Owen Sound Committee - Community Services Meeting Transcript — April 16, 2025

00:00:18 Speaker 02: We're starting our meeting by calling the meeting to order.

00:00:22 Speaker 02: I'll call for additional business, Councillor Farmer.

00:00:30 Speaker 02: Through the chair, thank you.

00:00:31 Speaker 02: Yeah, I have two items of additional business.

00:00:34 Speaker 02: One, just was hoping to ask staff for a quick update on the official plan and zoning update, noting that that had originally been suggested to be on the agenda for tonight.

00:00:44 Speaker 03: And second, I'll encourage folks to participate in the climate resilient Grey public engagement that's happening now.

00:00:54 Speaker 03: Thank you.

00:00:54 Speaker 03: Other members, additional items?

00:00:57 Speaker 03: Okay, seeing none.

00:00:58 Speaker 02: I'll ask: Are there any declarations of interest by members of the committee?

00:01:04 Speaker 02: If one should arise, please indicate so at that time.

00:01:09 Speaker 02: Next item is confirmation of the minutes of our Community Services meeting held on March 19.

00:01:15 Speaker 02: Council has approved these minutes, but we still need to formally do that at the committee meeting.

00:01:21 Speaker 02: Oh, I'm sorry, Ally.

00:01:23 Speaker 02: You go ahead, Ally.

00:01:25 Speaker 02: Hi.

00:01:25 Speaker 02: Hi.

00:01:25 Speaker 02: I just had a question about the minutes, actually.

00:01:28 Speaker 02: So, wasn't waiting or anything there.

00:01:30 Speaker 02: Okay.

00:01:31 Speaker 02: It was just regarding item four A, which mentioned that the building is proposed west of the grandstand.

00:01:38 Speaker 04: My memory of our conversation, kind of, and reviewing the video, kind of indicates maybe that's not quite captures what happened in the meeting.

00:01:46 Speaker 04: I remember in our conversations, it was that the building is proposed currently on the east side, but City was hoping that future discussions it could be moved to the west.

00:01:57 Speaker 04: So I'm just wondering if maybe if further discussion has happened, if any clarification needs to happen for those minutes to reflect the conversation we had in the meeting.

00:02:07 Speaker 04: Thank you.

00:02:07 Speaker 02: I'll go to the director and get some comments from her.

00:02:15 Speaker 02: Thank you for those comments.

00:02:17 Speaker 02: There is a typo in the minutes, so great catch, Allie.

00:02:22 Speaker 05: It should say it noted that the proposed freestanding building's location is to the east of the grandstand.

00:02:31 Speaker 05: Sorry, so this was in response to a question,

00:02:36 Speaker 05: and I think I was asked why would we prefer that the building be on the west side of the grandstand as opposed to where it's currently being proposed on the east side,

00:02:50 Speaker 05: and I said it would be more consistent with the direction outlined in the master plan, as well as allow for that visibility of the skate and bike park areas.

00:02:59 Speaker 05: So, because we don't say what the question is, I see where it created the confusion,

00:03:07 Speaker 05: but it was intended to respond to the question about why are we asking that it go on the west side.

00:03:15 Speaker 05: And yes, we have had correspondence with the Agricultural Society asking them to consider that location, and we provided the reasons in support of our request.

00:03:29 Speaker 05: Thanks so much.

00:03:31 Speaker 05: With one further follow-up with that, that's okay, Baron.

00:03:33 Speaker 04: Yes, I had a member of the public approach me, noting that the shipping container has been installed east of it, and asked if that had been reflected in last month's meeting.

00:03:43 Speaker 04: So, apologies if this isn't quite the right spot to put this.

00:03:46 Speaker 04: It was unsure, but I was curious: Is that the shipping container that is there considered a temporary structure for this project, or is that a completely separate matter?

00:04:00 Speaker 05: Through you, Madam Chair, the shipping container was placed there.

00:04:03 Speaker 05: I think just in the last week or ten days, they did contact the city, and the CBO had emailed them, allowing the shipping container.

00:04:13 Speaker 05: It is a temporary use to store some things as they were cleaning out the area under the grandstand to allow that complete demolition.

00:04:24 Speaker 05: Great, thank you for the clarification.

00:04:27 Speaker 05: Thank you.

00:04:28 Speaker 02: So, with that, I believe we'll move the minutes as amended, and ask for someone to do that.

00:04:35 Speaker 02: Councillor Farmer, any other questions on the minutes?

00:04:39 Speaker 02: All those in favour?

00:04:41 Speaker 02: That's carried.

00:04:42 Speaker 02: Okay, thank you.

00:04:44 Speaker 02: We now have Minutes of the closed session; would these not be on a closed meeting agenda?

