one

3:33:22quarter of one percent growth in converting motorist transit riders into cyclists or motorists into

3:33:32cyclists it is simply not impactful and the opportunity cost of parking and beautification

3:33:39that is missed is too great there are just too too few cyclists to incentivize by adding 450 meters

3:33:49of bike pass we have been given comparisons to cities like Toronto like bluer street and why it's so

3:33:57successful the big difference in why it's so successful and we've had abdantation on streets

3:34:03like that is convenience it's simply more convenient to ride a bike than it is to drive with the

3:34:11with the congestion and the gridlock that Toronto experiences thank you mr. nash let's see if you

3:34:19have any questions yes councillor downrass question for you you shouldn't have a question should I thank

3:34:26you through you i know you've been commenting on the bike lanes on windham street but check if you

3:34:34could just comment on the dgba's position on st george's square because i think i don't know

3:34:42whether that'll be a discussion tonight but i think it's important like the the the intersection more

3:34:49or less the way it is versus the circle because i think there is a position we support the the

3:34:55plan being put forward for the square we didn't support the traffic circle or the amended changes

3:35:01to that intersection the traffic circle goes back to the pedestrian experience we didn't think that

3:35:07it was a very good option for pedestrians and the amendment to the the intersection making it

3:35:16more of a straight intersection we thought one that uh was most concerning to us is that we

3:35:25think that douglas treat with that little curvature in it adds a lot of character to our downtown

3:35:29and to that street in particular and that we would lose that any other questions for mr. nash

3:35:40um i have a question so am i understanding that you would prefer the alternative where there

3:35:49there's a two direct bi-directional bike lane on one side and angle parking on the other like do

3:35:54you have a preferred model or is your your recommendation just maximize the parking

3:36:02no i mean parking is certainly a concern um while we have adequate parking right now we do have

3:36:08concern with the parking that supply that might come or restrictions that might come with connoisseur

3:36:15college and with just the natural growth of the city um but our biggest our biggest what we're

3:36:22advocating for is the plan that's on cardin street because of the beautification and i think what we

3:36:28have to imagine is imagine having cardin street on both sides of windham street with a facade

3:36:34improvement program and what kind of experience that would provide and kind of draw that would be for

3:36:41all guile fights uh no matter what your mode of transportation is um i would i think that

3:36:50that is our only competitive advantage when we look at you know the generations coming behind us

3:36:57and how isolated they're becoming society be more becoming more and more isolated with laptops

3:37:02and app for everything with netflix and from working from home we have to give people an experience

3:37:10that is compelling enough to bring them downtown we have tens of thousands of people at all ends of

3:37:16the city that infrequently do not come downtown uh and some never and we've we've heard stories of

3:37:25some of the program we've done where people have come downtown for the first time since they've moved

3:37:29to guelph because of it um so there is a big target that we are missing by not providing an

3:37:36experience in our downtown and so our concern is you know while staff's plan is well intended in

3:37:43everything it doesn't provide or maximize the experience of downtown or what it could be okay

3:37:52thank you and just a follow-up question we're going to be looking at there's a slide in here that

3:37:55talks about the phasing is there anything that you would like council to consider when we're

3:38:00looking at all of the phasing we know the businesses on your cat a really tough time

3:38:05with some your growth improvements so and i know that your report back in through the dgba and we

3:38:11have representatives there but i'm just curious and i have a question later around how that phasing

3:38:17will work so that people can potentially still park at baker or you know next to the cooperators and

3:38:24still access windham but i'd like to hear from you what the concerns of the dgba are with that

3:38:29so a couple of things that we've put forward to staff is

3:38:34one we'd like to see that construction take place in two shifts during the day

3:38:42to expedite the disruption two i think a lot of delays that happen in construction from what i can

3:38:48see and something that's really frustrating is when a project sits with no activity week after week

3:38:55so we've recommended that you know as far as any no construction begin

3:39:00unless those supplies until all the supplies needed from the project from beginning to end

3:39:06are actually on site or stored somewhere with regard to whether to do the whole street at once

3:39:16or to do it in sections or parts we we haven't really come to any we want to hear more from

3:39:24staff and and consider that more as as to what might be best whether we disrupt the whole

