Municipal officials in Waterloo region, Guelph react to changes to their official plans

Officials in Guelph and Waterloo Region offered mixed reactions Monday to housing minister Paul Calandra's announcement that his office will wind back changes to some municipal official plans.

The region received approval on its official plan in April, with an additional 2,380-hectare settlement boundary expansion, mostly within the country sideline. 

The Region's Land Needs Assessment identified the need for 2,866 hectares of additional urban land to meet intensification and density targets.

Calandra said "it is clear" the changes made to urban boundaries "failed to meet that test" and added there was "too much involvement from the minister's office, too much involvement from individuals in the minister's office" in those decisions. 

Municipalities have 45 days to request any revisions to their original submissions.

In an emailed statement to CBC News, regional chair Karen Redman said, the region "looks forward to responding to the province's request within the 45-day deadline."

"The Region of Waterloo, our area municipalities and our local development community have a long and successful history of deliberate, intentional planning, including through our Regional Official Plan," she said.

"As our region grows, we need to have the housing, transportation and amenities to support community."

Questions around moving forward

Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic said there are many questions about what the changes will mean for the region and the city moving forward.

"Certainly it was something we weren't expecting. We thought the regional review was behind us now," Vrbanovic said about Calandra's announcement. 

"I think we're still waiting to understand and get all the details in terms of how the process will unfold going forward."

Kitchener had some additional lands added in the city's south-west area as part of the amended official plan. 

"Hopefully during the 45-day review the minister announced, we'll have an opportunity to present any information that would allow them to see those lands continue to be included," he said, adding that it's not clear whether that information will be provided through the the region or the city.

Woolwich was set to have a large number of additional hectares added under the amended official plan, Mayor Sandy Schantz told CBC News. 

Schantz said she's not worried that the reversal of the amended official plan will impact the township's growth or ability to meet the province's housing target.

"The official plan that was presented to the province, when that was put together as a regional number, we had sufficient land in there to meet what our requirements were for housing," she said.

"Either way, I think we can meet the requirements of what the province is looking for [with] housing."

'Pleasant surprise' for Guelph councillor

Changes to Guelph's official plan did not have additional urban boundaries added, but did have significant changes to density and building heights in its downtown and adjustment to lands marked as natural to industrial. 

Ward 5 Coun. Leanne Caron said Calandra's news came as a "pleasant surprise," since the city had written a letter to the ministry earlier in May outlining its concern with the amendments made to the official plan.

Caron said the amendments from the province would have required the city to make a significant investment in infrastructure upgrades in the downtown core to allow height densities to 23-stories.

"We have a significant number of heritage buildings and a number of sites that just cannot handle that kind of height for a lot of different reasons, including infrastructure," Caron told CBC News.

"The cost was extremely prohibitive, and it wasn't necessary to meet the housing target." 

Frustrating news for Guelph mayor

Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie, however, told CBC News, he was frustrated to learn of the reversal Monday morning, saying the number of changes to the city's official plan have set them back a year in building the housing they need.

"All our budget was trying to be aligned with these changes, for the infrastructure required to unlock more housing, our engineering and professional staff, all the planning documents — and we had staff pulled away from trying to get housing done to have to work on all these changes," Guthrie said.

He said he's also concerned that the reversal will impact developers who would have had to make building plans and adjustments to meet the province's amendments to the official plan. 

"It's not just the internal side of city hall that we are concerned about, but obviously we're concerned about the partners in the development industry who thought they had a journey they were going on, but [it] has been a road that led to no where."