Weekend road closures are coming to downtown Guelph this summer, following a contentious 8-5 vote by city council on Monday evening.
Dubbed by many as the “compromise” option, council approved the closure of the intersection of Wyndham and Macdonell streets on weekends from May 21 to Sept. 6, with the precise timing of closures to be determined by staff.
“This is a very complex issue,” noted Coun. Cathy Downer, who proposed the weekend closures option, going against a committee of the whole recommendation from earlier in the month to limit road closures to special events only, while generally expanding the patios program. “I don’t like to see transit disrupted more than necessary.”
Joining Downer in favour of the weekend closures were Mayor Cam Guthrie and councillors Dan Gibson, Christine Billings, Dominique O’Rourke, Rodrigo Goller, Mike Salisbury and James Gordon.
In opposition were councillors Leanne Caron, June Hofland, Phil Allt, Mark MacKinnon and Bob Bell.
Downer initially proposed the road closure run from June 18 to Sept. 6, but the timeline was amended to begin earlier at Gibson’s prompting, though his first proposal of a May 1 start was defeated.
In addition to the weekend intersection closures, the council-approved motion will allow businesses of all sorts throughout the city to apply for permission to set up a seasonal patio on private property, public sidewalks and in on-street parking spaces beginning April 1 (not May 1 as recommended by staff).
In doing so, council agreed to spend up to $294,700 to cover the costs of closing the intersection, though those funds are likely to come from provincial grants.
Much of that cost, explained deputy CAO Colleen Clack-Bush, will go toward additional buses and drivers needed to keep transit buses moving on schedule and avoid missed connections.
An additional $112,500 will be spent on buying barriers to be placed between patios and open traffic.
Those barriers won’t be moved for the weekend intersection closure, Clack-Bush noted, but rather road closure signs will be erected and taken down to eliminate vehicular traffic through the area.
Guthrie hoped council would approve a season-long closure of the Macdonell and Wyndham streets intersection in order to create an atmosphere like last year’s Downtown Dining District.
“I thought it was beautiful,” he said, noting many downtown businesses he spoke with were supportive of the same, even several stores on upper Wyndham Street. “It was so great last year.”
Caron questioned whether the on-street patio area would even be allowed if the provincial government put Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph back into lockdown, as several nearby areas are once again.
“I don’t think we have a perfect solution here,” she said, noting her opposition to road closures stemmed from a desire to “err on the side of caution” regarding the mingling and spread of COVID-19 that could result.
Gibson noted outdoor dining is currently allowed in locked down areas, though the rules around that change frequently.
Though they differed in the approach that should be taken for 2021, several delegates urged council to use this year’s experience as a learning opportunity for future years.
Weekend road closures are not a “perfect fit” but make sense for this summer, said Steven Petric of the Transit Action Alliance of Guelph.
“We have to make sure we’re looking at everything available to us,” he said of options including transit-only lanes. “We have to do this right. … There’s a lot of potential to make this better in 2022 and 23.”
The extended patio program was approved as a three-year pilot project, but the intersection closures don’t have a green light to go beyond 2021 at this point. A report to the program’s success is expected early next year, at which time council can decide whether road closures would be done again or make any adjustments to the program it sees fit.