3:39:31street at once or we do it half at a time all that i think there's probably pros and cons to both

3:39:39but we're not there yet okay thank you very much so i'll just go look around the horseshoe one more

3:39:45time to see if any questions for mr. Nash i see councillor buildings has a question for you

3:39:51chair and i just want to be really clear because you're comparing what's positive on cartons so

3:39:57are you are you then wanting to see the angled parking on the one side of windham it's a yes or no

3:40:05yes thank you okay margaret three and then councillor Klassen has asked my question

3:40:16uh councillor billings asked my question i was going to ask so thank you

3:40:21councillor Klassen yes through you chair or work uh to um chuck um so i i i'm kind of

3:40:32continuing with the carton street angle um because i think that's an important one so um there's a

3:40:39lot of places in europe for example where um when traffic can slow down quite significantly

3:40:44it becomes a lot safer for both pedestrians and for cyclists and a lot of that for my

3:40:51understanding isn't what's in the discussion today because we're going to be talking about

3:40:56some of the more beautification components of this project later on in the year so you know but this

3:41:02this is an important part of to inform that next part of the conversation so i don't want to

3:41:07leave something on the table um so i just wanted to talk to you a little bit more about that in

3:41:12terms of like what that would mean from a beautification perspective you know what style of

3:41:18road that would mean um and how the visual component of it would also help to slow things down and

3:41:24make things safer well i think i think going to a single lane each way is going to slow things down

3:41:33and i think if you add to that uh 30 kilometer an hour speed limit as well as any other traffic

3:41:41slowing elements like a speed bump between uh say mac danelle and clubeck street on windom

3:41:47and same for the other side on windom between clubeck street and willowit street i would think

3:41:54that that would provide a lot of additional safety and make most cyclists comfortable

3:42:01but let's assume it doesn't why can't we ask cyclists at every have we're at every point

3:42:08of entry coming downtown because the cycle paths there's bike lanes coming downtown are great but

3:42:13why can't we ask cyclists to dismount and lock up their bikes and have a bike lock up at every

3:42:18point of entry downtown and ask them to walk to their destination as we do cars because what we're

3:42:26because what we're what we've been pushing for cars to do is to use the park aides and walk and

3:42:31not to have an expectation to pull right up front to the store and be able to walk and get out i mean

3:42:36that's unrealistic so why don't we put that threshold on cyclists as well sorry i'm having

3:42:47some troubles with the button but thank you did i answer your question i'm sorry yeah i you partially

3:42:53did i think you gave some actual justification for you know what we're talking about today which is

3:42:57important i was also hoping for you to talk a little bit more about some of the you know we're

3:43:03trying to create a destination and just some of those important elements and i know we're going

3:43:07to have that conversation down a little bit further down the road so i didn't want to like put too much

3:43:12emphasis on it but maybe just if you had any comments on on on that second piece of what's

3:43:18coming down the pipe um i'm sorry i am a little hard of hearing so it's okay you know what i'm

3:43:30just it's not it's not it's uh we're gonna have the conversation in april and so i'm just going to

3:43:34take that question off yeah i'll just touch on i think what you're what you asked beautification

3:43:42is key and so this plan that we're putting forth from the dgb's perspective our number one priority

3:43:50is for it to maximize beautification because we believe that the threat is real we're hearing from

3:43:59the merchants in downtown gualph right now and a lot of them are under duress

3:44:05really duress so how are we going to bring people downtown and you know my friends who you know i

3:44:13commend for their for their dedication and the lifestyle that they live and i fully respect it

3:44:20simple fact is there's just not enough of them and by staff's own numbers uh 27 years from now

3:44:30the growth is nominal so we need to take this gun this big elephant gun of opportunity that we have

3:44:37and not try and shoot a mouse with it we have to try and and uh point that at the biggest target

3:44:44and the biggest target is transit riders and motorists and the reality is is that's not going to change

3:44:57thank you check okay thank you very much councillor classon we don't see any additional questions so

3:45:04thank you very much for your delegation and your work on the dgb thank you for your time and consideration

3:45:08okay as promised we are going to take a 10 minute bio break before we table the recommendations

