The public and other stakeholders have the opportunity to help paint the blank canvas that is the future of Guelph’s new south end.
The city is in the process of planning for the not-too-distant future development of the Clair Road/Maltby Road area that will be home to an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people in the next few years.
Landowners and developers are lined up in anticipation of a Clair-Maltby Secondary Plan, expected to come before council for approval in June.
“It’s very important and, equally, it’s very exciting,” said Mayor Cam Guthrie.
“We have this clean slate where we get to put our Guelph DNA,” the mayor said. “It allows us to think things through in a more creative way.”
He said that’s why it’s so important to get input from the public and various other stakeholder groups.
Part of the planning involves a week-long blitz of stakeholder input that take place April 3 to April 8.
Public workshops, analysis and stakeholder meetings and information sessions are all part of next week’s engagement, which wrap up with a presentation at the April 9 planning meeting of city council.
Details of the various information providing/gathering sessions can be found here.
The mayor said green spaces, wetlands and wildlife corridors in the area are already protected by policy.
Now comes the municipal decisions that will shape everything from density to transit routes and separated bike lanes.
It’s a rare opportunity for the municipality to be proactive in the future development of the area rather than reactive to previous decisions and situations.
Guthrie said the city pretty much only has two large green spaces left in which it can create its own vision, this one and the future of the old jail lands.
“One of many questions is what is what degree of density are we comfortable with, at the same time abiding by the province’s Places To Grow Act,” Guthrie said.
Developers and landowners want to move as quickly as possible in the area, he said.
