Public meeting in works for former Lafarge property

Friday, October 7, 2011
Vik Kirsch
Mercury staff

GUELPH - Residents will soon have a chance to examine and comment on the latest plans for the redevelopment of the sprawling former Lafarge Canada quarry site on Silvercreek Parkway South.

City administration is planning a public information session in late November as an environmental assessment process begins, though an exact time and location, likely Guelph City Hall, hasn't yet been set.

Having that grassy triangular brownfield property turned into a mix of commercial and residential development couldn't come soon enough for a ward councillor there.

"The sooner, the better," Cam Guthrie said. "It's been a vacant piece of land that's done absolutely zero for people for a long period of time."

He added: "More development is more opportunities for people in Guelph. It means jobs (and tax revenue)."

Howitt Park Residents' Association president Ron Foley is eagerly awaiting the public forum on the environmental assessment.

"This is the next step in the process we were expecting," Foley said Friday. "We're just waiting for the meeting to happen, get to it and see what they have to say."

He added: "There's lots of questions to ask once we get to the meeting." These include the assessment costs and who pays, details of the development such as who's on the hook for development charges and what these amount to, as well as a time frame of the project. Also key are details on the cost and cost-sharing on a railway underpass needed to bring the project to fruition.

Foley said his association is also curious about what's sparked the go-ahead now on the proposed development, two years after an Ontario Municipal Board ruling cleared the way.

The brownfield site, whose northern edge runs along Paisley Road, requires infrastructure improvements, including a new traffic underpass beneath the CN Rail line that bisects the location. That'll also require realignment of the Silvercreek Parkway there.

City hall is now launching an environmental assessment on those changes, including upgrading of underground services, and sending out notices to neighbours.

In all, city hall is planning to public information sessions, with details to be posted online at guelph.ca/events when known. The project consulting firm is Delcan Corporation of Kitchener.

There have been various proposals for decades for that site east of the Hanlon Expressway.

Owner Silvercreek (Guelph) Developments Ltd. years ago proposed a blend of retail space, service commercial components and 340 residential units, though another developer, Armel Corp., objected, reasoning it would harm other projects on the city's nearby west side.

City hall also objected initially, but through mediation Silvercreek reduce the retail component and added more housing and natural areas. The city and Howitt Park Neighbourhood Residents' Association subsequently ratified terms of a settlement.

An OMB ruling allowed a new big-box store there. Speculation at the time was rife with whether that would be a furniture store or giant retailer.

vkirsch@guelphmercury.com