3:45:15and go to council for staff questions i have a request for 15 this is not an auction so 15

3:45:24we'll make it 15 and no more all right thanks mega three okay uh just to those who are joining us

4:02:35online this is your 30 second call to join us again okay great welcome back everybody

4:03:08uh just before i go to the tabling of the recommendations and to council questions i

4:03:14just want to go to staff and see if they have responses to any delegations if there's just any

4:03:21framing that they would like to provide before we start our questions yeah thank you chair work

4:03:29maybe there are a few things that we can help clarify from staff's perspective as relates this

4:03:34work and maybe just another reminder that the the focus of the conversation today is around the

4:03:38environmental assessment and the options that are in front of council certainly conversations

4:03:42around construction phasing and sequencing and those types of things are part of the the

4:03:47forthcoming steps in the process that i've outlined for council through our presentation

4:03:52and then in terms of some of the information heard certainly with respect to things like parking

4:03:57cycling lanes pedestrian space maybe a few clarifications so the the pedestrian realm and

4:04:02pedestrian space something we certainly heard of about from community engagement throughout

4:04:06this process is being very important and so the proposed plan does in fact widen the pedestrian

4:04:11realm i think you heard from from mr. rustworm around 20 so from about five meters wide to

4:04:17about six meters wide the the parking itself is essentially coming back like for like in terms

4:04:25of windham street i know that there is temporary angled parking there now to help offset some of

4:04:30the losses from baker street but certainly pre pre the loss of the bigger parking the amount of

4:04:36spaces proposed through this ea versus what was in effect physically now is the same and so there's

4:04:45not a net loss in terms of things like accessibility and parking certainly the town parking master

4:04:51plan the policies that council approved late last year are there for staff to direct us on how

4:04:57we would you know implement those spaces from an equity you know diversity and inclusion

4:05:02perspective all of those good important factors will be part of the design work that we do do

4:05:07to operate the space and the ultimate road design work that is to come following this ea decision so

4:05:13i hope that provides some clarity um from staff's perspective just around some of the information

4:05:18that was shared okay thank you very much uh just a reminder uh to council to be focused on the

4:05:26recommendations um as indicated okay i will start a speaker's list for questions i see

4:05:33councillor Caton can kick us off thank you through you chair to staff um i was just wondering do we

4:05:42have any stats on accidents or safety issues when it comes to angled parking versus parallel parking

4:05:50because i know just from an experiential point i find trying to back out of those very stressful

4:05:55especially because i have a small car and there's lots of big trucks parked around me so through

4:06:04the through the chair to councillor Caton i i don't have stats like that handy um certainly road

4:06:09safety and our vision zero work was was a factor in the process overall and our staff are all aligned

4:06:16in the recommendation that is put forward um but if that is is something you need i would have to

4:06:21get back to council with that information ahead of uh council at the end of the month

4:06:25i don't i don't need it personally i was just wondering if we had the stats on here thank you

4:06:33okay council gibson there mayor guthrie thank you through chair rork it's it's not a street

4:06:38scraping question but it kind of you might think it is at the beginning but it's there's a justification

4:06:43behind it so how do staff envision separating the bike lanes will it be the waterfilled ball

4:06:49alerts that we use now for the patio program will it be like cemented in um steel posts how does that

4:06:55how do the staff envision separating the bike lanes and i'll get to my operational question

4:07:00for that so through the chair to councillor gibson certainly at this point to your point the detail

4:07:04design work isn't isn't done but certainly the vision is around providing flexibility you may

4:07:10notice visual differences for example you may see things like flexible ballards that can move from

4:07:15point a to point b for example to support the patio program and cycling at the same time and so

4:07:20as much flexibility as possible as the aim so that's that's my question right there so

4:07:25i listened to both both sides of the delegation i think they were terrific i come downtown to the

4:07:30patio program and i see cyclists i see the bike tours happening i think at certain times of the

4:07:34year the cycling infrastructure is going to be terrific but then in winter time you know when

4:07:39the cycling kind of tails off i think the the the vehicular parking will be even more important

4:07:44because that's when people kind of transition a lot of people not all people would transition to