00:04:56 Speaker 02: Should they, Pam?

00:04:58 Speaker 02: Maybe you can help us.

00:05:01 Speaker 05: Through you, I understand that they would be listed on the open agenda.

00:05:05 Speaker 05: If there's any discussion of the minutes, you would need to go into closed to discuss that.

00:05:10 Speaker 05: But otherwise, they can be approved on the open agenda.

00:05:14 Speaker 05: Thank you for that.

00:05:15 Speaker 05: So I'm looking for someone to move those.

00:05:17 Speaker 02: Councillor Kukreja, any comments on the minutes or questions?

00:05:23 Speaker 02: Seeing none.

00:05:24 Speaker 02: All those in favour?

00:05:26 Speaker 02: That's carried.

00:05:27 Speaker 02: Thank you.

00:05:29 Speaker 02: Next item is deputations.

00:05:31 Speaker 02: We don't have any deputations.

00:05:33 Speaker 02: Anyone here for the public forum?

00:05:36 Speaker 02: I don't see anyone.

00:05:37 Speaker 02: There is no correspondence that I'm aware of.

00:05:41 Speaker 02: We'll start with the first report on Parks and Open Space from the Director regarding extended derby parking.

00:06:32 Speaker 02: Okay, we'll start again.

00:06:34 Speaker 05: So the initial report to this committee from February provided some history and background relating to the public use of the inner and outer harbour during the fishing derbies; it reviewed the ownership of those lands.

00:06:47 Speaker 05: We looked at the regulatory framework and we explored together some alternatives for updating the bylaw.

00:06:56 Speaker 05: So, Committee, based on that initial report, Committee provided some direction, and it was to bring forward a draft regulatory bylaw, amend the fees and charges bylaw,

00:07:07 Speaker 05: and I would note that there was one small change made by Council in their approval of the minutes, removing the fee for extended parking, or now Derby camping at the Georgian Shores Marina.

00:07:22 Speaker 05: And the report also talked about a number of next steps that were outlined, and we'll provide an update on several of those this evening.

00:07:35 Speaker 05: So first, the title.

00:07:36 Speaker 05: So the title of the draft bylaw has been changed.

00:07:40 Speaker 05: So, these regulatory bylaws always begin with a bylaw to regulate.

00:07:46 Speaker 05: But the short title is, and we'll call it tonight, Derby Camping Bylaw.

00:07:51 Speaker 05: Kristin Van Alfen is here this evening from our Clerks Division, and Kristin has been instrumental in turning sort of the idea from the last meeting into an actual bylaw that's clear and enforceable.

00:08:04 Speaker 05: So, thanks, Kristin, for all your help.

00:08:10 Speaker 05: So, first, we'll just run through the draft regulatory bylaw.

00:08:14 Speaker 05: The first section is the title, the purpose, and the scope.

00:08:18 Speaker 05: The scope really talks about those four areas, and those are identified on a bit of a master map.

00:08:30 Speaker 05: Next, Part Two is interpretation, and that section contains information on how the bylaw is interpreted, as well as including several definitions that are really important in understanding how the bylaw will be implemented.

00:08:45 Speaker 05: Part Three deals with administration and delegates the authority under the bylaw to a Licence Manager; lucky, that's me, who will perform administrative functions and delegate responsibilities to other employees as necessary.

00:09:01 Speaker 05: And I would note for Committee and Council, the staff person who is a Building Inspector, Plans Examiner, who is doing our short-term licensing for short-term rentals, is also going to be assisting with this.

00:09:18 Speaker 05: So, with his experience, we think it'll be a real asset in helping us implement this, but also reduce our costs with using Fairmount Security.

00:09:32 Speaker 05: The next section deals with Part Four, the Derby camping areas.

00:09:37 Speaker 05: As we've mentioned, there are four areas.

00:09:39 Speaker 05: Two of them are on the East and West Harbour Wall areas.

00:09:45 Speaker 05: The third is the Westside Boat Launch, and very much it will be treated like Georgian Shores Marina,

00:09:51 Speaker 05: where the person who has a lease with the city to operate it will be able to get a licence, and then they will be responsible for selling the passes.

00:10:06 Speaker 05: This section also makes it clear that the use of the harbour lands is not exclusive use of the space where the trailer is, and it doesn't give you exclusive use of that harbour area.

00:10:16 Speaker 05: That was something the Committee talked about at your last meeting.

00:10:20 Speaker 05: And since that initial report, the fire route and turnaround have been updated to make sure that we have those spaces on both sides.

00:10:32 Speaker 05: So you'll see the fire route is the red hatched area, and you'll see it on the west side.

