Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to council on June 8th. Um I actually realized I did not ask if there was a disclosure of pecuniary interest and the general nature thereof earlier. Did I anyone? >> Yes. >> Uh yeah I have one or had one for in camera um which is dealt with. >> Great. Thank you. Okay. I'll start with our territorial acknowledgement. We would like to begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather, land on which we are broadcasting from today is the land traditionally cared for by the Hodneson Anesnab and Chinantung people. We also acknowledge the enduring presence and deep traditional knowledge and philosophies of the indigenous people with whom we share this land today. I would like to add my own personal reflection to the territorial acknowledgement. As someone whose family has been in Ontario for generations, I've often reflected on my own connection to this land. My great greatgrandfather was a land surveyor who worked north and west from Toronto before eventually settling near Durham, Ontario. As I've learned more about indigenous history, I've come to recognize that while my ancestors helped map, and settle parts of Ontario, they were entering landscapes that were already known, inhabited, and cared for by First Nations for countless generations. Reflecting on my own family story has reminded me that learning about our shared history also means re-examining what I was taught, what I wasn't taught, what I believed, and whose voices were missing. I'm grateful for the opportunity to continue that journey and I encourage others to do the same. Our moment of reflection. We have two today. On June 6th, we remembered our London family. Yuma Afel, her mother Madia Salman, her grandmother Talak Afsel, and her father Salman Afsel who were tragically killed five years ago while out for a walk in London, Ontario. We also remember their young brother, son, and grandson who was seriously injured but survived. This painful anniversary is a reminder of the dangers of Islamophobia, as well as the racism, hatred, and violence that our Muslim neighbors continue to face. As a city, we reaffirm our commitment to join with Muslim communities in the face of hate and to challenge racism and discrimination in all its forms. June also marks Pride and Indigenous History Month. This past Friday, we opened the month of celebrations for Indigenous History Month and Pride with our Beats in the Square community event through music, dance, performances, and community connection. We celebrated 2SLGBTQIA+ people and indigenous history and identity. Waterlue celebrates pride and indigenous history month with the belief that an inclusive city is one that recognizes differences and ensures residents have equal opportunities and benefits. We support an enhanced sense of belonging for all residents and a commitment to reconciliation. Okay. Moving forward, the approval of minutes. Would anyone like to move May 11th council meeting minutes? Councelor Wright moves seconded by um Mayor Dorothy McCabe. All in favor? That passes. Item seven, the consent motion, the 2026 arts grant report. Does anyone wish to remove anything? No. Would anyone like to move counselor um Freeman? Seconded by councelor Vasic. All in favor? That carries. Our next item is staff report administrative corporate policies a-46 AI governance framework policy. There is a pre presentation by Ryan Pan Pani. Okay. Okay. Good afternoon everyone. So today uh myself and Carrie Van Nikkerk are here on behalf of the AI working group to present the AI governance framework policy for approval. Um today we're asking council to approve this policy. Uh its purpose um is to establish um rules and procedures for how the city will responsibly review and govern future use of artificial intelligence. And one point we would like to especially clarify from the outset is that this is a corporate governance document. It's not an AI strategy roadmap or implementation plan. Nor does it approve any specific AI technology. So as I mentioned this policy is internal to the corporation of the city of water. It applies to AI technologies used or managed by city staff through city systems conducted for city business. It does not regulate residents, businesses or the broader community. And it does not establish a public AI program. nor does it apply to the broader community or infrastructure matters associated with AI. Were a public facing AI service to be proposed in the future, this policy would govern the city's internal review of that proposal, it does not authorize one today. So why is this all coming forward now? So, as I'm sure we're all we're all aware, um artificial intelligence technology is a um hotly debated topic in the news and in society and its functionalities are increasingly being built into the software and services across all sectors uh that that we live and work in. And its interest in the potential use cases of this technology is growing across this organization and many others. At the same time, Ontario's legislative framework for public sector AI um the enhancing digital security and trust act is continuing to be developed uh establishing a framework for requirements around AI in public sector organizations including requirements around transparency, accountability and risk management. Putting this framework in place now will allow the city to approach future opportunities consistently, thoughtfully, and with appropriate attention to transparency, accountability, privacy, security, and risk. So, a little bit of background on how this policy was developed. This policy was developed through the AI working group established under the digital and technology steering committee. The group brought to brought together a crossf functional perspective from digital services, privacy, information security, procurement, legal, ready and operational service areas. Staff also reviewed approaches being developed by other municipalities and public sector organizations throughout the province. And the policy received input from labor and employee group representatives and was reviewed and endorsed by DTSC and ECMT. This was intentionally developed as a corporate policy rather than the work of any one division. So what the policy actually does the policy establishes the principles and governance mechanisms that will apply to future AI use at the corporation of the city of water. So responsible AI principles that the that the policy defines are human oversight, privacy, security, fairness, transparency, and ensuring that AI use is justifiable and proportionate. It also establishes an AI governance subcommittee which is responsible for reviewing and endorsing proposed AI projects, developing and maintaining an inventory of AI systems used by the city and lays out clear roles and responsibilities and supporting procedures which will help us to fulfill our requirements under the enhancing digital security and trust act that I mentioned earlier. The emphasis here is on creating consistent control points before these technologies are implemented and to manage these uh control points throughout these technologies life cycle. Um, one thing that came up during the development of uh, this policy is um, a sense of the city's approach to AI at this time. And um, it was felt that the city's approach is one of cautious optimism at this time. It's recognized that AI may offer opportunities to support service delivery, improve processes, and build organizational capacity as the community needs continue to grow. However, it is also strongly acknowledged that AI technologies are not a substitute for staff expertise, professional judgment or human interaction. Throughout, human accountability remains central. The purpose of governance when it comes to AI is not to prevent responsible use. It is to allow the city to consider opportunities in a careful, transparent, and defensible way and to fulfill our legislated obligations. Now sustainability is an important uh topic around AI especially uh these days in the news. Um it was discussed during the development of the framework and we recognize it as an important consideration when it comes to AI governance. We decided not to include it as a standalone principle at this stage because practical and reliable methods for assessing and monitoring the environmental impacts of AI are still evolving at this time. We did not want to include a declaration without being able to support it with meaningful implementation guidance. We want to emphasize that the city will continue monitoring emerging standards, measurement tools, and governance governance guidance. And we expect sustainability to be revisited and strengthened through future procedures and policy reviews. So what's next? If approved, the next work is uh the work of governance. So that includes finalizing the AI governance subcommittee's terms of reference and composition, developing a project intake and review procedure, establishing the AI inventory, preparing staff guidance, training materials, and continued monitoring of legislative developments. Um, none of these steps approves a particular AI implementation. This is all work which would be done uh by the AI governance subcommittee. Uh so yeah, just to close, um we're asking council to approve the framework uh that will govern how future AI proposals are assessed and managed and uh not to approve any specific AI strategy or specific technology. Um and we are happy to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you. >> Thank you so much for your presentation. Um council, do you have any questions? Councelor Wright. >> Thank you through you, Chair. Um it's it's um incredibly important that this has come forward and especially on the heels of uh the federal government's uh um sharing its AI strategy, national AI strategy last week. Um a couple of questions that I have are regarding how we stay accountable to the public. Um, and so I'm just gonna um bundle these together so that you can think it through and then answer um as is appropriate. Um, first of all, I'm wondering if we have a current audit of where AI has been incorporated sort of, you know, the lowhanging fruit where AI is in everything from emails to browsers like the things that are kind of insidious adoption of AI. So I'm wondering if we've already done an an audit of where AI shows up. Um and then secondly, um I noted in the the life cycle uh management uh aspect of the report um it refers to the AI governance subcommittee having a particular um weighty role in all of this. And if we think of AI as being a kind of infrastructure um that we are considering adopting and using responsibly, uh we have an asset management system for instance that helps us evaluate other kinds of infrastructure. And so I'm wondering um whether we will have some sort of report annual report associated with uh AI use going forward that would u potentially come forward through that AI governance um subcommittee and the reason why I'm asking this is because um the associated risks obviously need to be managed and um in our current way we're approaching AI u governance can be very fragmented and we could through an ad hoc way of managing this um run into a low accountability structure. And so what I'm trying to figure out is how do we map to something that is higher accountability, transparent, a way that engenders trust going forward. So those are sort of my my two questions. >> Thank you through chair to the counselor. Thank you for your questions. Um they're all excellent questions and things that the working group is considering as we move forward. Um with regard to the current audit of where AI has been incorporated that is part of our next steps in terms of that AI inventory. So there are a number of uh built-in features that are currently attached to things that are in use. We know that uh some some groups are using AI to to assist their work already. So we'll be creating that inventory uh to have available. With regard to the life cycle management aspect, I think similar to what we've seen as we've learned how to move forward with monitoring and measurement for some of our um you know like our sustainability and greenhouse gas measurement. Um we have a corporate sort of report that comes forward that's an umbrella reporting. So I think that's some good direction for the working group to take away and discuss how we can provide some sort of umbrella. So at the moment we are taking an organizational umbrella approach to this. We do know that individual AI technologies as they come forward will likely come forward through individual working groups but uh it's a very good point that one overall insight for reporting is a great way to go. So we we'll take that away for sure. Yes, Natalya. as um Harry's co-chair of the of the um working group, I would like to also add to councelor right point that um Ryan mentioned earlier the legislation that sort of brought about this responsibility to public bodies to audit and um inform public of the instances of the use of AI. So the the first two points that you made, they are legislated. So, we're required to create an inventory and we're required to uh inform the public of the use of AI. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor Hanmer. >> Uh thank you, Chair, through through you. And my I don't really have a question. It's more a comment. um when I read through the material and the framework that you've put together, I want to commend you on what's been put together on an area that is a little tricky for all of us to navigate right now and especially when we've got legislation that's passed but no regulations to go along with it. So, I think staff have done a really good job in pulling it together in a way that it truly is a framework and will allow us to monitor and and move forward with the regulation. So, thank you very much for what you're doing. and Natalya did answer the question that I did have. So, thank you >> council. Any more questions? Councelor Basic. >> Uh thanks through um Chair Row. Um thanks for the presentation. Thanks for this. We need to do it. Uh it's essential. Uh we can't pretend we're not uh incorporating AI in our uh daily work, not just the sort of official principles, too. So, good to be talking about it. Um, and I really appreciate what you said about the uh sustainability uh and how you've been considering it in such detail. I am hoping to add just a recommendation uh to uh the staff report um primarily that talks about sustainability primarily just so that in future reports that point back to this as our first um like foray into AI that it's captured directly and explicitly that you already have been considering sustainability that and that council are also um also find that important and are also directing staff to do so. Now in this what I now of course people I wanted to also say could come back and look at the YouTube but we do not and so when in our reports it says other related reports and it says this one this one this one this one so that's that's what's going to happen no one's going to look at at this good presentation you've done an explanation um but the one piece that may not actually fit in this um motion that I'm presenting here that maybe we could change possibly it would be a friendly amendment to my motion uh by me um which is that I don't I it look as you described it here and when I reviewed it again in the report just now um or in the policy it's it wouldn't be a principle that I'm asking you to direct exactly like you have the principles and they make good sense why you've outlined them like that. So it's not a sustainability principle I'm asking you to add but more of a a sustainability focus whatever it will be so that we're not directing you to completely change the framework because it makes good sense how your framework is. So if you have a suggestion for maybe what that ought to uh look like >> uh through you counselor. Um I feel like principle fits very well. That's my personal perspective because we we talk about the framework is laid out in principles and I think it would be logical to add sustainability as a whatever 10th principle if it works for you. >> I'm I I don't really care. Um honestly it's just it seemed uh from you know the principles here being principles of responsible AI use. I don't want them to get conflated. So sustainability as a principle makes sense but as a principle responsible AI you've got like human