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Guelph PoliticastAuthor: Adam A. Donaldson
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GUELPH POLITICAST #504 – The Rest of 2025 at Council (September-December)
Episode 1389
Wednesday, 7 January, 2026
Guelph City Council is taking an extended holiday (but not as extended at the Ontario government), so as we wait for their inevitable return, it seems fitting to pause here at the start of the year and to look back at all the action last fall in the council chambers. Before we unlock the future we must first find the keys to the past so join us in this search for the keys... It was a busy fall at city council on the planning side. There was a major proposal to redevelop a plaza at the corner of Gordon and Clair, and there was the rollout of the block plan for the first two phases of the Guelph Innovation District lands. The consequences of those decisions may take decades to unfold, certainly beyond the time and space of this current council (who term out this November). In terms of policy, council looked at making it easier to build more accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, and considered five or more units as-of-right on certain low residential properties. They also strongly endorsed the creation of a renoviction bylaw and a vacant home tax in order to stop the loss of affordable housing before it happened. There was also some weird thing with parking restrictions in one section of the Ward that caused some controversy. There were also some city building projects on the agendas. Redeveloping the area around the Macdonell Bridge took up a lot of bandwidth, especially when it comes to keeping portions of the Allan Dam, or not keeping them as the case may be. Council also looked at the final design of St. George's Square after advising staff to ratchet up that "wow factor", and as they do almost every fall, there was the passage of the budget and all the drama there. So let's get into events at city council last fall in this week's Guelph Politicast! The next council meeting is the January planning meeting on Tuesday January 20 at 4 pm in the council chambers at city hall. The agenda will be posted on the City of Guelph website sometime this coming Thursday. As usual, stay tuned to Guelph Politico for all the latest developments before, during and after every city council meeting! The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify . Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.