00:10:42 Speaker 05: It lines up with the road and has a turnaround at the end.

00:10:46 Speaker 05: And then the dark hatched area is the area for the Derby camping.

00:10:56 Speaker 05: So, Part Five deals with vehicles.

00:10:59 Speaker 05: And thinking back to that definition section, any applicant can get two licences.

00:11:05 Speaker 05: One is for the camping vehicle.

00:11:07 Speaker 05: You can't get a licence for a car or truck without first having a camping vehicle.

00:11:12 Speaker 05: And if that camping vehicle is not self-propelled, you can obtain a second one for a passenger vehicle.

00:11:20 Speaker 05: Although there is a fee required for both, it includes the information required to get a licence.

00:11:27 Speaker 05: You have to have a valid driver's licence, the derby entry, contact information, your licence plate number, etc. And that section also deals with moving vehicles in an emergency.

00:11:43 Speaker 05: Next, Part Six deals with the private operators, so that will include the Georgian Shores Marina and Westside Boat Launch.

00:11:50 Speaker 05: And then Part Seven deals with licence replacement and fees, and we'll talk about that a little bit later under the fees and charges section.

00:12:00 Speaker 05: Section Eight deals with times where we may want to refuse to issue a licence.

00:12:07 Speaker 05: Nine with requirements, responsibilities, prohibitions.

00:12:12 Speaker 05: This section sets out requirements for compliance with a number of other City bylaws, things like the fireworks noise nuisance that is really important to ensuring sort of respectful use of this public space.

00:12:26 Speaker 05: Section Ten deals with inspections, orders, and notice, and then Eleven offenses and penalties.

00:12:34 Speaker 05: And we'll talk a bit more about short-form wording later.

00:12:39 Speaker 05: So there's two areas that are recommended for an amendment to the traffic bylaw.

00:12:44 Speaker 05: So these are the areas along what I would call River Street.

00:12:49 Speaker 05: It's the areas south of where the cement elevators are and the gate can be pulled across that area; it is also on lands that are leased from Transport Canada.

00:13:00 Speaker 05: So the idea would be that parking would be prohibited on both sides of the street as it is now.

00:13:05 Speaker 05: Although I don't think the traffic bylaws are clear, there were two little areas where there's parking where we would pull in.

00:13:12 Speaker 05: We would assign names to those two perpendicular spaces creatively, Lots Ten and Eleven, and then regulate those lots as long-term lots, just like the rest of City lots are regulated.

00:13:24 Speaker 05: So they would permit complimentary parking for up to five hours.

00:13:31 Speaker 05: So fees and charges.

00:13:33 Speaker 05: So a vehicle for the derby, the fee is $150.

00:13:36 Speaker 05: Staff are recommending the addition of a $25 replacement fee.

00:13:41 Speaker 05: So if you get your pass and between when you get it and the derby you lose it, there's a $25 replacement fee, as well.

00:13:51 Speaker 05: We would propose to remove the $10 per night extended parking fee at the West Side Boat Launch that's currently in the fees and charges bylaw.

00:14:00 Speaker 05: And just for clarity, at the Georgian Sluice Marina and at the West Side Boat Launch, the operator would come to the city, get a licence, and the cost of that operator licence would be $125.

00:14:15 Speaker 05: So, in terms of the update on implementation and next steps, this multidisciplinary team across city divisions and departments has continued to work on this, and that's been really great.

00:14:29 Speaker 05: So, we will use PerfectMind, our online application and facility booking for applications and payments.

00:14:37 Speaker 05: We do have the draft licence agreements for both those areas with Transport Canada.

00:14:44 Speaker 05: We've developed a communication plan with the city's communications advisor.

00:14:48 Speaker 05: It's a multi-faceted plan that really targets the Derby participants with key messages, and we'll share important information through a dedicated web page that will include FAQs.

00:15:01 Speaker 05: There'll be media releases, printed—I call it here a brochure, but it's more like a card—and as well as a social media campaign.

00:15:11 Speaker 05: Keep in mind, this plan was created with minimal financial resources and has been pretty strategic to reach that ideal demographic.

00:15:24 Speaker 05: So the recommendation has several parts, but the first one, and subject to certainly any questions,

00:15:31 Speaker 05: but would be to direct staff to bring forward the Derby Camping Bylaw substantially in the form that it's attached to your report this evening,

00:15:40 Speaker 05: that you would ask staff to make an application to the Ministry of Attorney General for the short form wording.

00:15:50 Speaker 05: I should have talked a little bit about this.