oversight and accountability transparency and to me I was understanding how you were explaining it as those are sort of the overarching principles where the principle of sustainability is more of a value and so I just don't want it to when staff are working on it I don't want anyone to be like oh but she meant principle so it should be like a 1.8 eight or something. Um, I don't know if I'm explaining myself clearly. I just want to make sure I'm leaving staff with just a expectation of what I'm uh hoping uh to do if council were to um just add it in. I believe at least for the working group it's it's clear if if we leave it as principle because even the framework that you shared with us earlier, it includes sustainability as a principle in the framework. Yes. Go ahead, Carrie. >> Thank you, chair. Um, I think, um, there are a couple of different principles that it could also fit under. So, if we leave it as maybe small P principle in there, it could potentially fit under the ethical use. It could fit under life cycle management. So, we we'll take it away and find the best place to to to insert it. >> Excellent. I just wanted to make that uh understand we or make sure we were all on the same page with that. So, yeah. So, this is really just a a documentation process. I I'm hoping, but I'll see what the rest of you think. So, I'll move it if I could. >> Thank you, Councelor Bassic. Would anyone like to second that? Councelor Wright. >> Yes. Go ahead. >> Thank you. And thanks for bringing that up, uh, Councelor Bassik. It's it's an important one. So, uh, appreciate you doing that. Um just a couple I'm just curious when you were doing this um you when you were creating this framework if you consulted I know we consult a lot with the community but um who was consulted with if you could maybe just expound expand a little bit on that and and particularly where we know there's a lot of um technology experts in our community who are also working on various you know various frameworks and policies related to AI. So just wondered who from the community was was involved with this as well. Thanks. >> Uh yes uh thank you for the question. Um so when we when we were developing this framework mostly we were we were consulting uh with what other mun municipalities and public sector organizations had done. Um and in that process um not just municipalities and um uh provincial but also uh federal guidance and and guidelines which um are starting to are starting to emerge as we saw last week. Um there was no um input like input directly from the community just as this was an internal um governance document and a lot of our um responsibilities towards the community as as it relates to uh things like public disclosure of AI in our public facing systems um were things that were already um captured by existing procedures on responsible AI. Okay. Um, so that was sort of something we we thought was already uh well covered. And if I can just add on, I think um we do have a lot of expertise here in the community and that's something that as the new subcommittee working group continues to move forward and develop some more specific procedures around this, we might look to them to get some more information, particularly as we look to determine how we might measure sustainability and things like that as we go forward. >> Okay. Thanks. I think that would um would be really useful. Well, I'm trying to remember. There was uh there was a PhD student from UW who presented to our WEDAC council or WEDAT committee. I'm going to say eight months ago. I don't I mean Justin McFaden would know the details of it who has done like a great deal of research on AI governance and and particular around sustainability and ethical use etc etc and um and so yeah there are I think it makes sense to utilize some of the expertise that we have in our community to just make sure we are you know keep you know at the at the with the leading edge of this kind of work because it uh it is going to be so or it is already so impactful. So thanks for that. The other question I had, I was just curious about the order in which like so we have the framework here today, but we also just had our our website redone and there's um there's an AI tool embedded into that. So just it it feels a little bit chicken before the egg, but could you just maybe explain that that process and how that came first in this case? >> Sure. Um, one of the, uh, procedures, thank you for the question, mayor, mentioned in the report is we do have a Ryan, help me out. What is the procedure official name >> for the the existing? >> Uh, yeah. So, that's the procedure on the responsible use of generative AI. >> Thank you. Responsible use of generative AI. So for things where we are relying on AI to generate content for us, that's why if you use our AI content uh search function on the website, there is a notification right there on it disclosing that it's uh generated by AI. It does note that uh AI can be valuable. So there may even be errors in the content that comes up and it provides links to the exact page on the website where people can find the definitive answer if there's any uncertainty. So that's the sort of thing that um staff had already been thinking of uh to help guide some of the things that we already knew were in use in the city. Um a second key consideration from that that we've noted as important across the organization is that we are not using AI to um replace creative work at the city. So, in terms of, you know, if we're doing marketing and promotion, we're using actual photographers to take pictures. You know, we continue to pay local actors to perform in videos, things like that. We're um, you know, we have a whole branch at the city supporting art and creative industries. So, um, but again, if if there was something that we were using uh AI to generate content, that would have to be transparent and open. So, it it is a bit chicken and egg because these things are currently in use and we are like so many things at the city building the plane while we're flying it. Um, but this is a an really important piece that will provide the umbrella that we'll continue to look towards for guidance as we develop these other operational pieces. >> Okay. Thanks very much. I appreciate that. Thanks for the work on this. >> Thank you, mayor. Any further questions, council? >> No. All right. So, we have two recommendations. Would anyone like to move that? >> You have to vote on the third one first. >> Oh, sorry. Yes. My apologies. I already forgot about the third one. Yes. So, Councelor Basic has tabled the recommendation addition. Would anyone like to second that? Councelor Wright. All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. And now we're going to go back and do them all together. So, uh, we have three recommendations on the table. Council, >> I'm happy to move the two recommendations that are on the table. >> Oh my gosh, you're right. Okay. Thank you. And supported. Yes. Seconded by Coun Well, Mayor McCabe. All in favor. Great. Thank you. Got through that one. Thank you so much. All right. Our next item is the 202526 winter control review uh with a presentation by Bob Henderson. Thank you, Chair Row through YouTube members of council. I'm here to present uh our favorite topic, winter control services, and I'm here to present on a number of partners on our behalf. Um the purpose of this review is to provide council with an update on the successes and challenges from the last winter 202526 winter season. Um, it's also to identify opportunities and recommendations to enhance snow clearing and winter maintenance operations going forward. And lastly, in response to a a petition that we received, uh, we're providing the findings of an operational review conducted to to assess driveway wind row clearing, someone something that uh, we all experience. Um just to give context on uh the last winter season uh you may recall the last two winter seasons circled in red here have been quite unprecedented. Um typically the region of Wateroo uh Kitchener and Wateroo receive about 150 cmters of snow on average. The last two seasons we've experienced over 200 cm of snow uh in Waterlue. Um, when you add that across the the roadway network, it re requires our operational services to remove a lot more snow than typically we've we see in in seasons past. Um, winter control services is is uh really comprised of a number of uh services and and departments in in the city of Wateroo. They're listed here. I won't go through each of them. I'm sure you know who we are. Um, in looking at last year's winter season, there were a number of successes achieved. Uh, we are able to maintain passable roadways and sidewalks throughout the winter season. Albeit given uh a lot of snow that we received, we were able to do this. Um there was a lot of collaboration uh achieved across the the the forces um to overcome challenges in particular associated with the the unprecedented season that we received. Also exacerbating the issues that we experienced were uh a provincewide salt shortage which uh certainly impacted operations. uh we certainly demonstrated uh some resilience and ad adaptation given what the the challenges that we had to face. Um more importantly uh were obligated to meet provincial minimum maintenance standards which we primarily did throughout the season. There were some occasions where we had to declare significant weather events in cases uh when we received more much more snowfall in a given 24-hour period than what we would be expecting. Um there was certainly consistent enforcement uh of uncleared sidewalks done throughout the the city by our municipal enforcement services team. And uh one of one of our other successes was um continuing servicing sidewalks for uh qualified residents through the assisted snow clearing program. Some challenges that we saw this year uh were sustained uh snowy conditions, multi-day snow events, which put pressures on all our teams that provide winter services. We saw, as I noted, we saw a provincialwide uh salt shortage. we uh experienced sustained uh below average temperatures uh that impacted the uh working ability of salt. Uh salt uh if you do not know has a working temperature of typically around minus 10 and above. Anything below that uh encumbers uh or in inhibits the working ability of salt to to melt snow and ice. Um these factors all contributed uh continuously to creating some snow and ice packed conditions that we experienced across the city. This was not unique to Waterlue. It was experienced in Kitner and Cambridge and townships as well. Um creating challenges to keep uh our roads bare free of snow and ice. Challenges were similarly experienced with private parking lots and private driveways. If you if you took a drive around, you would notice that uh our roads in often in many cases were in better condition than private parking lots or private driveways. Um the these uh winter challenges also uh gave us some problems at uh at intersections challenging us with sight lines. So we had to initiate crews to go out and and clear and lift snow away from uh major intersections. We prioritized roadways based on traffic volume and risk of collisions to uh clear visibility at at these intersections. Our snow facility on Forbashure Drive uh was certainly challenged uh this year in terms of accommodating demand that was uh being sent to the the snow dump. We pretty much reached our capacity similar to last year. Um we addressed uh the demands this year similar to last year by blowing snow higher than we typically would to accommodate more snow coming into the snow dump. Um and last uh just to finish off on a few items, as the winter progressed, we saw our staff uh burning out. Uh the uh the call-in assignments for overtime was becoming a challenge. uh staff were tending not to come in to to do overtime uh per the like as per the right per the collective agreement. Um and while our teams are were challenged this year, we were pro predominantly uh in our snow plows. Um the same teams that drive snow plows uh will uh do loading from downtown uh King Street and other areas. But uh our ability to do that was in inhibited by the fact that we were predominantly in our snow plows plowing snow and uh on street parking continues to be a problem both during snow events and non- snow events. Um you can see in the picture here if drive if if uh residents are parking on both sides of the street it certainly creates challenges for our snowplow drivers to get through and clear the road. Uh good. Um our MEES team uh continues to to enforce sidewalks and unclear snow uh snow on sidewalks uh which is uh often needed throughout the city. Um we undertook a a pilot project and an uptown service enhancement that uh Robin Miller's team in parks uh undertook. So, I'll I'll uh turn the table to Robin, who I thought was here. Oh, there he is. Thanks, Robin. I'll let Robin speak to to this uh pilot project. >> Thank Thanks, Bob. Um yeah, so in the in the 2526 season, we piloted mechanical snow clearing from Philip to King Street on both sides of Colombia. This is historically a resident responsibility, but because of complaints and and the the amount of snow that we're dumping on that section of sidewalk. So, there's essentially uh two lanes that go to the south, two lanes that go to the south, plus the bike lanes that that in that location get dumped onto a curb face sidewalk. On the north side of the road, to complicate the issue, there's a retaining wall that that really limits the snow storage in that area. So staff took this on this year to see how the effectiveness of us mechanically clearing that with with a with a trackless unit. Um it has a bit more modern construction than a lot of our sidewalks in terms of width and it's not blocked by utilities. Um so for the most part it it it was a success. Some of the challenges we had were with the um the blue boxes and and private waste uh on collection days obviously posed a challenge for staff to navigate around. Uh they're using that same space to to store their their waste as as we would use to store snow or to to move through that area with the the trackless. Um, in some cases you have vehicles that are overhanging the sidewalk, which obviously creates an obstacle for the for the plow coming through as well. But all in all, I I think it it it went uh fairly smoothly and uh the plans will be to to work with with our friends in bylaw to figure out how we can work that into our municipal bylaw so that it is it can become a municipal responsibility for that for that specific section. Um we did some snow loading uh on Union and Regina Street. Originally our plan was to do some mechanical clearing on Union. A lot of the same reasons for Colombia. Uh however with the leadup to construction that will be taking this the re road reconstruction that will happen this year. There was too many challenges in terms of uh utility relocation. So the the the plows actually couldn't navigate the sidewalks in that area. So we did we did some snow loading through there uh as well on Regina. that proved to be a a fairly costly endeavor for those just those those two um sections of city streets and um near the end of the the winter or maybe it wasn't the end, it was probably the middle. It felt like it should have been the end. Um what we came up what we dealt with was the contractor that we had on retainer essentially had commitments to a number of other clients including uh IPW and so we did run into some some challenges where we were essentially triaged to a point where you know we needed the service today and they were telling us you know it'll be it'll be next week it'll be two weeks from now before we can get there. So there was some limitations um in in that regard. Again, around the same time it was coming off of the Christmas break, uh we started receiving some a high volume of complaints on King Street. >> Robin, I'm sorry to interrupt. I just want to let you know you have one minute left. >> Oh, Shoot. Okay. Um and so we we pivoted. We rented a small piece of equipment in the um for the uptown core. A little bit more nimble. We were going in and clearing around bus stops and and we were clearing around uh intersections and curb cuts and and um the PXO buttons just to to clear and move snow with a smaller piece of equipment. That proved to be extremely successful. We'll look in as long as budget permits, we'll look to do that in the in