Good morning Neighbour,
We hope this update finds you and yours in good health. Before we get into what's happening this month at Guelph City Council, we wanted to share an invitation to attend a Celebration of Life for former Councillor Bob Bell who passed away unexpectedly earlier this year. The gathering will take place this Saturday, February 11, between 2-4 p.m. at the Guelph City Hall Galleria, with remarks at 3 p.m. For more information, you can read this article:
https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/celebration-of-life-set-for-former-councillor-bob-bell-6492564
In this update you'll find the following:
1) February 7 Committee of the Whole Update
- Operations Facilities Update
- Circular Food Economy Program Update
- Guelph Greener Homes Program (formerly Property Assessed Clean Energy)
2) Council Planning Meeting for Tuesday, February 14th
- 205-213 Speedvale Avenue East - 'Sustainable Intentional Living Community' Approval
- 58 Wellington Street East - Complete Application for a 23-storey mixed-use building
3) Council Training Workshops
- February 8 - Long-Term Care Services and the Role of the Municipality
- February 15 - Code of Conduct and Municipal Conflict of Interest Act Training
- February 22 - Strategic Plan Refresh: Workshop #2
4) Ward 2 Events, Opportunities & Resources
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1) February 7 Committee of the Whole Update
There were three main topic covered at this week's Committee of the whole meeting.
Operations Facilities Update - In 2019, Council approved the staff recommendation to consolidate city operations in a single campus on Dunlop Road and the associated price tag of $228M. Since then, environmental studies and site plans have shown the proposed consolidation is not optimal. The new plan consolidates Transit and fleet operations at Dunlop Road and, at a later date, upgrades buildings on Municipal street and at other locations. You click here to read more about this project update and to watch the video recording of this Committee of the Whole meeting. You can watch the staff presentation on the Operations Facilities Update by going to the 1 hour 29 minute mark in the video recording.
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This image shows the current and proposed locations for the different operations teams. In the previous staff proposal, the sites at 45 and 50 municipal would have been vacated, with everything moving to Watson-Stone. Under the new proposal, the facilities at 45 and 50 municipal will be kept, upgraded and repurposed.
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There are two main concerns for us in this facilities update. First, because of the construction delays due to COVID, we are now looking at a reduced scope of work for the same price tag, and every year we delay will only cost us more money in higher construction costs and higher maintenance costs for our ageing facilities. Second, is the pace at which we are building projects - if this project is approved as recommended by staff, the City will be building this Operations Facility at the same time we are undertaking the building of the Baker Street Redevelopment project (which includes a municipal parkade and a new main branch library), and the South End Recreation Centre. If this update is approved by Council on February 28th, staff will bring back an updated budget and project timeline as part of the 2024-2027 multi-year budget later this year.
We would love to hear your feedback on the scope and pace of this operations facilities update.
Circular Food Economy Program Update - In 2019, Guelph and Wellington-County were awarded $10 million in federal government funding in a national competition to develop a circular food economy. Core funding ends in December 2023. This presentation outlines the results of the Our Food Future and Circular Opportunity Innovation Launchpad (COIL) initiatives and the proposed path forward. You can click here to see the staff report and presentation. The table below outlines the accomplishments of the Smart Cities team:
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Guelph Greener Homes Program (formerly Property Assessed Clean Energy) - Staff brought forward a recommendation to launch the Guelph Greener Homes Program (formerly called Property Assessment Clean Energy). You can click here to access the video recording of the staff presentation (at the 2 hours and 46 minute mark) and the draft bylaw.
This program will allow home owners to take out a loan to do energy efficiency repairs and upgrades to their homes, and that loan will be repaid through their property taxes. The program is funded through a loan and a grant from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and the City of Guelph. The funding includes:
- Up to $10 million interest free FCM loan
- Up to $5 million FCM grant
- Requires up to $3.75 million City of Guelph contribution
In total, $13.5M will be available for Guelph homeowners for interest-free loans for home energy efficiency upgrades that are repaid through property tax, and $5M will be used to develop and run the program, and provide rebates for low income households to install heat-pumps. This is a critical program that will support our community in meeting our carbon reduction targets.
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We invite you to take a moment to review the proposed bylaw for this program. You can access the draft bylaw it by clicking here.
These items will be coming back to the Council meeting for approval on Tuesday, February 28 at 6:30 pm. To sign-up as a delegate for either the Operations Facilities Update or the Guelph Greener Homes Program, you can use this form or email clerks@guelph.ca by 10am on Friday, February 24th.