4:07:48using a more vehicle um sort of pathway downtown so is there flexibility in the program to per se

4:07:55expand uh through the patio program and cycling lanes and then retract if we do see patterns in

4:08:02sort of block movements of people using vehicles and using more cyclists in the summer and winter

4:08:07through the chair to councillor gibson so we will we'll go through that with you certainly in

4:08:12the april council workshop but certainly the intent is the flexibility so that you can enable all

4:08:16those programs okay so that's great so if we see big trends summertime huge infliction of

4:08:22cycle tours we know those that infrastructure is important but then in the winter time we're seeing

4:08:26you know one or two a day or we're seeing a lot less traffic on the cycle lanes and perhaps we

4:08:30want to create a more pedestrian friendly environment we can have that conversation at the april meeting

4:08:36through the chair and i think it's it's not an either or conversation um certainly there's just

4:08:41ways to accommodate both okay um i'm satisfied with that answer i have comments but i'll wait

4:08:46till the end if that's okay thank you thank you mayor Guthrie thank you so actually uh councillor

4:08:54gibson asked my exact question i was going to ask the word about flexibility so i'm good um if you

4:09:00would like i'm happy to move the recommendations so they're at least on the floor madam chair

4:09:05yes thank you mayor Guthrie do i have a seconder

4:09:08councillor Goller great thanks sorry councillor class and i saw you just just afterwards

4:09:13you made the podium but not the second mayor Guthrie do you have any questions

4:09:20no okay any other questions i have a couple of questions um

4:09:28i'm just wondering um if we anticipate any impact on transit if there are

4:09:36delivery trucks that are blocking that so if we go from two lanes to one um and there there's a

4:09:42delivery truck there do we expect that there'll be an impact on on transit times so to you chair

4:09:51or work certainly we we did this work in alignment with our transit staff in terms of the multiple

4:09:57workshops the internal expertise and all of that good stuff and and they did not identify those types

4:10:02of concerns i think they were satisfied that the transit program would function um perfectly well

4:10:07with the proposed plan okay and in a similar vein through me to staff um right now on on macdennell

4:10:16you'll often bike or drive down by either both um there's trucks parked right in the middle sometimes

4:10:25because that's where they have to be to make their deliveries so does does the road stay wide enough

4:10:31to enable deliveries because those businesses will all still need those deliveries right through

4:10:38mr. gerrard and councillor orc the the plan is during the final design and in consultation with

4:10:46the business community we will identify loading zone areas where the trucks can get off and where a

4:10:53central location would work so we're not blocking a lane of traffic and holding up transit and

4:10:57the commuting public but that's we'll get into that type of discussion when as we get into the

4:11:02tail design all right thank you i'm i'm trying to be sensitive to the needs of businesses and

4:11:08folks with reduced mobility absolutely and to keep you know in i'm not an engineer and so it

4:11:13needs to be simplified for me so i appreciate that okay those were my questions um yep those are my

4:11:21questions thanks and yeah oh councillor class and questions no comments why don't i go to you first

4:11:28for comments then sure i will try to keep it really short but sweet um thanks to staff um i just

4:11:38want to say you know it's exciting to see this project coming into fruition um i know it's been

4:11:44a long time coming and i i also know that we have to do the infrastructure replacement but i'm also

4:11:49equally excited about the opportunity uh for what that entails and the beautification of the downtown

4:11:56and making it that that hub that you know central location st george's square has the potential

4:12:02of really attracting a lot of people and becoming a a place for programming more so than it already is

4:12:08so i'm really excited to see this coming to uh be and i will be supporting it i too really want to

4:12:16support the business community um i know what a lot of businesses are going through um and i think

4:12:22that this project is a way to get to that um and and all of the opportunity for that is going to come

4:12:29in april there's going to be so many discussions um and i know that even just with the ea component

4:12:34of this project there's been ample opportunity for public consultation and i participated in a lot of

4:12:39it uh so thank you very much for everything that was put together and um look forward to the next steps

4:12:49okay i have councillors gibson coran uh downer and mayor guthrie with comments councillor gibson

4:12:57yeah thank you through you chair roark so i as i read through the report this week and i looked