the coming season. Back to you, Bob. >> Thank you. And so, um, service enhancements that we're, uh, recommending, uh, we're, uh, equipping our, uh, upcoming snowplow replacement snow plows with belly blades that will help to apply downward pressure, um, to minimize buildup of ice pack road conditions. We're re reviewing the feasibility of upgrading the snow dump site. Um, we're considering forward- facing camera technology for operator safety and documenting road conditions and services and uh continuing our enforcement practices. Um, lastly, I'll just I'll I'll finish up. We were asked by petition to undertake a Windrove snow clearing operational review. We undertook a Canadawide survey. Uh the results indicated that there's no established P practices or any widely adopted practices. Um a citywide program would consider significant significant capital operating uh cost investments in equipment and staffing. The city of Missaga undertook a review and it turned out to be quite uh confirming those significant costs. And um to finish up, window clearing would occur after snow plowing operations. Um and that would occur generally almost 24 hours after uh snow plowing services have been finished. Um staff do not recommend uh pursuing the citywide windro clearing program because of the significant investments estimated 30,000 driveways and completion times complaints liabilities. Thank you. >> Thank you so much Bob. Thank you for the presentation. Um, I just wanted to comment that staff did an incredible job this winter. It really was challenging. So, thank you to your staff for all of their hard work. Council, do you have any questions? Council right. >> Thank you through you, Chair. I I think I'm fastest on the button today. Um, I I uh I really resonated with your your comments about um everybody being very very tired of winter um halfway through the winter. Uh it was extraordinary for sure. I am wondering if you could um just share with us a little bit about the citizen insight application and how that worked and and sort of what the the parameters for it and um how effective it was. >> Thank you for the question. Uh the citizen insight is uh kind of provided for a number of reasons. I'll I'll speak to two in particular. one, it provides residents the ability to see uh where not necessarily where snow plows are or are but it allows them to see where they have been and uh to see basically roads being completed through neighborhoods, things like that. The the other benefit of the citizens insight uh provides our own internal staff the ability to confirm road completions and to if there have been any missed, it gives us the ability to go back and and clean those those roadways if they're missed. I know parks has been using it too as well um to to their advantage for um tracking their sidewalk snow plows and and completions and completion times things like that. So it has been a a tool that we've taken advantage of and it was a recommendation that came out of the modernization review a few years ago 2019 to be sacked. >> Thank you for that. I I found it to be really helpful as a as a counselor. Um, as you know, in Ward 7 with the curve facing sidewalks and some streets being uh serviced by city of Kitchener and um with residents, I was able to do a certain amount of, you know, you can go and look at this and uh we can work through this together. So, it was a great communication tool for me as well. So, um definitely uh really appreciated that. Um just two other points I have. one is um I think once we got going with um servicing Uptown, it kind of got into a groove and and things really improved uh significantly. Um it was obviously hard to keep up with um with the repeat snowfalls, but um with our current uh new waste regime, I'm just wondering whether we could uh get together sooner than later to uh review how that will impact this coming winter's uh snow removal. And then secondly, um we seem to have moved into a boom and bust cycle with winter. Uh you know, maybe conditions were more consistent in the past, but with the hydraological cycle just being very um uh swinging towards extremes might be the the best way to describe it. We're we're going to have some surprises along the way. Um and I'm just wondering what you're anticipating in terms of um the salt situation coming up this fall and winter. Thank you for the question. Um, I'll speak to the the salt shortage uh going forward and then I'll I'll maybe pass it on to Robin to address the the waste management and sidewalk issues and snow snow removal. Um, we're keeping our our eye on the on I'll call it the political environment with the the salt as you know. Um, salt is delivered to the northeastern US as well and there's some this uh company is also an American company as well. So, but we're hoping that the the the mining operations will catch up with the the demand that needs to be supplied. Um, I can't thank our uh procurement staff enough for how they helped us out in in clawing the the salt that we uh were able to obtain this year. Without their help, it probably would have been a lot less. Um, again, we're contingency planning with our our neighbors in Wateroo and or in Kitchener and Cambridge as well to contingency plan in case there's another shortage this year. Um, but we're hoping we're kind of keeping our fingers crossed, so to speak, to to hope that the the mining uh is is sped up and that the supplies uh align with that. >> Good. Uh through the chair to you, council right. So, in in terms of the waste, um Nicole tells me that we've had early conversations with the BIA uh in in addressing that. What I can say is is I think there the bins have proven to be a bit of improvement in the sense that um the material is it's easily found by the the collector. So when they were throwing bags out if you had a snowfall the bag would get covered and then the plow could come by rip the side of the bag open and then there's a bit of a mess that gets frozen in place. Um, so I, you know, I I think some there's there's quite a few positives from the bin system from from a winter maintenance perspective that I I think we're going to experience in the coming years. And, you know, we'll continue to work with the BIA to to address any concerns of placement and and uh displacement of them, I guess. >> Councelor Hanmer. >> Uh, thank you through you, Chair. Thank you for the report and the update. I too would like to echo that staff did a fab f fabulous job this winter with all sorts of things being thrown at us all the all the time. I do have uh two questions though and wondered if you could expand upon the plans being on the west side often for the for the drivers and for the residents. It's an hour turnaround time if they have to go back to the shed to pick things up. and you did put in in the report some of the plans, but could you expand on that of what's going to happen to better assist the west side of the city? >> Well, we're continuously looking at our our roots that we provide and we're always creating efficiencies where we can. So, um we're we're trying our best to get to the city uh citywide through through all wards. Um recognizing that our service center is is um on the east primarily the east side of the city, it does take time to get to the west side city. I know there's a a review being undertook or has been undertook and perhaps I can uh let uh Commissioner Van Udenheim uh speak to that. But uh again, we're always looking at our salt roots. We we prioritize our our our road network based on classes of roads. So essentially our our snow plow drivers are servicing our higher order roads like regional roads first and they're all dedicated to those roads. So once the snow stops and our higher order roads are in uh a shape that we can determine we can get our crews out to to the the other wards, we we do that. So >> thank you. I I was referring a little bit more to the plans for additional spots and perhaps uh Kevin you can expand on that additional spots on the west side for either uh equipment to be there or um whether it's a second salt shed that we have or or the other Yeah. >> through you uh chair wrote councelor Hanmer. Yes. So that's correct. So last year we um undertook a feasibility study for a satellite service center on the west side of town really to um get at some of the issues you noted around you know additional salt storage capacity, heated indoor vehicle storage, a place for staff to come um and just to to assist with the response times on the west side of of town. And so um that is something that's very much on our radar and we are going through a process now in terms of capital planning to to hopefully um bring something like that on online. Um it would involve um land and and capital costs to to build a facility. And we would hope that we would be able to leverage partnerships with the region or other area municipalities sort of that have similar needs in that part of the the city as us to to to look at maybe partnering on something if that was possible. But lots to be explored there still. >> Okay. Thank you. I think it's important to for residents anyway on the west side to know that it we're not forgotten that we're on the other side and know that it does take a little bit of time to get there. We just have to look at what the right solution is. Which brings me to my second question. And this one I think is probably more of a timing thing. Uh when we're doing the regional roads and I think this year um also the bus stops were done very very well, but there were some times when the bus stop looked perfectly clean. Snowplow would come by and you could get to the bus stop but you couldn't get from the bus stop to the bus. >> Yeah. So I can speak to that. Uh we're always trying to coordinate our services. There's I think five different agencies that contribute to servicing um sidewalks, roads, bus stops, etc. Um recently we had met with uh our ready team and one of the recommendations that came out of that was to get these agencies together who I don't think have ever met face to face and uh the end goal is to improve coordination between the services so that there's no discontinuity between the services. >> Thank you for that. I think and as I said, I'm sure it's just it's a timing, excuse me, of when when it's happening, but some of the well all of the bus stops are critical, but some that if people are getting to medical appointments, thinking along Ivor Needles, there's a couple stops there that you'd be stuck if you couldn't move. So, thank you. >> Uh, thank you. And councelor Freeman, >> uh, thank you. Thank you for the report. and um the work that you put into it and I appreciate the review that you did with regard to wind row plowing plowing because that uh requested come from someone in my ward. Um a couple things that I had wondered about was um well first off I did want to build on counselor Wright's comments about the the mapping of where all the plows were. I thought that was incredibly helpful. Um, as an aside, I ski, so I actually was pretty happy with all the snow that happened this year. But, um, but the um the the other piece that I wondered about just on the west side, like with regard to all the westside land that we own and that's serviced um is is have we ever considered just having like salt story, a salt dome there so that we could access it? I I know you mentioned partnering with the region, but um I do think that as the city continues to grow up and out that the singular service center, although I like it nearby, um um I do recognize that the the city has really grown. So, I'll just leave that that with you for for your thoughts. Um, it was an interesting w winter this year, I thought, because of the height of the snow plow banks at the corners, uh, pretty much throughout the whole city. That's incredibly common in other municipalities in Ontario in particular. When I worked in Ottawa, it was really common, but I think people are less uh um used to them here. And so I just didn't know whether or not there was any focus or whether it there could be a focus in the future in terms of cutting down just embankments within that um what do we call it the daylight corner? Is that what we refer to it in planning? Um ju just on that front. >> Yeah. So um I'll start with that uh question. That's something that we've we've been doing the last last two seasons and we're prior prioritizing the intersections that need to have their daylighting cleared. I think we've been trying to clear beyond the daylighting triangle to meet minimum sight lines for drivers to make decisions to like exit the into the intersection. So, that's something that we're doing and I think um we can still uh find a way to enhance that. Um we're using our third party snow contractor. we baked it into our contract this year to have them be able to do that service for us instead of um trying to find someone. So that was planned in advance to have that done. Um so yeah, it's it's uh these past two winters have certainly exacerbated the sighteline issues and uh I think we've done a good job at clearing out those intersections on a priority basis. >> I'm not complaining. >> Yeah. Um the the only other question that I well I was saddened in the report to re to read about the the violence that had been uh undertaken towards some of our drivers and um I I don't know if there's anything that we can do to help curtail that but it was it was really sad to see that. >> Yeah. Uh if I may respond to that, I think we've seen um well these past two winters have certainly exacerbated frustrations for a number of reasons. Um in the past we we typically saw people either yelling at at drivers or throwing shovels at the at the trucks, but it seems to be escalating to the point where people are trying to enter the vehicles and get to the drivers and attack them. So, yeah, we've been looking at mitigating measures to deter that kind of behavior through potentially the use of of forward- facing camera technology to deter like to essentially deter that behavior. I've heard of municipalities using signs on the side of the the vehicle saying that they're being monitored with cameras. Um, and so we're hoping that behavior curtails through that process if we if we decide to pursue it. Hopefully the the winters won't be as severe and people's tendency to get frustrated through these uh through having to clear snowall almost every day. Hopefully that is something that's not experienced. I can tell you in our in our data historically it's um suggesting that any two severe winter seasons are typically followed by less severe winters historically. So, there's good news in in the data, but I don't have a perfect crystal ball. >> All right. Thank you, Mayor McCabe. >> Thank you and through you, Chair. Thanks, as others have said, for the service over the winter and and for the report. Um, I was just curious about the snow storage piece. Um, and the and the information in here that we're you're looking for another location. Um, I'm just curious because like we know around the city and just this may be a shortterm um opportunity, but have we thought about like places of worship as snow storage? Like because we know there's churches and places of worship that um um um attendance is declining and you know they some of them have are located in a lot of neighborhoods and you know have substantially sized parking lots that aren't fully utilized. So, I'm just curious if there's been any consideration of something like that in that we could perhaps like use some of that space instead of having to go to a snow storage like one location where you have to transport it all. >> Yeah. So, um we have not looked at that service. It's something that we could consider, but I I think there's also environmental issues that come along with storing snow. >> So, that would certainly have to be reviewed. And and just to be just to be clear on the the upcoming work on uh looking at upgrades to the existing snow site, we're looking at technologies that might help us in like through snow melting uh technologies to increase the capacity that can be handled at the the snow dump site. And if that proves to not be an option, we'll pursue the option of other other land that's been on the table in the past. We're we're coordinating that um potential cost arrangements and cost uh um sharing with the region of Wateroo because they're their network is contributing to the the capacity issues at our snow facility. >> Okay. Thanks. I was going to ask about about snow melting. So, thanks for for referencing that. The other question I had was because we're rolling out the uh the CRM. Um, is that do you expect that to be in place uh by the upcoming winter? It's kind of sad to already be thinking of winter, winter 2027, but will that service be available for people to report like in um you know, if they have questions about some clearing, sidewalks, roads, etc. Yeah, I'm not necessarily project managing that that CRM process, but uh I don't know if anyone's here to speak to it. >> I'm just wondering about the timeline for >> we're looking at launching phase two and some of that is incorporating additional service center complaint calls and things like that. So, I'll take that away and follow up with the CRM project team and we'll let you know what the timeline is for that, mayor. