FERGUS – It's official: a five-storey development long proposed for downtown Fergus will progress to its next phase.
Approved during a council meeting Monday afternoon, a staff report had previously recommended council go forward with a rezoning request at 223 St. Andrew St. E. to build a five-storey apartment building with 17 apartments in a variety of sizes with four barrier-free units, two ground floor commercial units and 13 parking spaces.
However, the vote was far from unanimous and occurred twice after Coun. Dennis Craddock initially and mistakenly chose to abstain from his vote. This meant the motion allowing the development would have failed.
"My understanding was abstaining was essentially playing Switzerland and being neutral in all of this," said Craddock, later apologizing. "I was a little undecided, but leaning towards a yay."
Following a recess, council chose to hold a re-vote where Craddock voted in favour of the development alongside Coun. Jennifer Adams, Coun. Lisa MacDonald and Mayor Shawn Watters.
Citing concerns about limited parking and the volume of development occurring nearby Coun. Barb Evoy and Coun. Kim Jefferson both voted against the proposal while Coun. Bronwynne Wilton was not in attendance.
"We live in a community where car is king," said Jefferson, during the meeting. "And that's where I'm really struggling is the number of cars... I totally understand that we need housing in Center Wellington and we need rentals, it's just the car issue is a huge thing."
But MacDonald disagreed after clarifying how many units would be permitted on the top floor as she didn't feel removing that storey and four subsequent units would impact parking enough to say no.
"This is a watershed moment. We talk in terms of the importance of intensification within our community and how to deal with it and these things are not easy decisions," said Watters, during the meeting. "I understand it's a real dilemma and these conversations are also carried within the community...but I think (this development is) an opportunity to state to the community the need to have a variety of housing in our downtown."
According to a report presented during the meeting, 50 written comments were also submitted concerning the proposal in addition to the delegates who participated in a previous public meeting concerning the application.
The full report can be found here.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