4:13:01through the presentation i just i remembered uh late uh councillor bell and i just thought i would

4:13:06share it i told a couple of councillors of my first week at council he uh he said hey councillor

4:13:10gibson you want to you want to do something with me and i said sure what is that he said well let's

4:13:14do a notice of reconsideration for st george's square and i was super naive and i said sure yeah

4:13:19that sounds great councillor bell and you know his his uh his communication didn't always land on

4:13:25council but i'm telling you he had great ideas he always had ideas he always he always had a an

4:13:29opinion so um credit to him he had the idea he didn't like the design of the big circle round

4:13:34about him st george's square and he wanted it revisited and here we are you know 10 years later

4:13:39changing that design so i want to give a little hat tip to him and um and thanks staff for for

4:13:44the work they've done re-engaging the community i think it's a good outcome and i'm excited for it

4:13:48to move forward but i wanted to share that story because he comes to mind off of when i'm reading

4:13:51reports thanks okay councillor Caron thank you and thank you councillor gibson for for evoking

4:13:59that memory because you're right we we we come up with a plan and then 10 years later things

4:14:03change conditions change the the commercial environment changes um and certainly our downtown

4:14:09is one of those places that's constantly evolving so i'm voting uh to support staff recommendations

4:14:14and my number one reason is is the word i heard from every question was flexibility flexibility

4:14:20flexibility and uh we we want more street trees i know we're going to get into all of the the

4:14:26details in april and that we're only talking about um i like the acronym derp downtown

4:14:33infrastructure renewal tonight um but we've got the basics for that level of flexibility and i

4:14:38think the beautification and speaking to the dgba delegation beautification is is is the top layer

4:14:45and today we're talking about the bottom layer uh or the middle layer and and i do see that that

4:14:51that april meeting is going to be crucial to giving the downtown community the confidence that they

4:14:57need to be making investments in their businesses investments in public realm um and and and and

4:15:03that beautification is is coming and i look forward to that discussion thank you councillor Caron

4:15:10councillor doner yes uh so thanks and um thank you to the dba for when i got on it convinced me

4:15:18that the traffic circle was not a good idea because i was a big fan of that for many years um

4:15:25and and and i can see what they're saying just so it's just was didn't take long the visual was not

4:15:32good um however i do i do disagree respectfully on the the issue of the bike the bike lanes that i

4:15:39and i agree with you know and again i'm really happy that chuck came and reminded everybody

4:15:45about the beautification issue because we did cut that budget um and that's really important for us to

4:15:51remember in april that um you know we said we'd have that discussion then about going from best to

4:15:58to good and that the people's experience in the downtown is what brings them there um it's it becomes

4:16:04a desert how do you turn it into a destination where people have a great experience um i like the

4:16:10flexibility too i think the if i put the bike lanes on one side i see confusion for people biking

4:16:19downtown they're gonna still come up the street on the other side where there is no bike lanes and

4:16:25then if you have angle parking there's it's it doesn't feel safe to me i know it's added our

4:16:30extra parking spaces while we've lost baker um which is helpful and yet it's easier to pull into

4:16:37but it's not easier pulling out of um so i would i would say that uh in even on cardin street but

4:16:44i do like the flexibility and and where councillor gibson was going about the summers and the winters

4:16:50and like what can we do around that and overall i look forward to the whole redevelopment of the

4:16:58infrastructure and the streetscape in the downtown it is so long overdue those are my comments thank

4:17:07you councillor down and councillor Caton thank you through you um i am really excited about this

4:17:15i love the protected bike lanes i am a big fan of the patios in the summer and i go down with my

4:17:21daughter all the time but i never let her drive on the road because she is 12 and she will veer into

4:17:26something and she's short so people don't see her as well as they see other cyclists and this is just

4:17:32going to increase the time that i spend downtown eating and probably increase my poor credit card

4:17:39but um i think that it's going to be generally great for everybody i love the fact that it's going

4:17:44to be on both sides of the streets because there are folks like me who use their bicycles

4:17:48for accessibility devices and i know there are more seniors out there getting adult trikes

4:17:53so so long as we start getting more bike parking in the downtown as well then um i i love this plan