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, and I guess my question just around the uh this the salt piece because that you used what you called pickling with salt. Is that something that like you would like is that something that like you you you're worried if we're worried about um a potential salt shortage? Like is the pickling something that we could continue regardless? Like is that a better thing to do that would lessen our overall need for salt? >> Yeah. So we um strategized and and adopted the pickling of salt. So pickled salt is essentially a a combination of mix between salt and sand. But we use that as a contingency plan and a salt preservation plan uh to deal with the salt shortages that we were experiencing across Ontario and to pre preserve our salt that we had on hand. We didn't want to run out, >> right? Um, but using sand comes at a at a cost and and we don't ne necessarily like using sand. The sand was also used this year as a as a a way to add traction to the snowpacked ice conditions that we experienced. But at the end of the day, the sand ends up going somewhere and we clean up as much as we can and we want to avoid sand going into the storm sewer system to avoid flooding and our storm sewers getting clogged up and causing flooding. So, um, it's not necessarily a strategy we we want to incorporate on a regular basis. It was done as a a strategy to address this year's challenges. >> Okay. Yeah. Well, yeah, because part of where my question comes from is just we know we we have smart about salt campaigns to, you know, try and reduce the amount of salt that we use and that residents and business owners use. But um I was curious what impact to the you know our our watershed and river systems the sand has so in additions to salt and if that would be a reason to continue using it. Yeah, I I think the in an ideal world it would it would be better to continue trying to reduce the amount of salt through more proactive use of salt, using salt more smartly um throughout the city network and continually challenging ourselves to find a way to reduce the amount that we use. >> Okay. All right. Thanks very much. >> Thank you, Councelor Bodley. >> Uh thank you through you, Trro. Um, I'll echo the rest of council and noting that it was an obviously an exceptionally challenging year and staff did an incredible job of doing the best that we could to uh fight with mother nature. I guess um couple of couple of questions I have here. I I I want to flag, I guess, that uh in my eight years on council, this was the uh year where I received substantially the most number of complaints about um uh the state of some of the side streets in W 2 this year. And I note in the report that you referenced the um uh the need that for us to bring in contractors with graders to do some ice breaking because of not just the accumulation of snow and our need to meet provincial maintenance standard, minimum maintenance standards, but also just sort of the the crazy freeze thaw cycles that we had been dealing with led to substantial ice buildup in W 2 and in some other ws particularly on the west end of the city. Um, and I'm just wondering if you feel like we have the uh operational uh or policy sort of flexibility in place right now to address this if this becomes more the new normal that we have funding that we have policies um that you have the autonomy in place to be able to to order these contractors to to do grading of some of these uh side streets uh in the future um should that be something that is necessary. >> Yes, thank you for the question. So, um I'll try to answer it as best I can. Um yes, I do think we have the flexibility to and um budget capacities to bring in graders when we need to. Um I know we've been looking at uh purchasing some of our own graders, but they come with uh you know, we need to store them somewhere, which can be a challenge. So, our storing capabilities are challenged somewhat. Um, but I think we have the flexibility to bring those greater companies in. They're they're they're quite, I think, efficient and allowing us to continue doing our jobs and they come and bring in a specialized service that we're happy to bring them in uh when needed. Uh, these past two winters have been kind of unique in terms of snow and ice buildup on roads that we've never seen before or are used to seeing. So, I think it was somewhat of a unique situation. Um, but at the end of the day, um, we're looking to, we've already started ordering, uh, putting on order, uh, when we're replacing our snow plowing equipment to have them come in with new blades that will help mitigate snow and ice buildup coming, uh, on roads. So, I I again, long story short, I think uh, we're we're in a position where we can continue doing what we're doing. >> Okay, great. Uh second question again through you chair row is uh back in 2019 uh council and or staff uh uh undertook and council approved a uh a winter control modernization uh review and uh seeing as that was 7 years ago. I'm wondering if maybe you could provide some feedback to us about sort of progress um some of the some of the things that uh we've done uh uh since 2019 that emerged from that report and whether or not you feel like we need a another uh complete winter control modernization review to to see where we're at today or whether you feel like an update uh would be uh would be needed. So thank you for uh the question councelor Bodley through you uh chair row to councelor bodley sorry um yes so the the modernization review took place uh in 2019. Um you could make an argument that there should be another modernization review completed. uh our staff and and team have um implemented many of those recommendations that came out of that modernization review. I'll just name a few. Um um we incorporated uh departmental sharing of staff. Uh we increased our communication with council. Um we started installing wings on plows. uh we started using automated salt uh application technology uh salt inventory management and uh use of technology such as GPS and uh the citizen insight uh application and we've been constantly reconfigurating or re reconfigurating finding efficiencies in our snow plowing zones and routes and uh we've providing additional training to staff for snow uh salt applications and and things like that. So, we've we've taken a lot of those recommendations that came out of that report and pretty much implemented all the ones that we we can. Um, with that said, it's we we could always consider an update to that modernization report. >> That's great. Thank you. uh seeing as I'm not running for council again, I'm going to leave that to a future council to decide. But I appreciate uh I appreciate that and I think that uh it's it's been uh just from 2019 till today to seeing some of the things that you alluded to that emerge from that winter control uh modernization review. I think that that was a really valuable report for staff and uh and for the community to to see some of those improvements. Uh but I'll leave it there. Thank you. >> Yes. Go ahead, Councelor Freeman. >> The one of the things I had wondered about because of the picture that you had shown in your presentation with the plow basically not being able to enter the road because it was full of vehicles. Um, and I just didn't know whether or not it was possible on that live map that we have to actually be able to denote if a road was not accessible. Like sometimes we haven't cleared it because we couldn't. Mhm. >> Um but it doesn't show up that way. It just shows it as having not been cleared in the last 24 or 48 hours. And I just feel like if we have images like this and we know that we made several attempts for example to get down the street and couldn't do that safely that that would be helpful. >> Yeah. Uh so currently the practice is uh for operators to call into our mees services who are great in helping us uh tow away vehicles but using technology to identify these locations is is something that we can take away >> and and the thing is is it also affects emergency service access, right? And so a lot of times um um people um want to be angry with us for not clearing the road. Um but not only is it a challenge for the plows, but it's also very much a challenge for emergency services. >> Yeah, that's an excellent point. >> Thank you, council. Any further questions? Seeing none, we have four recommendations in front of us. Would anyone like to move the recommendations? Councelor Bodley, seconded by Councelor Freeman. All in favor? That passes unanimously. Thank you so much. Okay, that takes us to our public meeting portion of today's council meeting. We will be looking at the formal public meeting uh official plan amendment number 75 and zoning bylaw amendment Z-26-08 2415 University Avenue East with a presentation by Caitlyn Bish. Hi Caitlyn. Go ahead. You have 10 minutes. Hold on one second. Sorry, I have something I have to read first >> for later. Okay. All right. This is a formal public meeting to consider item 10A, official plan amendment number 75 and zoning bylaw amendment Z-2608, 2415 University Avenue East. Any persons who want further notice of this application, including the passage of any bylaw, should sign the appropriate register in the binder located on the desk at the rear of the council chambers. If there is more than one binder, please make sure you're signing the appropriate one. Will the clerk please advise council on the method used to give notice of the meeting and the dates notice was given. notice was advertised in the Waterlue um region record on May 14, 2026 and mailed or emailed on May 12th, 2026 to all property owners within 120 meters of the subject property and to public agencies. An informal public meeting was not held. >> Thank you. Now, the planner, Caitlyn Bish, will give a brief overview of the application. Good evening, Chair Row, mayors, members of council. This is the formal public meeting for official plan amendment number 75 and zoning bylaw amendment Z-26-08 for the land municipally known as 2415 University Avenue East. This is the first time councils are viewing this application as an informal public meeting was not held due to the limited scope of the development. The subject property is located at the intersection of University Avenue East and Northfield Drive East, just south of the municipal boundary between the city of Wateroo and the township of Woolwitch. The lands to the east of the subject property is a municipally owned storm water management facility and sanitary pumping station. The lands to the south are employment lands forming a part of the Northfield Technology Park. And the lands to the west on the opposite side of University Avenue East is the regionally owned GRT Northfield Drive maintenance facility. This slide contains photos of the current site with the existing two-story building, parking lot, and outdoor play space for the existing childcare center. Schedule A of the city of Wateroo's official plan designates this property as employment and schedule A2 of the official plan designates this property as business employment. This designation is contemplated to generally serve as a transition between employment lands typically contemplated for he heavier employment uses and other more sensitive land uses such as res residential. The lands are zoned business employment 1 or E1-27 which permits employment uses such as offices, medical clinics and light industrial assembly, manufacturing and processing. Ancillary uses also intended to support these employment uses are also permitted including a bake shop, cafe, commercial oriented uses and childcare centers. The lands are currently subject to two separate sight specific exemptions being C213 and C287. Sight specific exemption C213 applies to the property as well as numerous surrounding properties and applies a maximum imperous coverage of 70% to the subject lands. Sight specific exemption C287 was approved through minor zoning bylaw amendment Z-25-11 and provides additional floor area and location permissions for incillary uses. This previous amendment which proceeded through delegated staff authority was advanced to permit the currently existing childcare center. Through the current applications, the applicant has proposed to further ex expand the childcare center within the existing building. The proposed expansion includes internal changes to the existing building and an expansion of the outdoor play area as shown within the plans on the slide. All changes made to the outdoor play area will be required to proceed through the site plan approval process. Through these applications, the applicant is requested to amend both the official plan and the zoning bylaw to reflect the proposed development. The official plan amendment requested is to create an area specific policy or ASP to permit a childcare center as a primary use on the subject lands. The zoning bylaw amendment requested is to amend the existing sight specific exemption C287 for the subject lands to permit a childcare center as a primary use as well as to permit structures accessory to a childcare center with an area of 2.5 square meters or less and a height of 2.4 4 meters or less to have a streetline setback of 1 meter along Northfield Drive East, provided that these structures are fully screened. Staff have reviewed all requests, public comments, as well as all materials submitted through the formal application in consideration of this proposal. As such, staff recommend the council approve staff report IPW2026-028 and approve official plan amendment number 75 and zoning bylaw amendment Z-26-08 as outlined in section six of the staff report. This concludes my presentation and I'm happy to answer questions regarding this application. >> Thank you so much. Council, do you have any questions for staff? >> Mayor McCabe? Yeah, thank you very much and thanks for the presentation. Um really good to see uh uh more child care coming to the city. Um and and especially so many 88 spaces um is is really great because we know there's a real deficit in Waterlue particularly. So glad to see this coming forward. Um I'm just curious if there's any, you know, because we've got this ongoing water issue, if there's um any water conservation strategies included in the um in the application. >> Uh through the chair, to you, Mayor McCabe. Not my understanding there is. Um I I know that there's restrictions on building permits right now um for uh any uses that result in new net water. Um but it's my understanding that childcare centers are one of the few uses that are exempt from that. Um so they would be permitted to move forward um through a building permit. They do have specific requirements through the Ministry of Education um as well as under other applicable legislation in terms of like fire um and like for all of their their necessary services. Um so I I'm not aware of that. Um the applicant might be able to provide or their agent additional information, but through this application it wasn't outlined. >> Okay. Thanks. I mean, it's a question I've been raising with a number of developers regardless of whether they're not profit nonprofit or or or private sector developers just because, you know, regard we we do have a a water capacity issue right now, but you know, we always we need need to be really mindful of the use of water. I probably don't need to tell you this but um through uh I assume that the developer is listening just uh you know the more water conservation uh that's done by ICI and residents etc the better um now and going