00:15:52 Speaker 05: The fines under the bylaw would be three hundred dollars, and three hundred dollars was picked because to make it meaningful, to make it not cheaper just to get a fine than to buy a pass,

00:16:05 Speaker 05: they thought three hundred dollars would be a reasonable fee.

00:16:09 Speaker 05: Appointing both Niels Jensen and Kevin Linthorne as bylaw officers, able to enforce under this new bylaw, to direct staff to bring forward an amendment to the traffic bylaw, as I've outlined,

00:16:24 Speaker 05: and that's dealing with those two parking areas on the east side.

00:16:29 Speaker 05: Directing staff to bring forward a bylaw to amend the fees and charges bylaw.

00:16:35 Speaker 05: Directing staff to issue that notice of a proposed amendment to the Fees and Charges Bylaw, directing staff to submit a notice of amendment to the Fees and Charges Bylaw.

00:16:48 Speaker 05: Sorry, applying to the Ministry of Attorney General for the short form wording, and lastly, and we haven't talked about this a lot,

00:16:57 Speaker 05: but bringing it back a report after the first year of implementation to just say what went well, what was, what are things that we would maybe change for another time.

00:17:09 Speaker 05: So, with that, happy to take any questions you may have, and if you have any real stumpers, Kristen is here to support detailed questions on the regulatory framework.

00:17:21 Speaker 05: Thank you.

00:17:21 Speaker 02: Are there questions from members of the committee?

00:17:26 Speaker 02: Morgan.

00:17:29 Speaker 02: Thank you, through you, Madam Chair.

00:17:30 Speaker 02: Excellent job.

00:17:31 Speaker 02: This is great.

00:17:32 Speaker 02: I know there's a lot of research that went into this, so kudos to the team for doing it.

00:17:36 Speaker 02: A couple of questions.

00:17:39 Speaker 02: That number three.

00:17:39 Speaker 02: If you go back a slide, Pam,

00:17:41 Speaker 06: it mentions direct staff to amend the appointed office bylaws to include the Derby camping bylaw and Schedule B under notes or limits for Niels and Kevin and parking enforcement officers.

00:17:54 Speaker 06: Does that include Fairmont?

00:17:56 Speaker 06: Like, are they the ones that are going to be doing?

00:17:57 Speaker 06: So that's okay, perfect.

00:18:00 Speaker 06: And then a follow-up question, if I can, is.

00:18:03 Speaker 06: I didn't see it in the fines or consequences.

00:18:10 Speaker 06: Has there been thought given to past offenders, like if they come in and they rack up a thousand bucks in fines or whatever, are they allowed back the next year?

00:18:23 Speaker 06: That's a great question.

00:18:24 Speaker 05: We did talk a little bit about that in what might make you ineligible to get a pass.

00:18:30 Speaker 05: I think if you have outstanding fines, that's something.

00:18:34 Speaker 05: But if you were noisy this year and you were asked to, you know, shut it down, you did.

00:18:40 Speaker 05: I was reminded by my colleagues that everybody deserves sort of another chance to get it right the next time.

00:18:47 Speaker 05: So there is some thought to that, and but there is the section that allows us to refuse for different reasons.

00:18:57 Speaker 05: Other questions, John?

00:19:00 Speaker 05: Thank you, through the chair.

00:19:00 Speaker 05: Two questions.

00:19:02 Speaker 05: Easier one first.

00:19:03 Speaker 03: The aerial photo that shows the west side boat launch also shows the Rainbow Boat Club immediately above that.

00:19:14 Speaker 03: For that detail, and I'm curious whether I hadn't thought of that particular property until I saw that in the aerial photo in the package itself.

00:19:26 Speaker 03: Does to what extent would this bylaw apply?

00:19:28 Speaker 03: Does bylaw apply, or was it considered to be included in this bylaw, or is that part of the review for the fall?

00:19:37 Speaker 05: So that Rainbow Boat Club is owned by Transport Canada, leased to that Rainbow Club.

00:19:43 Speaker 05: Extended or Derby camping would not be permitted on that site.

00:19:47 Speaker 05: So if someone was camping there, and we received a complaint, we could issue a fine.

00:19:54 Speaker 03: And thank you, through the chair again.

00:19:58 Speaker 03: I don't know that the relationship between bylaw and city staff and contracted third-party security and OSPS or like the on-site police is really clearly understood.

00:20:11 Speaker 03: The report speaks in the financial section, and you mentioned that that by adding folks from the building department to that list of enforcement folks, we can save some money on security costs.

00:20:23 Speaker 03: But how, if someone's wondering.

00:20:27 Speaker 03: Like, why are we using third-party security if someone's drinking in a public place?

00:20:32 Speaker 03: Is that a police matter?

