Please see our submissions…

Please see our submissions on OPA 80 in the attached correspondence, which is submitted on behalf of our clients Clay Seabrook and Jacqueline Geall. Below is a short summary of the submissions, which are explained in more detail in our letter:

1. Clay Seabrook and Jacqueline Geall are the owners of the property municipally known as 2 Kilkenny Place (the “Subject Property”) in the City of Guelph. The Subject Property is located at the south-east corner of Clair Road East and Kilkenny Place in the Rolling Hills neighbourhood of Guelph.

2. The Subject Property is located at an important corner location within the Rolling Hills neighbourhood and has extensive frontage along Clair Road East, which is a designated Arterial road with existing bike lanes. The site is also located within close proximity to existing commercial amenities and public services as well as public transit. As a result, the Subject Property is capable of accommodating the type of high density transit-supportive residential development that is required to help both the City and the Province achieve their required growth targets and provide new houses to combat the current housing supply crisis.

3. Notwithstanding these unique features of the Subject Property, OPA 80 proposes to redesignate the lands as Mixed Office/Commercial and Medium Density Residential. While these permissions allow some additional residential development on the Subject Property, the proposed designations would result in an underutilization of the site and are not consistent with and do not conform to the policy objectives of the Provincial Policy Statement, 2020 and the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, 2020 that emphasis the need for efficient use of land through greater intensification. In its current form, the designations in OPA 80 for the Subject Property do not represent good planning and do not have regard to matters of Provincial interest. They will result in an underutilized site that cannot provide the much needed homes required to address the ongoing housing supply crisis in Guelph and throughout the Province more generally.

4. As a result, we respectfully request that the Minister exercise his authority in reviewing OPA 80 to amend the proposed land use designation for the Subject Property from Mixed Office/Commercial and Medium Density Residential to the more appropriate High Density Residential.