59 Carden St.

Council approves Downtown Secondary Plan

Just back from a marathon council meeting, during which they approved the Downtown Secondary Plan.

The plan, for those not following along so far, opens the door to 18-storey highrises in the core and sets a course to eventually -- in about 10 years -- buy and demolish the plaza at Gordon and Wellington streets to create a new riverfront park.

It does a lot of other things as well, but those are the highlights.

We'll have more in the paper tomorrow and will likely be covering elements of the plan later in the week as well. (One element is so far the leading contender to be the subject of my column this Friday)

 

Coming to a screen nowhere near you

I just received an email from someone at the company behind the Terry Bradshaw Guelph promo video, asking me to share the airtimes scheduled for the video.

Here they are, though I doubt anyone reading this will find themselves in a situation where they could actually catch any of these broadcasts:

City of Guelph	Regional News Network	Vancouver/Victoria	KVOS:4/28, 5/5 & 5/12:8:00 AM, 5/12:6:00 AM	4x
City of Guelph	CNN HLN	Seattle/Tacoma	Comcast Cable:4/12:8:24 AM & 1:24 PM	2x
City of Guelph	Regional News Network	Thunder Bay	TBTV CKPR:3/22, 29, 4/5, 4/12, 4/19:7:30 AM	5x
City of Guelph	CNN HLN	Minneapolis/St. Paul	Charter Cable:3/4:10:24 AM, 10:54 AM, 11:24 AM, 11:54 AM, 12:24 PM, 12:54 PM	6x
City of Guelph	CNN HLN	Milwaukee	Charter Cable:3/2:12:24 PM, 12:54 PM, 1:24 PM, 1:54 PM, 2:24 PM, 2:54 PM	6x
City of Guelph	CNN HLN	Flint/Saginaw/Bay City	Charter Cable:3/1:7:24 AM, 8:24 AM, 11:54 AM, 5:54 PM, 7:24 PM, 7:54 PM	6x

 

Laird conspicuously absent

Janet Laird, the city's environment boss, was notably absent from tonight's meeting of the organics processing facility public liaison committee.

Laird wouldn't normally attend that committee, but I and others thought she might be there tonight given the amount of discussion this week about a Ministry of Environment air inspection report and Laird's response to it.

There was no explanation offered, but it was clear some members of the committee were itching to question Laird about her letter sent one day earlier. So much so, in fact, they voted to request Laird's presence at a special meeting in about one month's time where the air report and city's response will be the only agenda items.

We'll have the full account in the paper tomorrow.

In the interim, click here for a link to the ministry's report and Laird's letter. (Incidentally, check out the 'we're a happy family' tone of the news release compared to that of Laird's correspondence)

 

Funded (partially) by the province

Posted by Phil Andrews

There is a sense in our newsroom that the city could have been more explicit in an announcement Tuesday about its development of a cultural mapping project.

The announcement can leave the impression that the project was entirely funded by the province.

In fact, the municipality is paying for more than half of this initiative.

Maybe we're splitting hairs here over transparency issues. But this one struck some in our newsroom as a surprising characterization particularly given the flap earlier this week over the Terry Bradshaw (paid-for) civic video promotion that wasn't quite defined as such at all times.

Meeting raised more questions than it answered

I had to leave council about 75 minutes before the meeting ended Monday night to make my deadline, but councillors passed a couple of interesting special resolutions after I was gone which I'm attempting to explore today.

One expressed confidence in the leadership of CAO Ann Pappert "and the actions taken by the CAO with respect to the matters raised by individual members of Council in the Guelph Mercury on April 21, 2012."

That would be this article, which councillors also voted to have their new integrity commissioner, Robert Swayze, reviewed and offer comment upon. (The reason for that motion, and what it might accomplish, remain a mystery to me even after interviewing Coun. June Hofland, who made the motion)

The other special resolution directs the mayor and CAO to hold a special meeting of council "to discuss the changing culture of Council and Administration relations."