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2) Council Planning Meeting for Tuesday, February 14th
205-213 Speedvale Avenue East - 'Sustainable Intentional Living Community' Approval - This project is coming to Council with a staff recommendation for approval. We are quite excited to see this three storey, 21-unit co-housing development, as it fills in that 'missing middle' type of housing between high density and single family homes. The gardens and wooded rear yard area will be kept and used as common amenity area for the proposed development. You can find the staff report and complete application by clicking here.
58 Wellington Street East - Complete Application for a 23-storey mixed-use building - This is will be the hot topic at this month's Planning meeting. You can review the application and staff presentation by clicking here.
This application includes a 23-storey mixed-use building containing 250 residential units, 3 commercial/residential units and 714 square metres of retail commercial space at the corner of Wellington Street and Wyndham Street South. At this public meeting, staff will make a presentation and the public and Council are invited to share feedback. At the end of this meeting Council will 'receive' the complete application, and staff will begin to review the proposal and to consider the staff and public feedback. Two things to keep in mind as we consider this application. First, this site is zoned for a maximum of 18 storeys. Second, just last year the Ontario Land Tribunal approved an application which had previously been denied by City Council, allowing Skyline to build a 16 storey building across from the Police Station, where our official plan and zoning bylaws allow a maximum of 8 storeys.
To delegate or send in your comments, contact clerks@guelph.ca before 10am tomorrow morning, or reach out to us by replying to this email and let us know how you feel about these developments.
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3) Council Training Workshops
This month there are a two workshops for Council and a second workshop as part of the Strategic Plan refresh.
February 8 - Long-Term Care Services and the Role of the Municipality - This was an interesting workshop presented by staff on the relationship between The Elliott long-term care facility and the City of Guelph. The Elliott is coming to Council later this year with a proposals to build an additional 29 long-term care beds which would supplement their current 85 long-term care beds. For reference, the waitlist for long-term-care beds in Ontario is now over 40,000 long, and the wait-list for The Elliott has over 700 people on it. You can see the staff report and watch the presentation recording by clicking here.
February 15 - Code of Conduct and Municipal Conflict of Interest Act Training - The presentation for this workshop can be found here, and you can watch this workshop by going to guelph.ca/news/live on Wednesday, February 15 at 6pm.
February 22 - Strategic Plan Refresh: Workshop #2 - This workshop will be to review and update the draft strategic objectives (and outcomes) under each pillar, as well as to educate City Council on the ongoing strategic plan refresh process. This workshop will also be an opportunity to build upon City Council’s knowledge of the strategic plan refresh process and how their priorities are reflected in the Strategic Plan and multiyear budget. You can find the draft Strategic Plan documents as well as the recoding of Workshop #1 which took place on January 24th, by clicking here.
Your thoughts and feedback on this Strategic Plan update is welcome and appreciated. Through this update Council will be setting the new goals for our community over the next four years.
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Ward 2 Events, Opportunities & Resources
International Women's Day - March 8th
Celebrate International Women's Day in Guelph-Wellington. The Guelph Business Center is hosting a celebration with dinner, keynote-speaker and vendor market at Victoria Road Golf Club. Register Here.
Circular Store Grand Opening - February 11th 11 am-3 pm
The Guelph Tool Library is opening a store that allows people to consume and learn about the circular economy. The event will feature workshops and a repair cafe.
Guelph Museums: Fourth Friday, February 24th
Every Fourth Friday of the month enjoy free admission to the Civic Museum from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and a free concert starting at 7 p.m. To commemorate Black Heritage Month, Guelph Museums has partnered with Guelph Black Heritage Society for February’s Fourth Friday
Community Engagement Framework Update
The City of Guelph is updating out Community Engagement Framework. This is the guiding document that directs how City staff inform and solicit information from community members. We need you to tell the City how we can do this work better, and your feedback and advice will be used to update the engagement framework. This is how you can get involved:
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That's it for this month's update. As always, you can find the full agendas for Council meetings here (http://guelph.ca/agenda). Agendas are posted on Thursday or Friday, one full week before each meeting.
We look forward to hearing from you, particularly with any questions or concerns about the City's Operations Facilities Update, the terms of the Guelph Greener Homes Program, or the Strategic Plan update.
Oh, and a reminder and encouragement to use the Map App (http://guelph.ca/map) to report any concerns and issues with your municipal services - anything from potholes to parking to snow maintenance, so those concerns go directly to the appropriate municipal teams and action can be taken on a timely manner.
Sincerely,
Carly & Rodrigo
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