The following article appeared in the June 8 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
In an apparent attempt to head off an Ontario Municipal Board hearing, city councillors Monday night imposed tight restrictions on a proposed Sikh temple and encouraged staff to help both sides of the contentious issue to get along.
Councillors endorsed a staff recommendation granting the Guelph Sikh Society the required zoning bylaw amendment to build a temple on its Clair Road East property. But in so doing, politicians added a few conditions to the nearly two dozen included in the exhaustive staff report.
Councillors established the total allowable occupancy of the building at 200 people in the first phase, and 400 after the second phase is built. They also blocked construction of the second phase for at least five years, to allow the Westminster Woods neighbourhood time to get used to the development.
The staff report indicated the Sikh Society was willing to have the phase one occupancy capped at 200 in the prayer hall and in the lower-level dining room, with the understanding the rooms would not be used at the same time so the total building occupancy would be 200.
In the second phase this would change to an occupancy of 400 in each room.
However some councillors were concerned while the Sikh Society does not intend to use the prayer hall and dining room at the same time, there would be nothing preventing it from doing so and doubling the anticipated number of people in the building.
Councillors also directed staff to consider mediation or facilitation during the site plan approval process in an attempt to narrow the gap between the Sikhs and opponents of the temple plan.
City development manager Scott Hannah said staff considered facilitation, but felt the two sides were so polarized there would be no point.
But Mayor Karen Farbridge cautioned councillors not to drag their heels, as the Planning Act requires the city to make a decision in a timely manner and the Sikh Society could choose to appeal to the OMB if councillors delayed the vote.
“Really at this point council should be focusing on the report in front of them and whether they support the recommendation or not,” the mayor said.
John Valeriote, lawyer for the Sikh Society, called the conditions imposed on his client “restrictive” but said the society was willing to accept them.
Adam Minnion, chair of the Westminster Woods Residents’ Association, took issue with some of the findings in the 69-page staff report and threatened to challenge them before the Ontario Municipal Board.
However Minnion also said if the city offered mediation between the sides “we are 100 per cent in favour of that.”
Curiously, one of the issues with which councillors took the most exception was one on which the Sikhs and their opponents seemed to have reached a consensus.
In his presentation, Valeriote asked councillors to remove from the proposal a pedestrian walkway from the site leading north to Goodwin Drive, and even agreed to erect a fence. The lawyer said this issue had been raised by neighbours, and the Sikh Society was willing to block the access to address the concerns.
But several councillors were uncomfortable cutting off the pedestrian access, which would require those attending the site on foot — or by Guelph Transit, which stops on Goodwin Drive — to walk around the block to access the temple from Clair Road.
Jim Riddell, the city’s director of community design and development, said planning staff were also opposed to blocking that access, noting the importance of having walkable communities.
The walkway issue is among those to be discussed between the Sikh Society and its neighbours during the site plan approval process.