Hunh?

Council hodgepodge tonight

It could be an interesting council meeting tonight.

Hopefully councillors will have before them and ratify collective agreements with its three CUPE locals to avoid a strike or lockout.

But there are some other items on the committee agendas which might get a second look, including a motion by the planning and building, engineering and environment committee to move on to the second phase of the Brookyln and College Hill conservation district process without considering new concerns from residents; and a decision by the operations and transit committee to support spending $5,000 to erect signs declaring Grange Road a "bicycle route."

And, of course, there could be some blowback from a story on the weekend about five councillors chipping in to file an FoI request with the province in an attempt to get a copy of a report city staff have refused to share.

 

That doesn't sound like a denial

So a local political blogger mentioned in a post earlier today Coun. Cam Guthrie "has announced he is running for Mayor."

That would be news to me if it's true, so I emailed Guthrie to ask him. I expected a one-word response rhyming with "Yo," but instead received the following:

Scott, 

I have received, and continue to receive, hundreds of expressions of support from across this city and I truly thank each and every person for their encouragement. Understandably, a decision such as this cannot be made lightly. I will not make any commitment at this time without the full support from my wife and children, and a sense of a true “calling” of serving Guelph in that role.

 There’s a proper time and place for campaigns. They take a great amount of time, money and focus. Yet I was elected by Ward 4 to concentrate on the daily opportunities and challenges for our city. I also made a promise to the residents of Ward 4 to focus on important issues such as fiscal accountability, greater communication, more transparency and using common sense. I continue to work on bringing more commercial opportunities, addressing graffiti and looking for ways to link our ward to the rest of the city, all while respecting the hard earned tax dollars of our residents.

 There is still much work to be done. In the meantime, I would encourage the citizens of Guelph to think very carefully of what type of Guelph they wish to wake up to in the fall of 2014. My hope is that it will be a city led by common sense, less government interference and making Guelph the best city in the world.

 Thank you,  

Cam Guthrie

City paid for Terry Bradshaw's pass

Posted by Phil Andrews

We're working on a story that explores the City of Guelph's investment in a promotional video hosted by Terry Bradshaw.

News of the video was announced by the city days ago. It has also been the subject of a blog post by Guelph Mayor Karen Farbridge's office and was referenced by the mayor in a recent interview on Inside Guelph.

In the mayor's comments and in the city communication, the video is not described as a paid-for promotion.

The Inside Guelph segment - beginning at about the 2:17 mark - makes for interesting viewing. Did Farbridge leave an impression that this video is basically a commercial paid for by the city or something very different?

Councillors go over city's head in bid for info

I'm hearing five city councillors each chipped in $1 recently to cover the cost of filing a Freedom of Information request with the Ministry of Environment.

The councillors are trying to get a copy of a report recently submitted to the city with regards to the Waste Resource Innovation Centre. City staff refused to release the report when asked, so councillors went straight to the source.

Some councillors also report having difficulty obtaining information from 1 Carden St. about things such as the cost of holding off-site meetings, since such queries do not relate to matters currently before council and therefore would require "the re-allocation of staff resources away from existing priorities."

We'll have more in the paper tomorrow.

Five grand for bike signs?

Members of the operations and transit committee accepted a staff recommendation Monday not to implement bike lanes on Grange Road, between Victoria and Watson. It seems few residents want them, and a review by staff indicates very little demand for bike lanes.

Fair enough. But the committee also approved a staff recommendation that signs be erected identifying Grange as a 'Bike Route,' as it is deemed in the city's Official Plan.

A staff report says a Bike Route is a road signed specifically to encourage bicycle use.

It will cost approximately $5,000 to erect 14 such signs.

But since one of the city's formal goals is to encourage more bicycle use overall, why don't we slap up the signs at all the entrance points to the city instead of spending money on a street-by-street basis.