forward. So um hopefully that is something that I know we don't have we weren't able to put high uh performance development standards. We weren't able to require those but certainly hope that that is something that um the development community um is does start to really consider or start to implement. So thanks for this. >> Thank you council. Any further questions? >> I'm happy to move it. >> We have sorry >> this I know we have a delegation Thank you so much, Kaitlin. >> Oh, there's delegation. Sorry. >> Yes, we have one registered delegation. I'd like to invite Trevan Hawkins uh from MHBC planning to come forward. >> I feel like I shouldn't say anything if the mayor is ready to move it. I mean, we should all just I should just sit down and we can put your hands up, right? >> Yeah. So I I think this just a little bit of background for council this site it's an existing building. I don't know if councelor Freeman would know this of course but the building was built pre precoid just pre-COVID essentially and it's been other than a physiootherapy tenant medical office in the bylaw it's largely been vacant for a very very long time and creative beginnings uh occupied a portion of the building through funding that they got from senior levels of government and they went through a process which Caitlyn outlined and got sight specific permission to occupy 35% roughly of the building, more than the bylaw would have allowed. And no sooner did they move into the building or basically finish the construction that the they were advised they got more funding. So that's why we're we're back in front of council this time for this application is because they got additional funding to add those extra 88 spaces and of course they wanted to take advantage. So they they asked me how quickly can we get this daycare application through because it's tied to funding which has to be you know they have to start construction by or I think they have to open the daycare this fall in order to to access the funding. So Caitlyn and and uh Joel and Natalie were were great in terms of moving it through the process. That's why we're here for a formal. We didn't go through the informal. It's all tied to the speed with which to access the funding to allow the daycare to proceed. So that was one thing I wanted to mention. The other thing, of course, is I think council might remember that there's this property at 2025 University Avenue, might be a little close to this daycare. Maybe some of those folks might use this daycare. So, we thought this was a great uh location to expand a daycare, not only because you have the office buildings across the street and the employees who would use the GRT facility, you have the residents on Country Square uh road already. You have the 400 millennium expansion of Carriage Crossing which is council approved last fall. So all those homes coming in plus 2025. So a mix of employment and residential all of them within walking or cycling distance of this daycare. So we we see this as a great location for a daycare uh and really sort of that complete 15minute neighborhood concept really uh improving. And I just wanted to when Caitlyn outlined the sight specific 2.4 4 m tall and 2.5 m this and has to be screened that. Uh really really what she's talking about is these cabinets that you know you can buy at Canadian Tire or Home Hardware and they're just in the outdoor play area that behind the fence. You can't actually see them from university or Northfield and they just store the outdoor equipment that the daycare uses for the children when they're out in the outdoor outdoor play area. So all that verbiage around 1 meter street line setback and height and screening etc is for that type of accessory structure. That's what it that's what it's for and that's really all it's about. The rest of the application is simply to permit the daycare in the building and not restrict it to 35% uh which it is currently. So I think that's and I know you you asked about the water. So, of course, and Caitlyn noted, they're exempt from the uh the water capacity, which is, you know, everybody sort of is on bended knee if they can be exempt from the water capacity restrictions, and a daycare is. Um, so they're obviously that's a great great for them. But again, the bu the building was built, so a lot of the plumbing, etc. was already installed in the building uh a number of years ago, and it was built to the code requirements at that time. So now we're just talking about the the the bathrooms and the kitchen facilities for the the kids etc. So I think that the like a daycare is one of the most regulated uses you can have in Ontario. So they're they're going to be going through not only the code but all the other legislation that you know number of bathrooms per child and staff bathrooms and all these other uh requirements that go with operating a daycare. So they will certainly be mindful of all of those requirements and like any good um building operator, the owner of the building is looking to minimize their utility costs. So I think the two parties will be working together to to sort of seek those savings when they can. >> Thank you so much, Trevor. Uh council, do you have any questions? >> No. Seeing none, I'd like a mover for that, please. Councelor Freeman. So, um, some people might know that I'm very passionate about >> Sorry. My apologies. We have to, uh, hold on. Um, my apologies. One more step. All right. Is there anyone Sorry. Is there anyone present today who wishes to speak to this application? >> Yes. No. Seeing none, we've asked if there are any questions. There are none. If there are no more delegations, this formal public meeting is concluded and the application is now open to council for a motion and debate. It has been moved by councelor Freeman. >> No, I have to read that. Well, first off, I would like to say that some people might know I'm pretty passionate about child care and I built a daycare center back in 2001. So I I'm very familiar too with the regulation and how difficult it is to secure funding and I really do support um development of childcare centers near to where people work because it helps to keep families together. It reduces travel time between work and and the care situation and if there are families who want to see their children say at lunch hour or something to that effect it it facilitates that to happen. So, um, I I've been so happy for Christa and the work that she's doing here because Christa was a staff member with my team when we very first started the butterfly learning center. So, it's been amazing to watch her career grow as well. Um, whereas council has considered all written and oral submissions and where council has considered the professional opinions of planning staff. Therefore, be it resolved that council approve IPW2026028. That council approve official plan amendment number 7542415 University Avenue East as set out in section 6 of report IPW2026-028 and that council approve zoning bylaw amendment Z 26082415 University Avenue East as set out in section 6 of report IPW 2026 028. Thank you. Do we have a seconder? Mayor McCabe. All in favor? And that passes. Thank you. Okay. We will move on to official plan amendment number 49. This is a formal public meeting to consider item 10B, official plan amendment number 49, zoning bylaw amendment Z-23-13 and draft plan of subdivision 30T-2541-446 Albert Incorporated, 446 Albert Street. Any persons who want further notice of this application, including the passage of any bylaw, should sign the appropriate register in the binder located on the desk at the rear of the council chambers. If there is more than one binder, please make sure you are signing the appropriate one. Will the clerk please advise council of the method used to give notice of the meeting and the dates notice was given. Notice was advertised in the water original record on May 7th, 2026 and mailed or emailed on May 20, 2026 to all property owners within 120 meters of the subject property to public agencies and all persons who signed in or spoke in the informal public meeting which was held on February 5th, 2024 and all persons who requested further notice. >> Thank you. The planner, Amanda Wisneski, will now give a brief overview of the application. >> Uh through the chair. Good afternoon, Mayor McCay, Chair Row, members of council, and members of the public. This is a formal public meeting for 446 Albert Street. Application numbers plan a subdivision 30T2401. Official plan amendment number 49, zoning bylaw amendment Z2313. The applications were submitted by 446 Albert, Inc. represented here this afternoon by the planning partnership. Uh the subject site is located in ward 6 in the Columbia district near the intersection of Hazel Street and Albert Street in the city of Waterlue. The site outlined in red is rectangular in shape with frontage on both Hazel Street and Albert Street and an area of approximately 4.72 hectares. The site is located within the research and technology major transit station area in close proximity to Winston Churchill Public School, St. David's High School, GRT bus stops, Sugar Bush Park, and commercial land uses. The applicant is proposing to build 12 towers with 2,823 units and 3,59 bedrooms. They are also proposing 1,171 vehicular parking spaces and 1,739 bicycle parking spaces. The applicant is also proposing that 3% of the bedrooms be affordable, which is approximately 106 bedrooms. The applicant is also proposing approximately 6,600 square meters of non-residential floor area. The tallest tower proposed is 26 stories and is on Hazel Street beside the future public park. The shortest tower is 11 stories and is also beside the new public park and the new public street. All blocks are proposed to be mixed use with the exception of block three which is proposed to be residential with live work units at grade. Since the informal public meeting in February 2024, the applicant has worked with staff to revise the proposed development to address a number of concerns raised by staff and the public. This slide illustrates the differences between the current proposal and the original. Of note, the original proposal included green space, but it was proposed to be in a POPS format, whereas now the applicant is proposing to satisfy all parkland contribution through an unencumbered public park. To facilitate this park, the applicant reduced the number of towers from 13 to 12, shifted the tower locations, redistributed height while concurrently reducing the overall height of the development from 30 stories to 26. The applicant has also increased the number of multi-bedroom units. Initially 18% were proposed whereas the applicant is now proposing a minimum of 30%. This rendering perspective is southwest on Hazel Street. And then through the application process, a number of studies, reports, and drawings were submitted. This included a noise study which indicated transportation noise was at acceptable levels. a stationary noise and stationary noise were being met with additional on-site mitigation such such as through enhanced glazing. The noise study required a type D warning clause for traffic and recommended a type E warning clause for stationary noise. The applicant also submitted two trafficked impact studies. The second with an expanded area and examined cut through onto Blewood and based their and based on their conclusions, the additional traffic from the proposed development from the proposed development would equate to one additional trip every 10 minutes in the AM peak hour and one additional trip every four minutes in the PM peak hour on Blewood. And then within the city of Waterlue official plan, the subject lands are designated as station area mixeduse, which contemplates for a 30-story height limit. However, the lands are currently designated as medium high-rise, which permits up to 12 stories on schedule B1. An official plan amendment was required to amend this designation to high-rise 30 stories and to amend the area specific policy ASP59 on the subject lands. The lands are also within the major transit sta major within the research and technology major transit station area. And then within the city of water zoning bylaw, the lands are currently zoned as an employment a business employment E2-40. A reszoning application was required to reszone the land station area mixeduse to be aligned with the official plan, reszone the new public park and implement sight specific provisions to facilitate the propu proposed development. The applicant is also proposing a plan of subdivision to create a total of 12 blocks. Blocks one, two, three, five, and six are intended for residential development and block four is intended for parkland dedication. The applicant is also proposing to convey street A to the city with an 18 meter right of way. Block nine is proposed as an emergency access with six meters of hardscape and one and a half meters of landscape on either side. uh draft plan conditions have been prepared and were included as appendix E and F to staff's report. Through the official plan amendment, the applicant is proposing to amend schedule A and A3 to identify the new public park. They're also proposing to amend schedule B1 to align the lands with the SAMU designation. The applicant is also proposing to amend schedules E and F to identify the new municipal street, street A, and block 9 as an active transportation connection. As indicated, the applicant is proposing to amend area specific policy 59 and implement sight specific provisions that reflect the proposed development. Of note, the ASP will speak to the lands being developed as one comprehensive site regardless of any future lot division. The ASP will also require 3% affordable housing, 30% of the beds as multi-unit beds, and increased non-residential gross floor area requirements. While the designation while the SAMU designation permits up to 30 stories and schedule B1 is being amended to align with this, the area specific policy will limit the building heights to a maximum of 23 stories with the exception of one building being permitted as 26. Furthermore, to implement a transition between the taller taller buildings in blocks one, two, and six, block three will be limited to 14 stories along the east property line. Staff are in support of the sight specific provisions as they are contextsensitive and further recognize a new neighborhood is being proposed on former employment lands. And then currently in regards to zoning, the subject lands are currently zoned as business employment 2 E2-40. The applicant is proposing to reszone the lands to station area mixeduse to be aligned with the official plan designation. The applicant is also proposing to reszone a portion of the parks portion of the lands as parks and recreation to recognize the future municipal park. In addition to reszoning the lands, the applicant is proposing sight specific provisions to reflect the proposed development which I'll further speak to in the next two slides. A holding provision is proposed that speaks to geothermal and water servicing and staff are in support of the proposed reasonzoning application. And then a number of sight specific provisions are being requested by the applicant which staff support. Generally the provisions reflect the angled property lines of the subject lands are being implemented for future clarification purposes. On this chart uh I've grouped the site specific provisions into four categories. Street line setbacks, interior sideyard setbacks, non-residential gross floor area and density. And then similar to the other slide, the sight specific provisions have been grouped into four more categories. Tower provisions, bicycle parking, common outdoor area and technical amendments. One sight specific provision I want to highlight is the street line setbacks along Hazel Street and street A, which is the new municipal street. The development is meeting the minimum zoning requirement of 4 meters. The blue colors are set The blue colors are setbacks greater than four meters and the green colors are setbacks that are equal to four meters. The yellow colors are street line setbacks of 3 meters. These are limited to Albert Street. However, along Albert Street, the applicant is proposing an average street line of SE sorry an average street line setback of four meters with a no points less than three meters. This average street line setback will allow for building articulation