00:20:33 Speaker 03: How is the city envisioning splitting those responsibilities, and how do we figure out when we're contracting out for security rather than using the police service to enforce criminal code violations anyway?

00:20:51 Speaker 05: The bylaw does require compliance with the criminal code, and if there were criminal code offenses happening, don't want to speak for the chief,

00:20:59 Speaker 05: but I'm certain we could call on Sound Police and they would respond.

00:21:03 Speaker 05: But generally, a regulatory bylaw would be enforced by our bylaw staff as well.

00:21:09 Speaker 05: In this case, by supported by staff in our building division, as well as Fairmont, our staff in the building division.

00:21:18 Speaker 05: We will have a summer student.

00:21:20 Speaker 05: Sorry, the bylaw division.

00:21:22 Speaker 05: We will have a summer student again this year, but generally that staff work daytime, Monday to Friday.

00:21:29 Speaker 05: So this will require some evening and weekend work.

00:21:33 Speaker 05: Sort of where we left at the last time we met to say, okay, how are we doing on our next steps and to-dos?

00:21:40 Speaker 05: We said we'll start to think in more detail about site and how we greet people arriving the 36 hours.

00:21:49 Speaker 05: Maybe have staff down there, and that wouldn't necessarily be staff who can do the enforcement.

00:21:55 Speaker 05: It would include that, but it may include some parks staff during that time, as well as other staff to just sort of keep the order a bit.

00:22:04 Speaker 05: But the enforcement would be done, you know, working toward compliance.

00:22:10 Speaker 05: But we'd have a meeting with Fairmont, our staff, Kevin and Neels, and just say, okay, what's the schedule going to look like over this sort of ten-day window?

00:22:22 Speaker 05: Thank you again, through the chair.

00:22:24 Speaker 03: I really appreciate the way that feedback was incorporated since we last met.

00:22:28 Speaker 03: I'm happy to move the recommendation in the report.

00:22:32 Speaker 03: Thank you.

00:22:33 Speaker 03: Other questions or comments?

00:22:36 Speaker 03: Okay.

00:22:36 Speaker 02: All those in favour of the report and the recommendation?

00:22:39 Speaker 02: That's carried.

00:22:41 Speaker 02: Thank you.

00:22:44 Speaker 02: Next item is from the manager, Parks and Open Space, regarding the Bluewater District School Board multi-use courts, thank you, Eckert.

00:23:01 Speaker 02: So, in October of 2024,

00:23:02 Speaker 02: the city was engaged by the Bluewater District School Board to determine if the city was interested in re-establishing a former partnership that supported public use of the courts at the Owen Sound District Secondary School.

00:23:18 Speaker 07: The city has had a long-standing partnership related to the public use of the courts that dates back to 1975.

00:23:28 Speaker 07: The last agreement lapsed in August of 2019, and it was not renewed at that time.

00:23:37 Speaker 07: In and around March of 2023, the city gave notice to the school board that, due to the condition of the tennis courts, public use would now no longer be supported.

00:23:49 Speaker 07: In 2024, the school board undertook a capital infrastructure project and invested in the renewal of the existing tennis courts, which now also supports pickleball use.

00:24:02 Speaker 07: And as part of the renewal project, two basketball courts and nets were added to create a multi-use court.

00:24:12 Speaker 07: Staff have worked collaboratively with the school board to update the terms and conditions of the new draft memorandum of agreement to reflect each party's responsibilities in support of the public use partnership opportunity.

00:24:33 Speaker 07: Some key highlights of the draft five-year MOA include that capital ownership of the multi-use courts remains with the school board.

00:24:45 Speaker 07: The gates to the multi-use court will be kept locked during the school day and overnight.

00:24:52 Speaker 07: The playing season will extend from Monday, the first Monday in May, to the end of Thanksgiving weekend, which is about mid-October.

00:25:01 Speaker 07: Daily public use on regularly scheduled instructional school days will be between 4 p.m. and dusk, and on non-instructional school days, so any other day where the school isn't open, from dawn to dusk,

00:25:19 Speaker 07: the city will be responsible for opening and closing of the multi-use courts based on the schedule.

00:25:25 Speaker 07: The operating and maintenance responsibilities that the city will be taking on in support of the public use of the courts will include contracted security services to open and close the courts and to perform inspections,

00:25:40 Speaker 07: contracted line painting on a biannual basis, general maintenance activities such as litter picking and picking up broken glass, and addressing any vandalism incurred during the public use window of the multi-use court.

00:25:57 Speaker 07: There are financial implications related to the agreement that covers the cost of these new operating responsibilities.

00:26:05 Speaker 07: That has been estimated at approximately $11,500.

00:26:07 Speaker 07: Approximately eleven thousand five hundred dollars.

