Council Meeting June 7th – 410 Clair Road East

I am writing to express my sincere disappointment with your recent decision to re-zone 410 Clair Road East to permit the building of a Sikh temple. As someone who has followed the process closely, provided correspondence for consideration and who has spent a considerable amount of time investigating the proposal, I cannot understand how, based on the information you had in front of you at the June 7th Council Meeting, you could approve the rezoning application for 410 Clair Road East. I have outlined my particular concerns below.

1. The traffic report provided by the Sikh Society and accepted by City staff, the Mayor and City Council is scientifically flawed and terribly inaccurate. The data used to form conclusions about traffic volumes in the Clair Road/Victoria Road area is outdated (see map in report) and does not reflect either the current traffic situation or the traffic situation in the near-future with the construction of the development to the East of the proposed temple and to the South of Clair Road. Why would City staff, the Mayor and Council accept this traffic report and apply it to this application when it uses such out-of-date data and fails to recognize recent development or near-future development plans. This issue was raised by a delegation at the June 7th Council Meeting and yet no one questioned it. Traffic issues have been a key concern of residents. To essentially ignore the fact the traffic report is flawed and proceed with the zoning by-law change is negligent.

2. Watching the discussion around 146 Downey Road at the June 7th meeting, it was obvious that the Mayor, City Council and City staff chose to handle that zoning change much more reasonably than they did 410 Clair Road East. Facilitated meetings could have gone a long way back in February to help bring the two sides together. It is interesting and very disturbing to learn that the City had three facilitated meetings with the applicant and residents around 146 Downey Road but not one with the applicant and the residents of 410 Clair Road East. Why the difference? Scott Hannah’s assertion that both parties (Guelph Sikh Society and Westminster Woods Residents’ Association) seemed unwilling to work together is not true. I am a member of the WWRA and I know the WWRA tried numerous times to work with the Guelph Sikh Society to try and resolve some of the residents’ concerns. Unfortunately, the WWRA were unable to get the Guelph Sikh Society to meet with them. The WWRA were directed to the Guelph Sikh Society lawyer. It was only as we approached the June 7th Council Meeting that some members of the Guelph Sikh Society showed an interest to meet with the WWRA and by then, it was really too late. The Mayor, City Council and City staff, have all contributed to the polarization of the Westminster Woods community by failing to act and set up a fair facilitation process as was done with 146 Downey Road.

3. It was apparent as I watched City Council debate whether the total occupancy maximum belonged in the by-law or as part of the site plan, that many Councillors and the Mayor did not understand the importance of this issue to the residents in the neighbourhood. It was not something that could just be pushed into the site plan phase and discussed later. I was surprised and disappointed to hear that now the occupancy limit of 400 people is really 400 upstairs and 400 downstairs, totalling 800 with the second phase of the temple. Why do these numbers keep changing and why can’t we, the residents’, ever seem to get a straight answer on this? I also take great issue with the Mayor’s attempt to push to the next Council agenda item without a re-vote on the 410 Clair Road East by-law amendment once changes were made to set the maximum occupancy in the site plan phase rather than a by-law. I commend Councillor Billings for pushing the Mayor to have a re-vote. The occupancy issue was a huge one and should never have been pushed along as it was by the Mayor, without debate.

4. The proposal to have a 30 day facilitation period whereby the WWRA and the Guelph Sikh Society could work with the City to try and resolve issues before voting on the by-law amendment was a smart idea and was outright rejected by the Mayor citing fears that the applicant had the right to a timely decision on their application. Again, I strongly disagree with the Mayor’s assessment of this. The City never offered to facilitate anything prior to last night. The Guelph Sikh Society opted not to meet with the WWRA when they tried to contact them over several months and that was the Guelph Sikh Society’s choice and so they could have waited 30 days to try and work with the community they want to build in. As taxpaying citizens and voters in the neighbourhood where the temple is to be built, we also have rights and we should have been provided an opportunity to have input in the process before 410 Clair Road East was rezoned. By denying residents this opportunity, the Mayor has essentially ensured that this application will go to the OMB and angered many residents.

5. The issue as to whether the site on which the temple is to be built should have been rezoned as it was came up and City staff, the Mayor and Council failed to address and resolve this issue adequately. If the site has been zoned R4A34 and allows for beds in up to 25% of the building, I and many residents will take issue with this as the June 7th Council Meeting was the first time this was ever discussed. I do not believe for a minute that the decision to zone it R4A34 rather than R1 Religious is because of the possibility that the Sikh temple might fail as suggested by City staff. It should have been zoned R1 Religious, if it is going to be a religious building.

6. I was confused and rather surprised by the Guelph Sikh Society’s decision to ask that the walkway be removed from Goodwin. If you listened to how their lawyer worded the request, it was not worded in such a way that leads me to believe this was being requested to appease residents rather that this was something the Guelph Sikh Society wanted. It was extremely frustrating to hear this announcement and then not have one City Councillor or the Mayor ask the Guelph Sikh Society why they wanted the walkway removed.

Initially my husband and I were willing to accept a Sikh temple in our neighbourhood if our concerns (temple size, parking and traffic issues, building design) were adequately addressed as we stated in our letter to the Mayor and City Council dated February 22, 2010. Unfortunately, we the residents living in the neighbourhood where the temple is to be build were not adequately consulted, not by the Guelph Sikh Society and not by City staff, City Council or the Mayor before the decision was made to rezone 410 Clair Road East.

Finally, I wish to state publicly that I am very disappointed in the Guelph Sikh Society for the way they decided to handle their application. If and when the proposed temple is built, the Guelph Sikh leadership will need to interact and communicate with the people of Westminster Woods. They cannot have all of these discussions in a controlled environment with controlled discussions. All disagreements cannot be handled by City Hall or through lawyers. If this is the plan, the relationship between the two parties is doomed. There are “wing-nuts” everywhere but that shouldn’t prevent there from being conversations between reasonable people. Again, if the Guelph Sikh leadership had spoken to the representatives of Westminster Woods when initially invited to, and at least showed a willingness to work with the community, residents would have felt that the Guelph Sikh leadership respected the community they plan to build their temple in. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen and the City didn’t help it to happen either. I sincerely hope Westminster Woods can survive the polarization of the community.SM