along Albert Street rather than one straight setback. This will create a more interesting pedestrian realm and allow for allow for spill out spaces like patios patios at grade. I would also like to highlight a few of the tower provisions. The zoning by requires a 22 meter separation distance between towers to ensure there is sufficient spacing to address wind and shadow. The applicant is proposing to implement a tower an average tower separation of 22 meters, meaning a portion of the building will have a reduced separation of 15 meters and another portion will have an increased setback of 28 m or greater. The modified design allows for additional gaps and space between various masses to break up the duration of shadow impacts on adjacent lands. Related to the tower separation, the applicant is also proposing to increase the minimum tower horizontal tower dimension in tower floor plate. The applicant is proposing to implement an hour average tower dimension of 40 meters but in no larger than 45.5. Similarly, the applicant is proposing an average tower footprint footprint of 1,000 square meters and at no point larger than 1,200 square meters. Each of the tower dimensions work together to ensure the intent of the zoning bylaw is being maintained while creating articulation in the building massing. And then having reviewed the applications and all comments received, staff recommend that council approve official plan amendment number 49, zoning bylaw amendment 13 Z23-13 and plan of subdivision 30T25401 for46 Albert Street in accordance with section 8 of the staff report and this concludes my presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions that council may have. >> Thank you so much Amanda and like six seconds to go so you did great. Council, do you have any questions for staff? Councelor Freeman. >> Uh, thank you. Thank you for your presentation through you, Chair. Um, may I trouble you to go to the presentation where you showed the the green space park dedication. Um, it was towards the beginning, a little bit before that. Um, maybe it was the new site plan this. So, the original versus the current. So I see on the center street there all the green there. So is that a green roof on top of a podium? Is that what that is or how how is that structured? >> Uh through the chair. Are you referring to the original proposal? >> No. On the current proposal you have um in the center it seems like the center of each of these building blocks there's a lot of green. I'm trying to understand if that's at grade or if that's uh on a podium >> uh through the chair. So the green on the current proposal that is actually on a podium so it' be a rooftop amenity space. >> Okay, >> that would make sense because later in it looked like there was parking spots but those must be below grade. >> Okay. Um so so technically I gather that that will be more of a restricted green space for the occupants as opposed to um a private like a public privately owned public space. uh through the chair. That's my understanding. They still have to go through the site plan process which would further refine that, but that's my understanding. >> Okay. And then um and then the the green space to um the other park parcel now is that still going to be privately held or will that be um dedic like turned over to the city? >> Sorry, are you through the chair? Are you referring to I'm just going to go to this one to block four? Block four. Yeah. >> Um so that land is going to be conveyed to the city as the parkland contribution. Okay. >> Um and it would be unencumbered. >> Okay. Okay. And and then there's still parkland dedication on top of that. uh through the chair that parkland dedication block four is satisfying the their parkland contribution. >> Okay. All right. Um I think that was the questions I had right now. Thank you. >> Thank you council. Any further questions for staff? Mayor McCabe. >> Thank you. Um and thanks Amanda for the work on this. It's a um it's helpful. I'm just curious why there's a holding provision on the geothermal. >> Uh through the chair. Currently geothermal is not permitted in this portion of the city. So we have the applicant has other developments that have geothermal. So we have the holding on there right now saying in the future if you're able to demonstrate to us you're meeting certain policies certain provisions the region satisfied the city satisfied geothermal potentially could be an option on this site. >> Okay. So when will that that'll be decided? during the just future work on this project or like is the region is that the region's call >> uh through the chair. So that would be in the future. So the geothermal permission is not related to um the zoning bylaw amendment just the holding provision is. If in the future the applicant would like to implement geothermal uh they would need per they would need permission from the region and from the city and then they would likely go through the site plan process because there would be some modifications to their site plan as well. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you councel. Any further questions? Councelor Wright. >> Uh thank you through you chair. My first question just follows on Mayor McCabe's question. My understanding is that this is a contaminated site that goes through a record of site condition and that sometimes geothermal is prohibited where there's known contaminated lands. So is is that uh also a contributing factor in this case >> uh through the chair to counselor Wright. So the applicant has proceeded through a record of site condition and they do have a certificate of property use that does have some some limitations. Um there's certain areas that were identified where um I believe ashevalt would need to be poured and those areas couldn't be contaminated or couldn't be um used for geothermal, but the applicant would be able to further um explain the geothermal and the the CPU. Okay, thanks for that. Um my other questions are really um regarding the conversion of employment lands um to residential and this is also um uh stationary mixed use which also obviously supports um commercial um employment. And I guess my my question is really around um are there any particular risks uh associated with um losing industrial land um within our our city boundary holdings. And secondly, um just noting that um whether there are other conversion projects that are contemplated in the same MTSA. So this one is within 800 meters of the research and technology park. Um, and I'm just wondering if if this is sort of the beginning of some conversion uh in this neighborhood or whether this is really just a standalone >> uh through the chair to counselor, right? So, the lands are currently designated as stationary mixeduse, which already contemplates for residential uses. Um, prior to the lands being designated as stationary mixed use, the region did identify this area as an area to um be removed from the employment designation. So it it's already gone through that process. This official plan amendment is ju more or less just to identify this development in the official plan and amend the area specific policies. And then in regards to your other question about other conversions, um I'm not aware of any other conversions in this area and if they were, they likely would need to go through a public process similar to this one. >> Thank you. Any further questions, council? I I have one. Um, and I do have questions for transportation and for parks, but I will hold those until after the delegation. I'm wondering, Amanda, if you can speak to the area between blocks one and two. I know that that's just a bit of a narrow strip, and I'm just thinking about safety and and what that looks like. >> Yeah. Uh, so through the chair to the chair, I'm going to go to the original proposal. So, in the original proposal, there was a pedestrian pathway that was proposed between blocks one and blocks two. Now, that pedestrian pathway has shifted to the south end of the property where block nine is now, and it's going to be an emergency access that um functions as a pedestrian area. But between blocks one and block two, um there's going to be no, as far based off the current plans, there's going to be no pedestrian connection all the way to um street A. There likely will be fencing in some portion kind of preventing that movement upwards and forcing them to go either along street A or into the emergency access. There is it's a little bit hard to see but towards the top where it says 21 story between the 21 stories there is a playground there and that playground is associated with the daycare for this development. So that area has already been contemplated for a daycare space but there will be no pathway from Albert Street up to street A through blocks one and block two. Okay, thank you. Okay, if there are no further questions for Amanda, then I would ask um any registered delegations to come forward, which is Brandon Simon from the Planning Partnership. Welcome, Brandon. Uh good afternoon uh members of council, city staff, members of the public. Uh Brandon Simon. I'm a principal with the planning partnership. I'm very excited to be here before you this afternoon. Uh culmination of a very long and I think fruitful collaborative process working with city staff uh to move this very important project forward. Just to provide a a bit of background. So the applications were originally submitted in late 2023. At that time the province had rules in place that basically said if you as a municipal do not make a decision on applications in this case within 120 days. There was an automatic refund of the application fee that was required. Staff came to us and said you know this is a big complicated project. We need to take the time to work on this and do it right. So we agreed at that point to actually technically withdraw the application so that it would not be subject to those rules and instead we could open ourselves up to an unfettered collaborative back and forth process with staff to move this move this forward. And so since then we've done four additional submissions had the informal public meeting to community open houses. And so this really does represent the culmination of a a very long and and fruitful process. And so I'm happy to kind of briefly report to you on on some of the uh the higher level details recognizing that uh Amanda already did a great job covering off all the technical details. Uh it's first in terms of the site's location. This really is a prime intensification area. It's within the MTSA as Amanda noted also in proximity to uh UW Wilfr Laurier uh the research and technology business park the future hospital on Behringer uh Northdale neighborhood. This really is an area that has an abundance of uses, services, and amenities. And it's no surprise that the city has planned this for intensification through the new stationary mixeduse uh designation that was, you know, finally approved by the province late last year. Being such a a well-connected location, also no surprise that the area is very well served by public transit and active transportation. obviously the LRT route principally but a number of uh local and I express bus routes, bike trails, bike lanes, multi-use paths. So really an excellent opportunity to prioritize intensification to an area that can support multimodal transportation activity which is obviously a huge goal of the city. I obviously don't need to uh remind any of you of the the ambitious housing forecast that the city is now subject to through OPA 58 63,000 new residents between 21 and 2021 and 201. The city's also obviously been very proactive in uh confirming the uh the provincial housing pledge and trying to promote uh the vast majority of this future growth through intensification rather than green field development. There's also obviously a pressing need for new affordable housing and that's in spite of the proinciallymandated delay to the implementation of inclusionary zoning and there's also obviously already been some some discussions about the regional water supply issue which I think unfortunately will exacerbate the housing supply crisis in the short term but thankfully it seems like there is some coming light at the end of the tunnel with respect to that issue and so uh we really want to position this application to take advantage of the future water capacity as soon as it becomes available. later on this year into early next year. Uh in in spite of the great location, the access to transit and active transportation, obviously the site right now is is is is very uninviting given its its legacy heavy industrial use. There is also uh contamination as as I think referenced by councelor Wright. And so the the applicant has very proactively advanced the record of site condition process and so has clear direction from the ministry on how to rehabilitate uh the site and and enable residential use uh and and in doing so um create a more a much more openfacing integrated key component of the community that will invite the surrounding area into this new development proposal. And with that in mind, I want to focus on kind of six key themes that we've really focused on from the beginning in terms of the new vision we're looking to create here. That's rental housing, that's affordable housing, that's good urban design, active streetscapes and public realm, multimodal transportation connectivity, and complete community. Those might sound like buzzwords, but we've gone through great great pains with staff to make sure that the official plan amendment clearly requires us to achieve these important principles. Uh, and the plan that we've we've come up with, I think, is is a great articulation of what those mean in practice. And and this is a a rendering showing the the what I'm going to say the entrance to the site through the new public park in the northeast corner of the site. We thought that location is the ideal spot for the park because you create this through fair from Hazel Street to the new public street. You get two public street frontages for this park. And it really is kind of a welcome mat to the surrounding community to come in and and experience the park, but also uh the new commercial uses, the employment uses, the live work units, the daycare, all of those other amenities and services that this development proposal can provide. Uh I won't focus too much on the site statistics as as Amanda's already covered off a lot of it. Um two of the big things I want to focus on though are are the new street and the new public park. So together these are over one hector of land being dedicated to the city for the park for the new street. Um the new street was not something that was required by the city. This was us working with the city looking ahead to say how can this area function from a master planning perspective moving forward because these lots to the east of Albert Street are so deep. We wanted to make sure that this wasn't cut off from the surrounding community. This was inviting people in through the public street through the walkways through the park and so it functions as a part of the community rather than some separate isolated development project. Uh in terms of the evolution of the master plan, Amanda already covered on some of the main pieces, but um a few I'll highlight are the removal of the the building previously proposed for the uh the northeast corner. So north is actually to the left. So when I say northeast, that's upper lefthand corner there. replacing of that with the new uh uh point4 uh hector public park. Uh reducing the height of the tallest building from 30 to 26 stories and also you know implementing a gradation of heights transition down to 11 and 14 stories on the eastern half of the site transitioning down as you move more towards the Sugar Bush Park neighborhood. Addition of the daycare as Amanda mentioned um kind of an area that's more internal to the site so it's away from Albert Street. uh quieter, a better location for the outdoor play area and then implementation of the uh emergency access route which will also well not also I think primarily function as an active transportation connection. It will hopefully never have to be used as an emergency access route but it'll still function essentially as a pedestrian muse connecting Albert Street to the new street and and providing a really direct pedestrian connection. So now we basically have three really solid pedestrian