00:26:10 Speaker 07: These operating costs will be addressed as part of the 2026 Parks and Open Space Operating Budget deliberations.

00:26:19 Speaker 07: So, in closing, the recommendations are as follows: that, in consideration of staff report CS-25-037 respecting the draft Memorandum of Agreement with Bluewater District School Board regarding the Owen Sound District Secondary School Multi-Use Courts,

00:26:34 Speaker 07: the Community Services Committee and Humanities Services Committee recommends that City Council: one,

00:26:40 Speaker 07: direct staff to bring forward a bylaw to authorise the mayor and clerk to enter into a five-year memorandum of agreement with the Bluewater District School Board to permit public use of the Owen Sound District

00:26:51 Speaker 07: Secondary School Multi-Use Courts;

00:26:54 Speaker 07: and two, consider as part of the 2026 operating budget deliberations an increase in the Parks and Open Space operating budget of $11,500 to support this partnership.

00:27:05 Speaker 07: Thank you.

00:27:09 Speaker 07: Questions or comments?

00:27:10 Speaker 07: Someone to move the recommendation, John?

00:27:13 Speaker 07: Thank you, through the chair.

00:27:14 Speaker 07: A question first.

00:27:16 Speaker 03: We had a lot of correspondence about this from a lot of correspondence from at least a small number of people in the fall, really encouraging the city to do this more quickly.

00:27:25 Speaker 03: At a time of year when that wasn't totally helpful, but I'm curious.

00:27:30 Speaker 03: As we... it is a five-year agreement.

00:27:32 Speaker 03: Is there any possibility going forward to reach out to the fledgling pickleball community or like neighbourhood to see if there's a partnership opportunity with community volunteers that could help to take some responsibility,

00:27:47 Speaker 03: maybe more formally for keeping an eye on that or become keyholders to lessen the financial burden of that and increase that sense of kind of collective ownership and care.

00:28:00 Speaker 03: Through you, Chair Capkey, to Council Farmer.

00:28:01 Speaker 07: To a council farmer, so there's... there is a reason for employing a security service provider to do this.

00:28:12 Speaker 07: It's the vandalism or the liability associated with vandalism that I think has been an issue in the past in this particular location.

00:28:19 Speaker 07: So the school board was quite clear that they would like to keep this court closed unless it's daylight or public use.

00:28:28 Speaker 07: And part of the services being provided by our security service is to inspect and make sure before we close it and before we open it that it is in good condition and there is no

00:28:39 Speaker 07: vandalism and documenting that process.

00:28:42 Speaker 07: Again, trying to limit our liability with respect to vandalism that doesn't occur during the hours that the public is using it.

00:28:50 Speaker 07: But I think there's always an opportunity for engagement of user groups like that.

00:28:54 Speaker 07: The more ownership they have, I think you know it often lessens our need to pick up that litter because these folks do it,

00:29:02 Speaker 07: or deal with something other element that can easily be handled by the user groups.

00:29:08 Speaker 07: Thank you.

00:29:08 Speaker 07: Happy to move the recommendation.

00:29:11 Speaker 07: Are there other questions or comments, Travis?

00:29:14 Speaker 07: Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:29:15 Speaker 07: And I would just highlight on that further because the costing of that security is obviously going to be a liability component.

00:29:21 Speaker 08: Obviously, but you know, as maybe this is the first year of trial to get an understanding, getting a grip of what needs to be done, and then, as you noted, approaching those groups and saying,

00:29:30 Speaker 08: "Hey, year two, you know, do you mind doing this?"

00:29:34 Speaker 08: The challenge would be making sure that someone's there every single day to close it.

00:29:37 Speaker 08: Not... you can't be on vacation.

00:29:39 Speaker 08: You need to have something set up, and then you're putting a lot of responsibility onto a volunteer organizational group, hobby group, to do that, and maybe they will do that, so that's great.

00:29:48 Speaker 08: I would just like to point out that I think this is a great partnership.

00:29:50 Speaker 08: We talk about working in partnership with other organisations and other groups within our community, and I think...

00:29:55 Speaker 08: In our community, and I think for $11,500, even generally, if we continue to do that over the next five years,

00:30:01 Speaker 08: is a lot less than the capital cost and operating cost it would be if we ran this as a city asset.

00:30:08 Speaker 08: So the fact that we've got a brand new facility that's up on the west side of town, that's going to be a multi-use facility or multi-use space,

00:30:16 Speaker 08: I think is fantastic for that whole neighbourhood up there.

00:30:20 Speaker 08: You're on the hill; it's great for kids and other members of the public to utilise that space.

