Guelph Innovation District

[Northern Light]

As we're now doing K-W threads, and have a couple from Guelph already, this seemed UT worthy.

This proposal is for the former Guelph Correctional Facility (Jail) lands.

The site is quite substantial in size, at a whopping 436ha or about 1,000 acres.

A portion of the prison facility is heritage and in the process of being protected as such (with the consent of the Province.)

The site isn't far outside Guelph's core, nor far from the University; and has the Guelph Junction railway running adjacent to it; along w/the Eramosa River and some nice natural areas.

This is Guelph's main page for the site currently:

Guelph Innovation District Secondary Plan

The Innovation District is vital to meeting employment & housing targets consistent with Guelph’s Growth Management Strategy and the Province’s Growth Plan.

guelph.ca

There was an article in The Star about the heritage protections for the site (or the dispute about what level of protection to accord)

Council will vote on which parts of Guelph jail lands need heritage protection

City council will be getting its first look later this month at potential heritage protections for the old jail lands in the east end.

www.thestar.com

This is a video Guelph had made for the site:

This is the OPA (Secondary Plan) for the site:

https://guelph.ca/wp-content/uploads/OPA54_GuelphInnovationDistrict_08102017.pdf

From same:

Aerial View of the general area:

 

[Northern Light]

Eastern portion of the lands, as they are today:

The former jail:

 

[A Torontonian Now]

Looks a bit sprawly to me. Much of it is essentially greenfield development, and I would like the bar on density to be high for that everywhere in the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

Looks a bit sprawly to me. Much of it is essentially greenfield development, and I would like the bar on density to be high for that everywhere in the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

Agreed, this seems to me like a prime opportunity to create a dense greenfield development.

 

[Northern Light]

Agreed, this seems to me like a prime opportunity to create a dense greenfield development.

It's my impression that they are aiming this at the sort of Liberty Village/Loft-style, academic/artsy vibe.

As such, I don't necessarily mind the omission of extreme height; but I do take issue w/overly low minimum heights, and overly wide ROWs for cars.

I think the simple notion of bumping the minimum height on the site to 4s from 2s would do wonders.......and certainly there's room to bump up the top heights as well.

There's a desire to leave a wide swath for nature and to respect the heritage...............and on a 1,000 acre site there should be ample room to do that; while still being meaningfully denser than the current proposal.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

I concur once again in this thread

The problem isn't necessarily the built form (though certainly I would prefer seeing 4-6 storeys in most places) but that it is so sprawling. The streets don't need to have such large ROWs and density can be made more densely packed together and possibly allowing for additional rows of housing developments in the freed up space. Replace roads between development with pedestrian pathways, shift parking and loading access to the outside streets.

Density can be achieved through low-rise built form too.

 

[Northern Light]

Star article on this noting that Guelph Council has voted to study additional heritage protections on this site.

Guelph council approves exploring added heritage protections for jail land

30-plus residents delegated to Guelph council, asking for more protections for provincially owned site currently up for sale.

www.thestar.com