GUELPH POLITICAST #212 - The Clash Over Clair-Maltby Part 2: All About Parks

Last week, the Committee of the Whole heard about the Clair-Maltby Secondary Plan Open Spaces Systems Strategy, staff's proposal for how parkland and open spaces will be mapped out in the development of Clair-Maltby. Just about anything Clair-Maltby related is controversial, especially the debate about parkland placement, so how did the members of city council navigate this minefield?

The original plan for this week’s podcast was an interview with Mike Marcolongo, whose eponymous farm property has been a recurring point of concern in these deliberations, but he unfortunately had to postpone at the last minute. Instead, we will set the table for that future discussion with a kind of play-by-play of last week’s committee meeting, which was almost three-and-a-half hours long. Don't worry, this podcast is only about 90 minutes.

The point of the report was to share with Committee where staff envisions the placement of trails, neighbourhood parks, and a 10-hectare community park in the Clair-Maltby area. The plan, Option #2, was controversial because the location of the community park would have taken a not-so-insignificant piece of the Marcolongo property. Committee eventually decided to go with Option #1, which places the park at the north end of the Marcolongo farm, so how did Committee reach this conclusion?

This abridged version of Committee debate starts with the City of Guelph’s senior policy planner Stacey Laughlin, who will lay out the open spaces strategy. After that, you will then hear from a select group of delegates including Dana Anderson and Daniel Gur of Options for Homes, Mike Marcolongo, and Robin Lee-Norris who’s an agent for another property owner in Clair Maltby. After that, you will hear some of the questions asked of staff by members of council.

So let's recap the debate from last week's Committee of the Whole on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!

You can recap the whole meeting here on Guelph Politico. The final vote for the open spaces plan will be at the regular meeting of council on March 30, and the complete Clair-Maltby Secondary Plan will come back to council later this year.

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