00:30:25 Speaker 08: So I think it's a fantastic agreement, and I'm glad to see that we're working in partnership with other organisations again.

00:30:31 Speaker 08: So those would be my comments.

00:30:34 Speaker 08: Thank you, Morgan.

00:30:37 Speaker 06: Just a quick question: Is... you mentioned you know getting the security company to do the opening and inspection, and that will they also be responsible for the cleaning of hazardous materials found or graffiti?

00:30:54 Speaker 07: Through Chair Kepki, no staff will be responsible.

00:31:00 Speaker 07: There is some time, and you'll see in the schedule.

00:31:03 Speaker 07: There is some minor time allocated for staff to deal with those issues.

00:31:07 Speaker 07: We expect it to be not as prominent as been historically, because it is secured most of the time.

00:31:13 Speaker 07: So, thank you for that.

00:31:17 Speaker 07: Any others?

00:31:20 Speaker 02: Seeing none, I will call the question on the motion.

00:31:24 Speaker 02: Those in favour?

00:31:26 Speaker 02: That's carried.

00:31:27 Speaker 02: Thank you very much, and thanks for working on that partnership.

00:31:36 Speaker 02: Next, we have community and business development advisor on our New Owen Sound community profile.

00:31:43 Speaker 02: I'll call Rebecca to the podium.

00:32:08 Speaker 02: Hello, everyone.

00:32:10 Speaker 02: It's delightful to be in front of you today.

00:32:12 Speaker 02: Not reading poetry this time.

00:32:15 Speaker 02: For those of you who have met me yet, my name is Rebecca Ellerdm.

00:32:17 Speaker 02: I am the new ALRDM, I am the new Community and Business Development Advisor here at the city.

00:32:22 Speaker 09: I began this role just in December on a part-time basis, and then came in full-time at the beginning of February.

00:32:31 Speaker 09: So it's been an exciting few months, and I'm delighted to be before the committee today.

00:32:36 Speaker 09: Today, we are going to be presenting a report on the development and creation of our new community profile.

00:32:50 Speaker 09: So, just a few highlights about our new community profile.

00:32:54 Speaker 09: We are taking an innovative web-first approach with this new profile,

00:33:01 Speaker 09: supplemented with premium print materials that are designed to invite the viewer to spend time really getting to know our city and our community and the people who make us who we are.

00:33:13 Speaker 09: The profile highlights a series of featured neighbours in a cinematic photo series that offers a kind of personal testimonials,

00:33:23 Speaker 09: a kind of qualitative dataset to supplement the kind of quantitative data that you would usually expect to find in these types of economic development tools.

00:33:35 Speaker 09: And this creative process was very much informed by the community engagement that has happened over the last year as part of the Vision Two Thousand and Fifty process, and in particular the community engagement sessions,

00:33:48 Speaker 09: where staff received a lot of really, really inspiring feedback on how people viewed Owen Sound as a place that they really chose to live in, to work in, to study in, to visit,

00:34:05 Speaker 09: and to support.

00:34:11 Speaker 09: All right, so just a few notes on the background of these types of reports or on these types of profiles.

00:34:19 Speaker 09: Typically, when you are looking for a community profile, you are an investor who's looking to expand your operations into a new community.

00:34:30 Speaker 09: You might be a new physician or a potential resident who's interested in learning more about the demographics.

00:34:38 Speaker 09: They are typically, in the past, have used a lot of statistical data and tables and visualizations.

00:34:45 Speaker 09: However, today we have a lot of those tools available online in much more responsive, accessible, interactive formats.

00:34:56 Speaker 09: So when we set about designing this community profile, we really dug into who this is for and how it will be used.

00:35:05 Speaker 09: And one of the key formats that we wanted it to be accessible for is you know weeks like this week where we have our fire chief Phil who is out at a physician recruitment conference

00:35:19 Speaker 09: talking to people and trying to bring new doctors to our community,

00:35:23 Speaker 09: and we also have Mayor Ian Boddy and City Manager Tim Simmons in Ottawa at the Canadian Nuclear Association conference where they are going to be meeting with industry professionals and trying to build a bigger

00:35:36 Speaker 09: industry for Owen Sound in relation to medical isotopes,

00:35:40 Speaker 09: and I would like to note that the mayor has recently been honoured with a municipal leadership award by the Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council.

00:35:48 Speaker 09: So, when we send out the mayor to go and meet with people and advocate for our community,

00:35:54 Speaker 09: we want to make sure that he has the right tools to draw people in and tell them the story of where we are.

00:36:03 Speaker 09: So,

00:36:04 Speaker 09: that question of why Owen Sound and how do we distinguish Owen Sound from every other community at these types of conferences or trade shows or you know events where every single community is going to

00:36:18 Speaker 09: be having a similar tool at their disposal?