connections through the park, the new street, the emergency access route, and we're also protecting for potential future pedestrian connections to the east as well, if the city is able to secure those moving forward uh to the east of the site. Uh and what we what we kind of have culminated with is is a vibrant and even more improved community vision um with a number of key benefits like I mentioned principally the park the affordable housing uh rental housing mix of one two and threeb units and a very meaningful contribution of non-residential space and that's a mix of live work units for local small businesses commercial streetfront retail restaurants to create that active streetscape I mentioned and also also second floor employment uses that could be offices, institutional uses, light industrial uses. And so staff really challenged us from the beginning to provide a meaningful non-residential component here. Um and and in terms of kind of the the the focus on still maintaining employment, I think at the time that the the former Clemer's plant closed, uh it had about a hundred staff. According to kind of the the article about the closure at the time, based on some assumptions from the city's development charge background study, the estimate is that this this development will provide in excess of 200 or more st new jobs. And so doubling the employment contribution on the space in addition to providing all the new housing. Um and this side really kind of focuses on that multimodal transportation connectivity that I focused on earlier showing the potential for the future extension of that city street to the south if the lands to the south ever redevelop in the future. >> Sorry to interrupt Brandon. One minute. >> Perfect. I'll I'll I'll kind of conclude on this slide, but that that really shows how the the site's over 200 meters deep from Elbert Street, not having that public street, it would you would not be able to get the level of, you know, public transparency and access without having that public street. And so, uh, we think that combined with with the public park and the other features are really a a crucial element in in in making this a complete community and an important functional part of the evolving community. And so I think I can conclude my my presentation there, but we'll be happy to answer any questions you might have. >> Thank you so much, Brandon. Council, do you have any questions? Mayor McCabe did um I I just uh similar to my my uh question that I asked the previous person. Um I I know that uh Pria does a lot of work with renewable energy and and things of that nature. Um but I'm just curious about water conservation strategies with this development. Uh certainly a great question especially uh important right now obviously and so this is a rental project that will be owned and maintained for the long term by by the owner here. And so all of fixtures and appliances will be lowflow appliances. That's kind of their new standard moving forward. that improves obviously their operational bottom line as well as well as is helping with the water issue. There's also some conversation previously about you know geothermal. So uh the owner does own and operate the hub development just to the south of this which is uh uh the site of an existing openloop geothermal system. And so we're exploring the feasibility of of extending that into a larger district energy system and that'll be making use of water that is not potable water and that can support heating and cooling in a much more efficient way without using potable water for that as well. And so uh we're still in the early stages. Obviously the contamination of prior uses creates some complications that require much more technical study to the cities in the region's satisfaction before we could get there. But I think in principle if we're able to implement that even on a limited basis that will also help uh limit the need for for additional potable water usage. >> Okay, great. And I and I assume maybe there's some sisterning or things like that for the for the green spaces around here. But uh no, I appreciate I appreciate that. I know that that's the way that he that that company typically develops. So I appreciate that. And I just want to say um uh when I first came to this city and was going to Wilfrid Laurier and I'd occasionally go by this site because there was a beer store quite frankly in the plaza there and you know it sat empty and those pictures that you that you provided are a good reminder of what that what that looked like and of course you know the industry that was there and the people that they employed was really valuable and but it sat it has sat for a number of years and so um you know this is this is really is a good repurposing of uh of this of this area and I you know of what was formerly an industrial area that has sat with those I don't I forget what those um pieces of equipment or pieces of whatever that was out there. So >> yeah, they made like a storage tanks and things like that and that's why there was so much open area because it was all basically open storage of the tanks and things like that and so so you basically had no landscape area on the site, right? it was buildings and like gravel storage parking areas, >> but it served its function obviously. But now with with the the LRT with the, you know, the mandate on smart growth that this council firmly supports, the area is evolving and and taking advantage of those excellent, you know, infrastructure and services that exist. So I mean it's it's a good example of the evolution of of this area. >> Yeah, absolutely. So thank you for that. Thank you so much, council. Do you have any questions? Councelor Wright, >> thank you. Um, so I'm just um through you, chair. I just want to go back to um the um my gosh, just trying to string together the the words I want to say. um the contamination on site and uh I just noted in the the report underwater services that the region is asking um that um for an updated FSR including detailed fire flow calculations. Um and then later on it also talks about uh regional staff not supporting engineered infiltration of storm water because of the known contaminated site. And so I'm just wondering if you can unpack that a little bit. certainly uh through chair row. So um we've prepared a series of functional servicing reports that have been updated as we've gone through the process. Um it's been a long process uh since we submitted in late 2023. So uh I I think the the requirements moving forward are more detailed functional servicing reports for each block because this will proceed on a blockby-block basis. And so at the time those move forward, everything will need to be updated to confirm that the latest um uh servicing modeling demonstrate that there's still capacity in the system. Obviously that the water issue is resolved and that updated fire uh flow uh testing is done as needed because it stale dates after a couple years. And so that'll need to be updated on a on a kind of a go forward basis. Um you're certainly correct about the the challenges that the contamination posed to for example infiltration. Uh and so as a result um that isn't something that's proposed here. But we do think there is an opportunity in the areas of the site that have been documented to not be contaminated. Obviously the I think the region's typical protocol is if a site is contaminated they don't support geothermal. This site's about five hectors in size though and so we think there's kind of a need to get a bit more granular and so we've done P testing in the past and in the pro are in the process of updating it to more much more clearly and detailed uh define where those clean areas are and the idea is that um the geothermal would would go through the contaminated area would be triple sealed in terms of the wells that are proposed there return wells only here because there's already existing extraction wells at the hub uh and would go straight down to the lower aquifer, which is where the geothermal system kind of comes and returns to. Understandably, the region takes a very cautious and conserved approach to it, which we completely respect and that's why we we've been working to try to advance that. But in the interest of advancing the development as a whole, we wanted to move forward with this this kind of staged approach to it, having the holding symbol in place to recognize that we're not there yet. And frankly, we may never get there if the region's not and the city staff aren't 100% satisfied that there's a safe and effective way to do it. They won't support it and we won't be able to do geothermal. But this enables this the bigger picture approval to move forward and for us to continue advancing the uh geothermal technical work behind the scenes. >> Thank you. And I just have a um followup regarding storm water um associated with the site. Um, so I I appreciate that um the the proponent here um does a lot of very uh sustainable building design as part of their portfolio. Um one of the concerns that I have going forward is extreme rainfall and its impact on um dense uh infill development. Um, and so I'm just wondering if you can also explain uh what measures would be in place then to to mitigate or sponge the water knowing that the infiltration is maybe not desirable in this particular case. >> Certainly through chair row. So um and and and I'll clarify that the um kind of the region's restriction is not to have dedicated infiltration facilities, but there will obviously still be some infiltration of soft areas. And so, um, a a kind of a key focus here has been on designing landscaped areas. So, excluding the park, just looking at the development blocks, uh, 24% of the the development blocks are landscaped areas. Uh, the storm water has been directed to to take advantage of those where possible. Um, while also designing the system to control the the major and the minor flows through storm sewers and the overland flow routes. So everything in here has been designed to meet 100-year storm requirements which which don't seem to be 100year storms anymore. um we we've done what we can and in terms of the park I mean what you see here is a is a placeholder design obviously it's dedicated to the city or it's going to be so the design will be to the city satisfaction but I think we've long envisioned it as being a mix of passive and active with some as many soft natural areas as we can get in there around the sports court the playground etc so that that can also promote a more like again not an infiltration facility but natural infiltration through the native soils and that's compared to the existing condition where you don't get a lot of infiltration with the hard surfaces and the gravel. So I think on the whole the storm water management report forecasts a significant improvement with this development versus the existing condition. >> Okay, thank you for that. That's really helpful to better understand. Um just I I'm um conscious that um there are a couple of developments in my ward um that are much further along than this one and they're planned communities in a similar way. Vertical communities uh the Braille yards being a a great example and that it can take many years for these buildings to all come online. Um what do you perceive as being the general timeline? We obviously cannot predict things uh in our current situation, but are we thinking that this is a 10 to 20 year project or is it like an within 10 years kind of project a buildout of this size? I like barrel yards is still being completed and uh it's 16 years that I've been watching it uh under construction. So just as a as a point of reference. >> Excellent question. Um the ambition of the owner who who a very rep reputable you know developer in the community and certainly has a capabilities to do something like this when a lot of people uh wouldn't. The the ambition is to start uh a block every year of construction starting as soon as possible. Obviously there's still a pretty significant process to go through in terms of site plan approval for each block. we have to prepare urban design guidelines specific to this site so that our ambition with the active streetscape and everything else can be achieved. So um I think the the hope is that perhaps as early as 2028 you start to see shovels in the ground and then it's block after block moving forward and so within 10 years the hope is that the entire thing is is built and and occupied. >> I have one last question may I? Okay. Um so one of the things that also uh struck me in um was that in the transportation impact report um or in the study um in in in the beginning of the document it actually refers to um ongoing uh monitoring of of Bllythewood really falling to the city and the region. Um specifically uh this is a a city road um but it it does say that city of region and um city of water and region of water monitor traffic volumes and travel patterns on Bllythewood. And I I you know this is this is cut through traffic. It's um um routes that the kids take over to Winston Churchill School and the other schools in the area. Um obviously the high school there's two high schools um very close by and lots of act active transportation. um across this neighborhood. And so I'm just wondering um you know, it does really look like the mitigation is is on the city and the region according to this um this report. Um I'm just wondering how Pria is approaching the the mitigation and the traffic flow around this site. Yeah, traffic obviously an understandably an important consideration and so um what I I I think Amanda referenced in her presentation there essentially have been kind of an initial report and an updated report expanded in scope to look at that cut through traffic on Blewood because it was raised as a significant community concern and so what that report did was quantify what does that look like right now in terms of the volume of cut through traffic obviously that's existing that's not including this development Um but then the secondary, you know, thing that it looks at is what will this development contribute to that? And and what it found based on our strategy of directing traffic towards Zelbert Street and Philip Street was that the the cut through traffic increase from this proposed development was only expected to be uh 1% in the AM peak and 2% in the PM peak. um there was just not a lot of functionality to someone living here or coming here utilizing that when instead you can go south on Albert Street. And so what we've really focused on is concentrating the vehicular access where possible to Albert Street and to the new street. There will be improvements to the intersection of Albert uh uh and Philip Street and to the access here to include a left turn lane into into the site so that the southbound left turning movement will not be obstructing traffic on Albert Street and so that there's a convenient means of of egressing the site and turning left onto Albert Street rather than having to wait and find a gap or whatever. So we've really focused on directing the traffic in that way. I'll also note obviously, you know, the future hospital, the research and technology park. There may also be some traffic that goes north, but that's the majority of it in the view of our traffic consultant going north and northwest towards, you know, the the business park area, the potential future hospital. So, um, we're really trying to utilize the the collector arterial roads in Albert Street and Fip Street. >> Okay, thanks for that. >> Thank you, council. Any further questions? Seeing none, thank you very much, Brandon. >> Um, I actually would now like to ask a couple of staff questions um to transportation and to parks if I may. Thank you so much. I just wanted to build on what councelor Wright was asking. Um, as we're all aware, this neighborhood does feel under pressure with the developments um coming and traffic is the number one u concern that I hear at the door. So, I'm wondering in terms of monitoring traffic impacts over time, like what what measures could be considered in the neighborhood? I've I've raised um know Wildwood and Hazel, the bend there, and um the neighborhood concerns about accidents and speed on Bllythewood. Um so I'm just curious if you have some thoughts on that. >> Yes, thank you uh chair bro for the question. Um there's a there's a number of things that are going on. So I'll try to answer all your