Guelph of Tomorrow and Commuter Challenge

Envisioning the Guelph of Tomorrow

For three nights last week, members of the Guelph community were invited to city hall to get a frightening glimpse of the year 2031. Well, it wasn’t so much “frightening” as it was daunting. Several large maps covered the walls of Meeting Room C in City Hall, while several slide cards were on display at the front of the room giving the reader a bullet point breakdown of the plan. On each table were several copies of the revised Official Plan and always nearby was a City of Guelph employee ready to decode an aspect for you educational pleasure.

So what’s in store for the future? Well, to begin with, the fine art of balancing various mandates on all three levels of government. Ontario’s “Places to Grow” legislation says that we’ve got to cram 50,000 more people into our fair city in the next 21 years, but we can’t grow past our set borders. So in short there’s going to be a lot of intensification. In fact, the Official Plan identifies several areas in the City where intensification will be intensified. But what does “intensification” mean? For starters increased residential/employment density since the City is aiming for 57 jobs for every 100 residents. It also means a mix of office, institutional and commercial space with an array services like park land, rec and cultural centres.

By now you’re wondering if you are in a potential intensification corridor. Well, if you live along York Road (between Watson and Victoria), Silvercreek (between Willow and Speedvale), Stone (between Hanlon and Gordon), Elmira (between Delhi and Stevenson) or Gordon (between Stone and Clairfields), you do. Also, look for Silvercreek Junction, the so-called Lafarge site, to move ahead with its redevelopment plan, which includes commercial mixed, high density residential and significant natural areas.

Of course, in the age of great environmental sensitivity, great strains have been made to make the new plan more green conscience. From new bike lanes and trails to methods to decrease light and noise pollution to maximizing energy conservation efforts, the new Official plan pulls out all the stops so far as satisfying those with a slant towards Mother Earth. As well, efforts will be made to preserve the City’s architectural heritage while ensuring that new buildings blend well with the existing ones. Also, an official plan specific to downtown will be drawn up later.

If any of this has got you interested in seeing the official plan for yourself, you can at http://www.guelph.ca/OPupdate.

We accept your Challenge!

I wasn’t sure who challenged us and why, but arrived in my inbox was notice that the gauntlet was thrown down for Guelph to save mass quantities of energy this summer, and it has been picked up. Between now and August 11, the City of Guelph is asking residents to take the Power Pledge and reduce energy use as part of Ontario’s Community Conservation Challenge, said the city press release. “Guelph has participated in this Challenge since the first anniversary of the blackout in August 2003," says Mayor Karen Farbridge. "Guelph is committed to energy conservation and fighting climate change as part of our Community Energy Initiative. The Community Conservation Challenge reminds each of us that we have a role to play in building a sustainable energy future for Guelph."

The Community Conservation Challenge is province-wide. Challenge winners earn “green” awards and the chance to be named Ontario’s most conservation-conscious communities. Last year’s Community Challenge winners were Sioux Lookout for most participation and Kingston for total megawatt reduction. As for who’s putting this on, the Community Challenge is a collaboration of the Ontario Power Authority, the Independent Electricity System Operator, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, the Electricity Distributors Association and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and their associated members, according to the same release. Learn more at http://www.powerpledge.ca/cityofguelph.

Transit Plans and Lost Summer

Consulting group reveals bold plan for Transit

Guelph’s Transit Growth Strategy and Plan was addressed in two sessions last week at the Evergreen Seniors Centre and City Hall, respectively. After a public meeting last December, over 1,100 completed written surveys, 6,000 online surveys and interviews with members of council and transit stakeholders, the crew of Dillon Consulting unveiled their master plan, which was, to say the least, ambitious.

I had the opportunity to be a proverbial third wheel as Ward 3 Councillor June Hofland was taken through the proposed changes by Richard Puccini, a transportation consultant with Dillon. The plan was broken up into three areas: improvements to mobility service, changes to conventional bus service and the assessment of Higher Order Transit for the city (ie: light rail, use of Guelph Junction Rail lines and intercity transit). The overall vision of the project, to summarize, is to make public transit the preferred mode of transportation for everyone in the City of Guelph be they resident, worker or visitor.

First up were improvements to the city’s mobility service and according to the survey, ridership on Guelph’s mobility buses hasn’t increased in the last few years. The thing is though, it will. With an aging population, the city will need to expand past one mobility bus running four hours a day. Instead Puccini and his fellow consultants recommend getting a second bus and a north and south route. Further, the consultants talked about targeting those routes to the amenities and locations that seniors frequent. It’s hoped that within two years, ridership will expand by 25 per cent and then expand to 60 per cent in five years.

Conventional service is where things really get interesting. First, it was noted in the surveys that despite an overall excellent record of service, Transit is still slipping so far as areas being underserviced or dealing with the fact that sometimes bus demand is either overwhelming or unable to meet demand. Puccini explained that a grid system was out of the question because the nature of the layout of Guelph streets makes it impractical. Instead, the Dillon team is recommending a complete teardown of the current routes and make the straight shot of Gordon, Norfolk and Woolwich the primary transit corridor of the city. They also suggest adjusting route lengths to make runs 15 minutes during peak and 30 minutes off peak.

Overall though, Puccini said Guelph’s ahead of many southern Ontario municipalities with 6.1 per cent of the city population taking the bus as their primary form of transportation. Still 65 per cent are single person auto-centric and the city will need to take steps to discourage that while also encouraging a dynamic, multifaceted approach to transportation that includes biking, walking and carpooling.

To get more information about the Transportation strategy go to http://guelphpolitico.blogspot.com

5 Lost Days of Summer

Despite lengthy negotiations between the City and the workers’ unions in an effort to co-ordinate the five unpaid days for city workers approved in this year’s budget, it seems that Guelph services will effectively be shutdown five days this summer. Facility closures and service disruptions will be in effect Monday June 21; Friday July 9; Thursday July 22; Wednesday August 11; and Tuesday August 24. However, this doesn’t include transit, which will have to take its lumps in the month of August during which time Sunday service will be cancelled. That’s right, I hope none of you out there take the bus in order to get to church, work, or other points of interest on a Sunday, because you’re going to be S.O.L. in August.

“While this has been a difficult decision and will undoubtedly be unwelcome news for residents, the measures are necessary to mitigate further property tax increases,” said Guelph’s Chief Administrative Officer Hans Loewig in a press release. “We thank all of the parties for their willingness to discuss ways to avoid service disruptions, which demonstrates a collective commitment to public service.”