What does good growth look like?
A town hall meeting tonight at Guelph City Hall will explore the many characteristics, variables and possible pitfalls of the city’s long-term growth plan, said Guelph architect J. David McAuley.
McAuley is one of the local community activists behind Good Growth Guelph, a town hall that will scratch below the surface of the Province of Ontario’s plan to expand Guelph’s population by 56,000 people by 2041.
“We want to hear from people in the community in preparation for a presentation to council on the 26th of September,” he said in an interview.
McAuley said there are an array of implications stemming from such a significant amount of growth, including pressures on municipal infrastructure and the local environment, traffic complications, water use challenges, and a possible erosion of the city’s heritage features and historic character.
“It’s to ensure that what is important to Guelphites is retained, even with the growth of 56,000 people that has been imposed by the province,” he said.
Under the Places to Grow legislation, the provincial government has imposed growth targets for a number of communities throughout the Greater Golden Horseshoe region. The plan was crafted some years ago as a way of managing population growth and density in southern Ontario.
McAuley said city staff are preparing a study on population growth and its pressure on infrastructure, for presentation at the Sept. 26 meeting.
He said citizen engagement in the growth plan has not yet been a part of the process. The ad hoc group thought it was time to give a voice to the local citizenry, to let council know what residents feel is important to Guelph, and how the growth can best be accommodated.
“For me, as an architect, it is going to depend on things like urban design, built form, transportation systems, air quality and the health of the community,” McAuley said. “And certainty cultural and natural heritage, streetscapes, and quality of life are all a part of it.”
All of these issues and more will be examined and discussed at tonight’s meeting, which runs from 7-9:30 p.m. at city hall. It has been organized by Lin Grist, a local change management consultant and community activist.
The event is sponsored by the Good Growth Guelph Ad Hoc Group, with funding from the Environmental Defense and the Flint Foundation. McAuley is one of five facilitators that will lead various discussion groups at the meeting.
“This certainly is a bigger influx of population that we’ve had in a while,” McAuley said, adding that water and energy supply, employment, commercial development, and the education system will all have to been carefully examined if sound and sustainable growth is to take place.
He added that the province may have to look at increased funding for the remediation of brownfield sites, of which Guelph has a great many. They have potential for development, but not without being cleaned up first.
