Guelph Tribune Editorial - January 02, 2009

A quarry quandary

By Guelph Tribune Editorial
Editorial
Jan 02, 2009

It’s tantalizing to imagine what the company that wants to put a big commercial development on the former Lafarge quarry site is proposing to get neighbours, city council and a rival developer onside with its plans.

The hurdles that Silvercreek (Guelph) Developments Ltd. faced in the recent mediation conducted by the Ontario Municipal Board seemed high. Of the 28 delegations who addressed city council on the issue last March, every single one spoke against the plans for the 54-acre site. This might be seen as putting the proposal in a different league even from the long fight over Wal-Mart coming to a north end site not in keeping with the city’s Official Plan. With the Wal-Mart plan, some people could always be counted on to appear before council as delegations in favour of the U. S. giant’s application for zoning and Official Plan changes.

Then last June, city council voted overwhelmingly to oppose the developer's plans for the triangular site bounded by railway tracks on two sides and by the Hanlon Expressway on the other. This set the stage for the OMB mediation as a last-ditch attempt to avoid an expensive 10-week OMB hearing this month and next.

At the meeting last March, many of the delegations were from the Howitt Park Neighbourhood Residents' Association, which had incorporated and hired a lawyer in preparation for a big fight at the OMB. Some of the concerns they expressed related to traffic, to air, light and noise pollution, and to who would pay for an expensive underpass beneath the CN mainline just south of Paisley Road that would have to be built to provide sufficient access to the development. A couple of residents said Guelph should embrace a contemporary design model for a mixed, small-scale commercial and residential development on the Lafarge sit that would tie in seamlessly with the existing neighbourhood.

Just what's being proposed now by the developer in its offer of settlement to avoid an OMB hearing is being kept under wraps for the time being. But neighbourhood residents are set to find out details at a Jan. 11 meeting of the Howitt Park Neighbourhood Residents' Association, where a vote will be held on whether to approve or reject the proposed deal. It should be a fascinating gathering.