City Council Preview - What's on the Agenda for the February 13 Meeting?

The first official planning meeting of the year will deal with matters both big (12-storeys big), and small (some light clerical work).

Closed Meeting: 75 Dublin Street - Ontario Municipal Board Appeals (Ward 3) Section 239 (2) (f) advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose.

45 Yarmouth Street Proposed Zoning By-law Amendment - You might remember the proposed 12-storey apartment building that came to council last year, well now staff is recommending that the 75-unit building be approved on that narrow slip of land on Yarmouth between the old sewing machine factory and that other huge apartment building. The estimated development charges for the project come to just over $1.27 million, and the estimated annual taxes on the completed development is nearly $318,000. The developers will also have to make sure that the construction of the building will meet 21 site plan conditions.

Proposed Technical Revisions to Guelph’s Comprehensive Zoning By-law - The zoning bylaw gets an administrative review for the first time since 2014. Don't look for a lot of huge differences between the new document and the old, the changes are minor to improve the usability and accuracy of the zoning bylaw, including the correction of grammatical errors and typos. For instance, the definition of 'driveway' was changed to remove the wording "in a residential zone", and the zoning designation 'Specialized B.4 Industrial zones' has been removed because it only ever referred to the old Woods factory, which will now soon be condos.

Request for Extension of Draft Plan Approval Watson East Subdivision - Black, Shoemaker, Robinson and Donaldson Limited are asking for a five year extension in order to complete the final phase of the subdivision, a 4.36 hectare parcel at the southern most end of the development. The final phase is zoned for industrial use and the developers have been looking for buyers, obviously without any success. So why not just change the planned use of the land? Well, it would require the completion of a comprehensive review of City employment lands, which actually will begin in 2017, but without a renewal, the developers will need to start the process again from scratch. Extending the plan allows them to continue shopping the land for industrial use, or wait and see what their options for rezoning the land might be.

Proposed Demolition of 18 Harcourt Drive, Ward 5 - The owners want to replace the single storey detached dwelling that currently sits on the property with a two-storey one.