questions. Um with respect to the curve in the bend in the road um staff uh about in 2003 made some changes to signing to improve the visibility of the curve and our data is showing that uh the collisions are down since doing that measure. Um I'll also note that when traffic is coming from the south up Weber Street to turn left on Blewood that there's a no left turn restriction in place there. So that will help mitigate traffic as well. When coming from the south, it it's it would be inconvenient coming down Weaver Street to turn right to turn right on Blewood to make your way through the the neighborhood to get to the the new development site. It would be more convenient um taking um sorry uh taking I lost my position here. Taking Albert Street directly down to the site. So um out of convenience the what the the developer is saying what what the consultant is saying makes a lot of sense that the amount of traffic that this site will generate to to to Blewood is is minimal at best and uh we don't think that the impacts will be um necessarily felt immediately by this site. >> Thank you. I'm wondering um also if When I was out door knocking, I did have residents who live on Albert express concern about the roadway is now narrow and just sort of what they could expect in terms of um future impacts and how again that could be considered as this development gets built out. >> Yeah, thank you for the question. So, as part of the transportation impact study, the there were four intersections along Albert Street that were assessed uh in light of this development and the overall impacts are suggesting that the the intersections along Albert Street will continue to operate at a satisfactory level of service. >> Great. Thank you. That's all I have for you right now. I'm wondering though um if I can just speak to or ask uh Joel Carter just to speak to um the view of cars versus pedestrians versus um cyclists in that area and sort of what the the thought is with that development. Sorry to put you on the spot, Joel. uh through you uh chair row. Uh this area of the city is a protected major transit station area. The focus of the city's planning efforts are to intensify the area um towards complete community objectives, but also to do it in a transit supportive way. So the energy that we've spent at planning the site, doing um improvements, the transportation services group has done improvements to Albert Street at cycling lanes as an example. The goal is to work towards uh that transit supportive um uh effort and that has included reductions in zoning regulations to reduce parking uh counts uh within the city of Wateroo. Um, in this case, a fairly low parking ratio is being proposed again to look at a modal shift as part of this development towards less vehicles and more people travel. So again, concerns around cut through traffic and other um traditional modes of transportation and those impacts. Again, this this development is trying to shift the direction away from that. >> Great. Thank you. I think that's helpful information to understand. Um my final question I will um turn over to Parks. Um and Robin if I could ask you um to speak to the actions that parks is currently taking in Sugar Bush Wood lot because number one is traffic, number two is is protecting the wood lot and certainly with this um type of density proposed here King and Weber um neighbors are very concerned. So, I'm wondering if you could speak to what parks is currently doing and what future monitoring and mitigation could look like as density increases over the long term. >> Sure. Thank you for the question, councelor Row. So, after this came to council, I guess for the first time in the fall of 2023, um that's when we first heard concerns over over the pressures on the wood lot. So, we've put in in uh the spring of 2024, we put trail counters out to try to start to get an idea of what the existing foot traffic looked like uh through that wood lot, and we've been monitoring it ever since. Um we've actually seen a slight decline in in use in the park, which is in the wood lot, which is interesting. The other thing that we've done though is aside from monitoring the current use is there's unsanctioned trails that are that are in that wood lot. So these are um you know trails that go from people's backyards to the primary network that goes through there. So there's a north south east west primary trail that goes through there and we've tried to shut down these unsanctioned trails just to focus the use back onto those those main trails. Um, we'll continue to monitor the the foot traffic in the park through the trail counters, which seem to be fairly effective. And, you know, if we see the use increase and it's degrading the trail system that's there, we'll we'll react as necessary. Um, right now, the the base for the trail is is kind of compacted earth. Um, the next step would be to put a stone dust surfacing through there. I think that would probably be the the most extreme extent that we would go to and that will be dependent on the on the foot traffic that's through there if it ne necessitates the the installation of stone dust but but right now um yeah we're we're seeing the use trend down which I know is is really isn't anything to do with this proposed development but um I think the width of the trail that's there now and and uh by shutting down those unsan sanctioned um trails will will mitigate any any harm to the woodlock. >> Great. Thank you so much. Um before moving forward then I think I would like to ask uh Commissioner Ron Orson just to um if you could speak to the concerns of the residents in general around the green space and around um traffic etc. and um the city's approach to monitoring uh potential impacts over time. >> Certainly. Thanks councelor Ro for your question which I think has excuse me it has two parts an answer with two parts. First if if one sort of backs up a little bit. The city has anticipated this type of of growth and development for a very long time going back to the early 2000s with the first heightened density study um and then building upon those policies and successive updates of the city's official plan. most recently the 2024 official plan update and several other supporting studies. Council heard this afternoon for instance about the um transit supported development approach. So the station area planning that's gone into this to look at how that um will alleviate pressure on the transportation network, the transportation master plan itself um contemplated this type of growth. That's why we've seen uh upgrades to um Albert Street with modern new new sidewalks, separated bike lanes, multi-use paths uh in addition to the work that the region did on Weber Street from King Street um uh up to up to Albert and beyond. So, there's a there's a lot of work that's gone into the to the master planning of the of the city itself. Um storm water master plan, sanitary master plan, I mentioned the transportation master plan. So, so at a at a macro level, there's a lot of work that's gone into looking at how these sites will function within the city. And at a more a more granular granular level, a site level if you will, as council also heard this afternoon, there's a lot of detail that's gone into planning the site to ensure that it will fit within the context of the community. So, it won't pres present um too much parking or too much pressure on the on the road network. There's opportunities for active transportation, for transit, supportive uh lifestyles in addition to um a very thoughtfully planned development that has a large uh you know uh landscaped open space dedication um a warner street. Uh it will eventually have uh we anticipate a lot of amenities uh commercial amenities and whatnot. So that um again the um the the the impact on the community should be lessened by the way the site has been intentionally thought through and designed. Um but that said um as as the site does build out and as it gets closer to full occupancy, the city will continue to monitor how it functions. Um, so things like our annual network screening that uh Bob and Justin will do, we'll we'll look at traffic counts, look at things like cut through traffic through the Blewood uh neighborhood and uh we have done traffic studies in the past for for that specific area of the city and if we have to, we'll commission another uh traffic study to make sure that we understand um you know how this new development is functioning within the broader context of the community. >> Thank you so much. I think it's important to understand that that it's not um something that's just going to exist as it is or any issues that arise that they will be looked at in the future for this or any other development. Thank you. Okay. I would then like to ask if there's anyone present today who wishes to speak to this delegation. I'm sorry, who wishes to speak to this application. Seeing none, I would like to or if there are no more delegations, this formal public meeting is concluded and the application is now open to council for motion and debate. Yes, council right. >> I'm I'm happy to move it with the uh formal motion here. Uh whereas council has considered all written and oral submissions and whereas council has considered the professional opinions of planning staff. Therefore be it resolved the council approve IPW2026-028 that council approve official official plan amendment number 75 OPA75 for se uh oh that's the wrong one. That's fine. Okay backtrack. Uh whereas council has considered all written and oral submissions and whereas council has considered the professional opinions of planning staff, therefore be it resolved that council approve IPW2026-019 that council approve official plan amendment number 49 OPA49 446 Albert Inc. for 446 Albert Street as set out in section 8 of report IPBW2026-019. The council approved zoning bylaw amendment Z-23-13 446 Albert Inc. for 446 Albert Street as set out in section 8 of report IPW2026-019. The council approved draft plan of subdivision 30T-2541 446 Albert Inc. for 446 Albert Street is set out in section 8 of report IPBW2026-019 that council delegate authority to the city's director of planning to make administrative and minor modifications to any standard condition of subdivision approval and or site specific condition of subdivision approval in relation to draft plan of subdivision 3T-2541 and minor redline revisions to draft plan of subdivision 30T-2541 that council delegate authority to the city's director of planning to determine if the conditions of draft approval are satisfied and to approve final registration in relation to draft plan of subdivision 30T-2541. And that is it for that motion. >> All right. And a seconder. Yes. Councelor Bodley. Are there any comments? No. I if no one has comments I will make comments as this is a W six development. This development proposal represents the kind of growth water is increasingly seeing as we focus on strategic density. Growing up and not out allows us to accommodate residents within our existing urban boundary rather than expanding onto farmland. The proposal includes amenities that can benefit both future residents and the surrounding community, including a new public park, commercial services, opportunities for a daycare, and potentially a grocery store as we as well as live work units. I recognize that this proposal represents significant change for the surrounding neighborhood, and residents have raised important concerns about traffic, parking, shadows, and the long-term protection of Sugar Bush Wood. If approved, it's important that these concerns continue to be taken into consideration as staff and Commissioner Ormson have explained today as the development builds out over the coming years. Okay, we have a mover and a seconder. All in favor? That carries? Thank you. Okay, we will move on to consideration of notice of motion given at a previous meeting. None. Notice of motion, none. Communications and correspondence, none. Unfinished business, none. Any questions? None. New business. Councelor Freeman. I just wanted to let council know that this past weekend was an assumption of command for the combat engineering regiment 31 the Elgens which train both as you know in water and in St. Thomas. Um, with the growth of the army, that regiment is anticipated to grow more than triple, which will see um hopefully more investment in the city of Waterlue on behalf of the Department of Natural National Defense. Um, the new commanding officer is Adrien Darowski um who is a resident. He lives outside of London. Um, but we might see Adrien periodically in our council chambers. Um, it was a really it was a really great change of command parade in St. Thomas and it was it was a really great day. The weather held out and so we did I did miss out on the service center for which I was really saddened. It's probably the first one I've missed in 20 years. Um, and um and but I trust it was amazing and that you had good weather and I'll look to the rest of you to provide insight on that. And I also missed out on the pride celebrations and indigenous celebration in the uptown on on Saturday as well. So I trust that was also amazing. >> Thank you councelor Hanmer. Uh thank you, Council Freeman has started to allude to the two things I wanted to give shoutouts to and it really to the staff in both uh the setup and delivery of the Pride celebration and the uh indigenous history month in what was interesting times at Times Square to uh City Square to make sure that things went out went uh properly. And the same thing for the service center um openhouse. Lots while councelor Row and I were there, lots of firsttime people to the service center openhouse. So hopefully they'll be return again. And the staff did an amazing job holding down all the tents that kept going flying around and and despite the weather, everyone seemed to be having a good time. So thank you again to the staff for all your efforts. >> Councelor Vasc. Thanks through uh Chair Row. Um unfortunately I wasn't able to make it on Saturday, but the Cordon Southwick neighbors had their 32nd annual neighborhood barbecue. They have a different theme every year and I forget what this year's theme was. Um but just a really every year a beautiful celebration uh that brings together neighbors and it's enabled now by the neighborhoods team and the funding. So, um, nice that they are able to access that, uh, even though they've been doing it for three decades now. Uh, coming up this Saturday is the Lincoln Heights garage sale, June 13th from 8 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. So, if you love garage sales, uh, come over to the neighborhood. >> Anyone else? Council Council Wright. >> Thanks. And I just wanted to um uh also echo um how great it is uh to to have this ongoing service center openhouse. It's always really great to walk around and and chat with everybody. Um made a bunch of uh great connections um including ju just bumping into residents from W 7 who happened to be there and uh and we had a lovely chat. So it was great. Um just going back to um the square, there have been a lot of activities around uh Uptown, there's basically something going on every minute of the day it feels like right now. Um but in addition to um the the kickoff to uh Pride Month and Indigenous History Month, I just want to point to um Trillium Lutheran Church has painted the uh stairway that comes down off of from the front of the church all the way to uh the sidewalk on William Street. And it's beautiful. It's like a great place to go and do photos. It's very bright, colorful, and um and then the last thing I wanted to notice too is that they were host um to one of the Uptown located uh Open Ears Festival performances uh this past weekend too. So Open Ears has been going on, it's a new music festival, has been going on for eons, it seems. Um and uh it it takes the best of um like really uh modern um musical composition and it's very avantguard and it's quite amazing that we are still hosting that in water after all this time. It's really quite quite amazing. So just want to shout out to open ears. >> Thank you. Anything else anyone wants to share? No. All right. Moving on. Um, enactment of bylaws. Councelor Bodley. We'll move that. Seconded by councelor Hanmer. All in favor. And adjournment. Councelor Freeman. Seconded by councelor Wright. All in favor. Thank you very much. Have a great rest of your evening.