Without stronger wording, a plan to conserve the former Ontario Reformatory (OR) property will fail.
That’s the prediction of numerous delegates during a public meeting on the draft cultural heritage district designation plan for the York Road property, held during Wednesday’s city council meeting.
“The citizens’ voices and the strong protective language in the designations have been totally ignored by promoting a different vision for the OR lands, a vision of apartment buildings, commercial plazas, parking lots and altered landscapes,” said Susan Radcliffe, who said the draft plan doesn’t align with wishes of Guelph residents.
As it stands, the plan is full of “weasel words and namby-pamby verbs” such as “where possible,” “where feasible,” “it is preferred that” and “seek to avoid,” Ratcille said – a comment echoed by several others.
“It just makes it a weaker document,” said Lynn Bestari of Yorklands Green Hub, which has been working for more than a decade to establish environmental education, demonstration and research efforts at the site.
Council approved a Part IV designation for the property in 2021, which identifies several specific elements of the property for protection. At that time, it also launched the HCD study process, known as a Part V designation, leading to the draft plan presented to council on Wednesday.
A Part V designation defines a geographic area defined by its distinct heritage character, including its landscape and built heritage resouces.
The draft plan, staff explained, includes policies and guidelines meant to manage change and conserve the area’s distinct heritage character.
“This plan, as it's written, Urban Park Guelph would suggest that (having) no plan is better,” noted P. Brian Skerrett of Urban Park Guelph, which seeks to have the site declared a national urban park.
Located on the city’s east end, the proposed HCD area includes lands owned by the Province of Ontario, City of Guelph, Brodie Limited and Fusion Homes, which is behind the nearby planned Guelph Innovation District mixed-use development.
It’s bounded by York Road to the north, Watson Parkway to the east, Stone Road to the south and the Guelph Junction Railway line to the west, though it dips south of Stone to include the historic McMillan’s bridge.
Among other things, the draft plan encourages “the adaptive re-use of existing built heritage attributes and landscape heritage attributes … to encourage mixed land uses and allow for intensification, where deemed appropriate by the city.”
Delegates also called for numerous errors in the report to be corrected, including mislabelled photos, as well as spelling and grammar issues that can make it difficult to understand.
Coun. Erin Caton publicly announced plans to bring forward a motion in support of Urban Park Guelph’s application to Parks Canada, but Wednesday’s meeting was recessed before that could happen.
In fact, the meeting was put on hold until an undetermined date, before council could formally receive the staff report and draft plan.
At the time this article was published, a date to continue the meeting hadn't been announced.
