A Guelph developer wants to build a five-storey, 42-unit apartment building on the old church tennis courts, just west of downtown Guelph.
But Tom Lammer needs Guelph City Council to fast track his application to try and get it done.
Lammer and his planning consultant Astrid Clos appeared before a planning meeting of Guelph City Council Monday night explaining the development, which is for 75 Dublin St. N., between Basilica of Our Lady and Central Public School.
The building would include 20 affordable seniors’ units, and for Lammer’s Rykur Holdings to potentially access a $3 million social housing funding grant from the Federal government, he needs council to approve some zoning amendments.
The project needs to be started next April to meet the requirements for that funding, which means approval from council for the project by the end of November.
“If this opportunity is missed … the Federal money is likely to go off to another part of the province and this opportunity is lost,” Lammer told council.
Lammer asked council to approve a motion he tabled, asking that council expedite a portion of the new Downtown Guelph Zoning By-Law that has not yet been approved by council.
That would allow for certain elements of the proposal that currently don’t meet zoning requirements — namely, five storeys (current zoning allows for four), no visitor parking (underground parking is planned) and less space between the rear of the building and the neighbour (three metres instead of 10).
After much debate, council directed staff to create a site-specific official plan amendment that would help fast track approval if successful.
“We all want to make this work,” Mayor Cam Guthrie said.
“If we lose this opportunity, we have a lot of explaining to do,” councillor Leanne Piper said.
“It would be a travesty” to lose funding for social housing, added councillor Christine Billings.
All of council was in favour of the project, the debate revolved more around process and possibly setting a precedent council might not want to.
A public meeting has to be held as part of the process.
Councillor Cathy Downer was the only councillor voting against the direction to staff, feeling it lacked transparency.
“It’s just not the process you do for a building,” Downer said. “It really lacks transparency for the public and for council.”
Deputy CAO Scott Stewart said that if the public supports the project the process would go a lot quicker. If there are issues, it could bog the process down.
With an appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) a possibility, Stewart urged Lammer to get the neighbours onside.
An OMB appeal could also kill the project.
“The OMB thing is a reality,” councillor Karl Wettstein said. “If we get a major OMB problem at the end of November, this development goes away.”
Councillor Bob Bell responded that, “the risk of the OMB is one the developer is willing to take. That’s his call, not ours.”
Todd Salter, the general manager of planning services, said public response and internal technical reviews will determine how smoothly the approval process moves.
Lammer brought the heavyweights with him to council, with Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield also speaking on behalf of the project.
“It’s very unusual for a member of parliament to be addressing city council in the first place,” Longfield said.
“We do need to appreciate the timelines are not of our making. The needs are there in our community that we have to solve.”
