City Council Preview - What's on the Agenda for the May 14 Meeting?

Special events permits, alternatives for the Commercial Policy review, and a high-rise tower project returning smaller are all part of the agenda for this month's planning meeting. 

CS-2018-48 Eat Street: A Brewers Feast Request for Designation as an Event of Municipal Significance - Taste of Craft and Taste Detours are planning an event called Eat Street: A Brewers Feast, and they're looking to get a Special Occasion Permit from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO). To get that, they need a Schedule M declaration, which is an official stamp that says this is an event of municipal significance. This authority is delegated to the City Clerk, but in this instance, he's bumping the requirement to the council level. Staff is recommending that council approve the Schedule M since the event is focused on local craft breweries, cideries and distilleries, coupled with local chefs and local foods. Guelph Tourism has also given their own seal of approval.

IDE-2018-59 300 Water Street Proposed Official Plan Amendment and Zoning By-law Amendment Files: OP1707/ZC1712 Ward 5 - You might want to watch this one because there are already two delegations and 14 correspondences for this rezoning proposal. This is an empty plot on the western end of Water Street that opens onto an area of green space along the river and out to the Hanlon Expressway. One end of the Royal Recreation Trail is also there. The land owner is looking to build one single detached residential dwelling and seven on-street townhouse units; the land is presently zoned as “Open Space and Park” with a "Natural Areas Overlay" in the Official Plan. The correspondences so far list loss of trees, on-street parking concerns, and increased density on a dead end street as their primary concerns. This is the statutory public meeting for this development.

IDE-2018-63 233-237 Janefield Avenue Proposed Official Plan Amendment and Zoning By-law Amendment Files: OP1702/ZC1702 Ward 5 - It's back! You may remember this project from the planning meeting last July, a massive 185 unit development in two towers, one 12-storey and one 10-storey, just across the road from Stone Road Mall. At the planning meeting, a number of area residents were concerned about the size, the traffic, and the curve on Janefield where there are presently worries about cars going too fast when it's icy. The developer has heard those concerns, and is now countering with a 168-unit development in one 10-storey tower and one 8-storey tower. The entrance will now be on Janefield instead of Torch Lane, and there will be a bigger setback now. Problems solved, right? We'll see. This is the statutory public meeting for this development.

IDE-2018-60 Proposed Administrative Amendment to Zoning By-law (1995)-14864 to Address Service Animals File: ZC1803 - Sometimes, you find inconstancies in the Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw, and the last time was 2017. Since then though, staff have found that aspects of the 1995 Zoning By-law and the provincial Standards under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) don't jibe, specifically in regards to service animals. The Zoning Bylaw is being amended to assure that residents that require the use of service animals are protected from discrimination.

IDE-2018-57 Commercial Policy Review: Draft Policy Alternatives - We've already seen a lot of work done on the Commercial Policy Review, but this one is based on some public feedback and will guide council further in implementing a new commercial strategy for the City. The alternatives have been separated into four areas. The first is "Modify Existing Official Plan Permissions," meaning the City could eliminate the caps on current retail sites and intensifying them, or converting lands presently zoned under different categories into commercial land. Option number two is "Commercial Opportunities in the Clair-Maltby Secondary Plan," which could mean one large commercial area or several small commercial nodes. The third option is "Monitor the Commercial Land Supply," which is a way of saying let's wait and see how this e-commerce thing goes and revisit commercial needs in five years or so. The final option, "Development of Existing Vacant Land within Community Mixed-use Centres," will look at mixed-use nodes and how more retail space can be squeezed out of those. The preferred Commercial Policy framework is still on schedule to come back to council by the third quarter of this year with the Official Plan amendment coming forward in the first quarter of 2019.