GUELPH POLITICAST #172 - The Clash Over Clair-Maltby

Clair-Maltby is hundreds of acres of mostly untouched greenspace in Guelph's south end. For some, it represents millions of dollars in potential real estate profit, and for others, it represents a chance to develop in an environmentally responsible way that avoids the natural instinct to sprawl. These ideals clashed before City Council this past Monday.

The main sticking point in this most recent update on the Clair-Maltby Secondary Plan was the fact that the planned location of the community park had recently been moved from a location on land owned by Fusion Homes, to the property commonly known as the Marcolongo Farm. The Marcolongos are hoping to use a portion of the land for affordable housing, built by a non-profit developer, so it seemed odd to them that the park would be moved without advanced notice to the one site in Clair-Maltby where the point is to not make money.

Many people in Guelph are already dubious about the intent for Clair-Maltby, and that staff and council seem poised to repeat the sprawling mistakes of the past, so the imposition of the community park on the Marcolongo Farm seemed to prove the point. And on top of that, there's the general concerns about the environment, sustainable building, the threat to wildlife, the threat to the unique geography of the Paris Galt Moraine, and the potential threat to Guelph’s drinking water supply. The issues were as numerous as the delegates at this past Monday's council meeting.

So why not hear from them directly?

On this unique entry in the podcast, you will be taken into the City Council Planning Meeting from May 13. The excerpts for this episode comes from the public delegation portion of the evening, and the debate about the amended motion brought forward by Ward 6 Councillor Dominique O'Rourke asking staff to look again at options for the community park. 

The speakers list for the evening included Mike Marcolongo and his mother Assunta Uffer-Marcolongo (pictured above), Daniel Ger and Heather Tremain of Options for Homes, Dana Anderson of MHBC Planning, Susan Watson, Morgan Hannah, Carol Koenig of the Protect Our Moraine Coalition, former council candidate Matt Saunders, Julianna Van Adrichem, Dustin Brown of Extinction Rebellion Guelph, Hugh Handy of GSP Group, Cynthia Bragg, Dr. Hugh Whiteley, Kevin Guyan, and Joanne Moores.

So let's head to the floor of the council chambers to hear the debate on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!

You can stay up to date on all the latest developments concerning Clair-Maltby here. And if you found this kind of episode of the podcast useful, and if you’d like to hear more from the council chambers on key issues in future editions of the podcast, feel free to send your feedback or comment below.

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here.

Remember that the Politicast Podbean channel is also the host for podcast versions of Open Sources Guelph. The previous Thursday’s episode of Open Sources will be posted on Mondays.