There will be no regular road closures for the upcoming downtown patio season, but they’ll be back in future years if Mayor Cam Guthrie gets his way.
Eventually, Guthrie wants to see the area permanently pedestrianized.
“A pedestrian-focused downtown core is a good thing – not only for the businesses that are down there, but for tourism and to create a draw to our city,” he said, suggesting it could become an election issue this fall. “In my mind, it deserves to have a conversation about a more permanent state than to have … decisions go year by year by year.”
A year ago, debate over whether to close the intersection of Macdonell and Wyndham streets to vehicular traffic during patio season was a hot political issue which ended in an 8-5 vote in favour of what some people dubbed the “compromise” solution of weekend-only closures.
The intersection was shut down in 2020 throughout patio season and extended into the fall as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and provincially mandated limits on in-person business services.
This time around the decision not to close the intersection was made by city staff, which has delegated authority over the patio program. Although council members had the opportunity to discuss the road closure issue and make changes, they didn’t.
Asked why he didn’t push for closure this summer when he had the opportunity, and as he’d advocated for in the past, Guthrie said the timing wasn’t right for several reasons.
Among them, he said he’d been told the closure would cost the city about $200,000 in logistical and labour expenses, at a time when the city is feeling inflationary pressures and only months after council had approved a 2022 budget with a 4.21 per cent property tax increase.
“I also didn’t want to put at risk anything else about the future of a downtown pedestrianized focus by bringing it forward to council this year,” Guthrie said. “I’m sure it will come forward very clearly as we move into … election season, but that’s something I will address further at that time.”
Ideally, the mayor added, some of the money raised through the upcoming implementation of the municipal accommodation tax will be put toward eliminating vehicle traffic downtown and provide programming such as live music and entertainment.
Council approved a three-year pilot program extension of seasonal patios in March of last year.
As part of the program, the intersection of Wyndham and Macdonell streets was closed to vehicle traffic on weekends between May 21 and Sept. 6.
In a February report to council – the one council members could have pulled for discussion and debate – staff stated its plan was not to regularly close the intersection in 2022, which was also its recommendation to council in 2021.
In response to that 2021 recommendation, about 7,000 people signed an online petition calling for a return of the “car-free pedestrian zone for 2021,” while some folks argued the intersection closure allowed a few businesses to profit while others suffered due to customer access limitations. Several transit-related issues were also identified in relation to the 2020 closure.
Having a patio season without regular intersection closures to contrast with one that did isn’t needed, Guthrie said.
“In my view a direct comparison is no longer required,” he said, suggesting there have been “nothing but positive comments” about the 2020 and 2021 closures, though he acknowledged the controversial nature of last year’s weekend closures decision. “We got national attention to what we did as a downtown.
“I do not need to have any more data to try to justify why a pedestrian focus, road-closure focus is the right way to go.”
City work crews began placing water-filled barriers in the downtown core on Monday in preparation for the upcoming summer patio program, which runs April 1 through the end of October. All of the barriers are expected to be in place by next Thursday or earlier, depending on weather, states a post on the city’s website.
As of Tuesday, the city had approved 48 seasonal patios for the summer and 11 more under consideration, said John Regan, the city’s general manager of economic development and tourism.
Thirty-four of those are in the downtown, with 14 elsewhere in the city. Thirty-one are on public property such as in on-street parking spaces, taking up about 80 spaces, and 17 are on private property.
“You’ll start seeing patios being set up now and then once those barriers are filled with water, they can start operating their patios,” Regan said.
Last year there were 63 patio program participants city-wide, including 39 in Downtown Guelph.
In addition to the absence of regular road closures, changes to this year’s effort include stakeholder engagement aimed at improving patio accessibility and faster response time regarding noise complaints, with improved promotions and wayfinding signs.