The following article appeared in the May 2 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
The business community likes it. Local developers like it. Even a prominent environmentalist and members of a local residents’ association – formed largely in opposition to it – have given it a tentative stamp of approval.
“When you take a look at that combination … that’s a pretty balanced, widespread base of support,” acknowledges Coun. Karl Wettstein.
Heading into Monday night’s council meeting, Wettstein was already impressed with the proposed Downtown Secondary Plan “but my view was reinforced by that level of support.”
More formally known as Official Plan Amendment 43, the document more than two years in the making plots a course for development in Guelph’s downtown core.
It is a bold vision, dominated by the tripling of height restrictions downtown from the current six storeys to 18 on a few select properties, and the creation of a riverfront park where now there is a large commercial plaza at Gordon and Wellington streets.
Coun. Ian Findlay said the document represents “a paradigm shift” in how the city intends to attract private investment to its core.
About time, Findlay says.
In the nearly three decades he has owned his downtown video store, Findlay has seen little private investment in the core except the opening of the failed Eaton Centre in the mid-1980s.
“Fires notwithstanding,” he said at the council meeting, “there hasn’t been much impetus for development.”
He was talking about redevelopment of the Gummer building, which is literally rising from the ashes after a fire five years ago heavily damaged it and two of its neighbours where Douglas Street runs off St. George’s Square.
“Fires seem to be the only thing that gets anything built downtown,” Findlay said in an interview the morning after the lengthy council meeting. “It was a bit of a joke but it’s also true. The redevelopment of the Gummer building would not be happening if not for the fire.”
The Downtown Secondary Plan seeks to spur private investment in a less incendiary but equally dramatic fashion.
“We just haven’t seen any private investment in the downtown, and part of that is because the investment community did not have a clear sense of what we wanted,” Findlay said. “I think this (plan) is going to change the downtown and I think it’s going to change it for the better.”
Not all are convinced.
Coun. Gloria Kovach was one of two councillors who voted against the plan, along with Coun. Bob Bell.
Both raised concerns during the council meeting about the idea of “bonusing;” that is, allowing developers to barter for more height in exchange for some community good such as improved efficiency.
Bonusing is not envisioned in the 18-storey height areas, but Bell and Kovach both suggested the height on those sites should be capped at a lower number and then developers be allowed to apply for bonusing up to 18 storeys total.
Bell’s motion to that effect was shot down 10-3, with just Kovach and Coun. Jim Furfaro joining him.
“For me that was a huge decision factor,” Kovach said Tuesday in explaining why she voted against the plan. “I’m shocked the appetite on council to push for sustainable development (through bonusing) just wasn’t there.”
Kovach was also troubled by the proposal to eventually buy the land at Gordon and Wellington to create parkland.
The first test of the new downtown plan will come quickly. On Monday, councillors will consider an application from London’s Tricar Group, which is seeking the Official Plan and zoning bylaw amendments required to proceed with an 18-storey condominium tower – with ground-floor commercial space – for the property at Macdonell and Woolwich streets.
City staff has already recommended council approve the project, which would sit on one of four properties around the periphery of the downtown core on which the Downtown Secondary Plan envisions such tall buildings.
Wettstein said something “very significant” had to be done. The need to get more people living downtown has been considered key to the core’s success for more than two decades, but until now there was little interest in building new housing downtown.
“Nothing’s happened for 25 years with the current approach to residential development … which has been identified since at least 1990 as a key driver to overall downtown redevelopment,” Wettstein said.
The city is also wrestling with the realities of the province’s Places to Grow legislation, which has identified downtown Guelph as an “urban growth centre.” Under that legislation, the core should see 150 people and jobs per hectare – up from the current 96.
While some residents may be reluctant to admit it, Wettstein said, Guelph is simply not the small town it once was.
“How long can you continue to hold on to a small town that really is no longer a small town?” Wettstein asked rhetorically in an interview Tuesday.