4:18:02thank you councillor Caton mayor guthrie thank you and madam chair i did have one quick question

4:18:08before a comment if you if you wouldn't mind thank you and through you i was just wondering

4:18:12is there a possibility for april um you know like there's all this like virtual reality and like

4:18:21three-dimensional flyovers and stuff like that that sometimes we see developers do when they

4:18:26have like a building that they're doing like is there is there an option for us and the community

4:18:32to be able to see like in a real visual three-dimensional way what the downtown could look like

4:18:44so through the chair to you mayor guthrie thank you for that uh that feedback and

4:18:48i don't want to provide any spoilers but i think you will be satisfied with the visuals at the

4:18:54engagement session okay we're on the same wavelength that's good uh yes or we're wrapping together

4:19:03it's good so good um i was going to go further with that but i'm going to stop uh

4:19:11so uh my only comment is is that i am viewing this moment as more of a technical decision

4:19:24and and that's what's grounding me here uh about supporting it because to me the biggest issue is

4:19:31going to be like april and and those conversations as councillor coston has said as well um and i just

4:19:40as a preemptive sort of comment to april though i'm really good to be focused on this flexibility

4:19:47part as councillor Caron and councillor gibson brought up is and so you know i look forward to

4:19:53that discussion there um and yeah and that hopefully we all rally around this opportunity of this like

4:20:00literally once in a lifetime opportunity to do amazing things in our downtown core so um yeah

4:20:07looking looking forward to the discussion uh come april and uh thank you to staff uh in the

4:20:12community to get us this far thank you mayor guthrie councillor chou thank you through you

4:20:20madam chair i'll just be quick just to add my two cents for for someone that represents the south

4:20:26end in particular like i have to refer back and look at the transportation master plan and look at

4:20:33the framework as a whole and you know i'm looking at schedule one of the recommended network and

4:20:38i i do think to be fair the expectation has been set a long time ago that there is some kind of barrier

4:20:44free free um separation um or barrier separation rather for cyclists and i do think flexibility

4:20:54is the work here and also i think just to remind everyone as well in the audience this is still

4:21:00very high level the role plans that which we saw today have no dimensions they have the texture

4:21:05the materiality i think all of those things we need to remind be reminded not to set our subconscious

4:21:11preconception preconceptions too early because there is a lot of room for a conversation i think

4:21:17for me that was kind of the selling point that we're going to have this broader conversation

4:21:21in april and be able to tackle on like the details so i think with that being said uh i will support

4:21:28this as well so thank you for all your work thank you councillor chou i'm excited we're going to get

4:21:34pipes in the ground that will allow for a lot more housing downtown um i mean that's what this is all

4:21:41about right we've got to tear up the roads to fix those pipes and then we're thinking while we're

4:21:44doing that work how do we realign i think it's a historic investment in downtown when you look at

4:21:51baker uh windham street um all of the intensification that's going to be coming including some

4:21:58institutional anchor tenants so this is an enabling conversation and i find that really

4:22:05exciting both from an economic development and a housing perspective so as a chair of infrastructure

4:22:11i'm digging that um i am digging that and and to councillor chou's good point you know there

4:22:19there are plans that call for a separate bike infrastructure from clear road all the way down

4:22:24to wellington and uh and we are going to improve that connectivity i have heard comments this week

4:22:30about you know if you've got bike lanes downtown that don't connect to other things or that aren't

4:22:35cleared that that is a challenge and a barrier that's an operational question but i just want

4:22:39people to know those comments were heard and i think uh it's important to continue to encourage

4:22:44people to go downtown now throughout the construction and then definitely when there's this fantastic

4:22:51new unveiling so with that i will call a vote i'm just taking one less scan for comments i don't see

4:22:59any and so i will call a vote or any opposed to the recommendations on the floor i see none and that

4:23:07is unanimous okay i need somebody to move adjournment oh i will go to sorry any staff announcements

4:23:15one's going twice okay thank you very much to our staff this is the culmination of a lot of work

4:23:20and also the beginning of more work um i need somebody to move adjournment

4:23:27mayor guthrie and councillor classon seconds that anybody opposed to adjournment no wonderful

4:23:34thanks everybody have a lovely evening