The following article appeared in the May 3 edition of the Guelph Tribune.
City council has overwhelmingly approved a new downtown plan that paves the way for highrises as tall as 18 storeys and that was described by one councillor as “a real game changer.”
Only councillors Gloria Kovach and Bob Bell dissented as council backed the new downtown secondary plan on an 11-2 vote.
The plan is the result of the first comprehensive review of the downtown since the 1970s, said Mayor Karen Farbridge.
“It is signalling a big change . . . the status quo is not going to bring us the downtown the city deserves,” Farbridge said near the end of Monday’s four-hour meeting.Coun. Ian Findlay, who owns a downtown business, said not much has happened in the past 30 years in terms of change in the downtown. The new secondary plan is “a real game changer, a real paradigm shift,” he said. “This is a watershed moment for the downtown.”
Coun. Cam Guthrie praised the overall thrust of the plan. He said that the overall vision is “quite good” and that people have been telling him it’s “about time” such a plan was created for the downtown.
Coun. Leanne Piper said that for her, the new plan is largely about “building beautifully” in the downtown. She said she’ll be applying this maxim to scrutinize the first highrise proposal – an application to build an 18-storey mixed-use condo tower at the corner of Macdonell and Woolwich streets, which comes to council for approval May 7.
Council’s overwhelming approval of the new secondary plan came in spite of opposition from some of the 15 delegations who spoke at Monday’s meeting, and from many more who wrote to council urging no highrises downtown.
Highrises will impose upon Guelph’s “timeless European style, beauty and ambiance that we all enjoy,” Tony Darmon told council. “I fear we will lose the very heart of what makes Guelph special.”
There are concerns about “a concrete canyon forming along the Speed River,” said Stan Kozak, representing a group of downtown riverside property owners known as the Allan’s Mill Pond Neighbourhood Group.
“Development in the downtown should remain at a human scale,” said Kozak. He proposed a 10-storey cap on the height of downtown buildings, except for those considered “exceptionally beautiful.”
The city’s core now has 96 people and jobs per hectare. The city’s growth target calls for 150 people and jobs per hectare by 2031 – the year used in the province’s Places to Grow legislation.
There have traditionally been a lot more jobs downtown than residents living there, and one of the new secondary plan’s “big ideas” is to foster more of a balance, said David de Groot, a city hall urban designer. Guelph’s growth target is 8,500 residents and 7,500 jobs in the core by 2031.
The new secondary plan is focused on “design excellence,” and it tries to strike a balance between growth and maintaining the city’s historic core, de Groot said.
Buildings will be restricted to six storeys or less on a “great majority” of the properties downtown, he said. The tallest highrises, up to 18 storeys, are to be in four areas on the periphery of the historic core.
As well as criticism, the new secondary plan drew praise from some delegations. “It is not perfect, but we find it measured, respectful and grounded in reality,” said Marty Williams, executive director of the Downtown Guelph Business Association.
Developer Tom Lammer, a member of the Downtown Advisory Committee, said it’s a good plan for changing the downtown, which he said has been “stuck in idle” for many years.
The secondary plan provides for the possibility of “bonusing” in areas of the downtown where eight-, 10- and 12-storey buildings are to be allowed. Up to two extra storeys would be allowed for such buildings in exchange for some sort of “contribution to the public good,” said Ian Panabaker, the city’s corporate manager for downtown renewal.
However, there won’t be any bonusing at the four spots where 18-storey building are to be allowed. This is to make sure that no downtown building rises higher than Church of Our Lady, council was told.
Bell said 18-storey buildings shouldn’t be permitted “without any identifiable community benefit.”
He proposed a height limit at the four spots to 12 storeys, with more storeys beyond the 12 to be allowed only through bonusing.
This was defeated 10-3, with only Kovach and Coun. Jim Furfaro joining Bell in support of his amendment.