As residents living within 2 blocks of the proposed development, my wife and I are absolutely opposed to this project. We feel that it is wrong on a number of different levels.
Our first concern is the enormity of the project, both the size and the potential number of people who will live there. A 14 and 16 story building in the heart of the south end residential neighbourhood of Guelph is ludicrous. It raises serious issues related to parking, shade, light pollution, privacy, traffic congestion, security, respect for property, vandalism, noise, litter and last but not least our property values. We would think that any increase in the tax base as a result of this development would, in the longer term, be offset by decreasing taxes as a result of decreased property values.
We also don’t think a building of this size, or anything close to that size, is in keeping with anyone’s image of Guelph. It would be totally out of character with all buildings around it and as it is already an elevated location, could be seen for miles. In fact, in the history of Guelph, there has not been any development of this kind of scope within such a respected residential neighbourhood as the south end.
We think the process needs to be slowed down to allow for serious investigation, we also feel that our neighbourhood group which likely will become a legal entity shortly, needs to be kept involved and informed of the process and allowed to have input. We think the city should be funding studies by urban planners, engineers, sociologist, etc as to what is the best use for that property to be able to assess the situation. It is not reasonable to rely on the experts retained by the developer.
It is our understanding that Abode is proposing the building house at least 1500 students. An influx of people so vast can’t be supported by the area in terms of services and parking. We already have considerable traffic congestion and many accidents in the area. We’ve been informed by the developer that there will be security on site 24/7. An important point is that on University property, the Campus Police have real power to keep unruly students under control, private security will have no power over this development and certainly the campus Police have no jurisdiction there. We have heard horror stories of other student development in our city and others, we fear the same would happen in our neighbourhood. We feel that this alone is a potential problem that requires further investigation, what is the social impact of housing 1500 students on 1 site.
One other potential problem is what would happen if the project failed, what would these buildings become? This would be a disaster. My understanding is that they are asking for a variance for reduced requirement for parking spots which would create even more of an issue if this were ever to be converted from a student residence to residential apartments or condos.
We believe that the University is a huge part of what makes this city a vibrant and interesting place in which to live. We are not against student housing, after all we live directly across from the University and love it, we use university services often and appreciate them greatly, this is however a completely different story. RR