00:36:22 Speaker 09: How do we distinguish ourselves?

00:36:24 Speaker 09: Some of the challenges that we identified were the accuracy of the data.

00:36:32 Speaker 09: Most of the tools are relying on StatsCan data, which is Canadian data, data which is updated every like five years.

00:36:38 Speaker 09: We're also looking at, in terms of print materials, the ability to refresh those materials over time.

00:36:47 Speaker 09: How long is that information going to be accurate for?

00:36:52 Speaker 09: And we also wanted to think about the user experience.

00:36:56 Speaker 09: You know, what kind of story are we telling people, and is the format that we are using the best tool?

00:37:05 Speaker 09: So we have some examples of what other community profiles might look like.

00:37:09 Speaker 09: This is an example from the city of Calgary.

00:37:11 Speaker 09: It's available online.

00:37:13 Speaker 09: It's very text-heavy.

00:37:14 Speaker 09: It's dense reading, but it's very informative.

00:37:19 Speaker 09: It offers a high-level analysis of the different statistical information.

00:37:24 Speaker 09: On their website, you can additionally draw down into specific neighborhoods.

00:37:29 Speaker 09: The issue with this type of format is that when you're looking at it from a distance, this could be literally any community.

00:37:35 Speaker 09: It doesn't really tell a story.

00:37:36 Speaker 09: It doesn't really convey what the city of Calgary is about, and so it's offering a lot of detail.

00:37:42 Speaker 09: But again, as a user, you are looking for a bit more information about you know what's it like to live there.

00:37:52 Speaker 09: Here, a little closer to home, is the town of Collingwood.

00:37:56 Speaker 09: There's a bit more personality here.

00:37:58 Speaker 09: We have a lovely image of the waterfront.

00:37:59 Speaker 09: They have a grain elevator too.

00:38:01 Speaker 09: I can see, and there's a bit more colour, a bit more dynamism in terms of like how the data is presented.

00:38:08 Speaker 09: But as you see with the red arrow there, this is page like 22 of 100, which means that when you are taking this around to trade shows and conferences,

00:38:17 Speaker 09: you are handing people a brick of paper, and it's not super environmentally friendly.

00:38:21 Speaker 09: And a lot of these data tables can be better viewed online.

00:38:27 Speaker 09: Which brings me to the city of Canora.

00:38:32 Speaker 09: Here we can see that the city of Canora has used some embedded data visualization tools, which offer like a more integrated experience online.

00:38:43 Speaker 09: It conveys the same amount of information, but in a much more accessible and interactive format.

00:38:50 Speaker 09: So this is kind of what we're aiming for.

00:38:53 Speaker 09: We don't have access to these same tools; it would require a bigger investment on our part.

00:38:58 Speaker 09: And last year and in the past number of years,

00:39:02 Speaker 09: Grey County has actually invested in a subscription to Environix Analytics and using in-house solutions to build the kind of interactive data tables that can be shared across all nine member municipalities.

00:39:17 Speaker 09: So we have some of these tools available to us in-house.

00:39:22 Speaker 09: It's just a matter of embedding them into the website and creating the infrastructure around supporting those tables online in an online format.

00:39:35 Speaker 09: When we sat down to begin to envision what our community profile could look like, we didn't just take inspiration from other community profiles.

00:39:44 Speaker 09: We also looked to the nonprofit community and business community to look at other types of reports that had that kind of dynamic storytelling quality that we were after.

00:39:56 Speaker 09: So here you can see a web example and a print example.

00:40:01 Speaker 09: The web one is kind of an example of a no-code builder.

00:40:06 Speaker 09: This caused a bit of confusion within City Hall when I was talking about it with Tim.

00:40:10 Speaker 09: But a no-code builder is essentially like a drag-and-drop tool where you can very easily use animated elements of code and web design without a web designer.

00:40:22 Speaker 09: So to web designer, so it's like you know, basically playing a puzzle with web design.

00:40:28 Speaker 09: So that's that's one option that we might pursue in the future.

00:40:33 Speaker 09: But for now, we decided to keep things in house, and I just watched a lot of GovStack tutorials, which was super fun, actually.

00:40:43 Speaker 09: For the print version of an example, we were actually looking at things like the youth climate change Action Conference, their materials,

00:40:56 Speaker 09: and also the designer Nashpal D'Souza had also done this really great design for the Kingston Community Foundation, and we were really impressed with the design.

00:41:10 Speaker 09: We thought it was super innovative, and we pursued a number of different options for designers, and in the end, we were really fortunate that Nashpal D'Souza.

00:41:19 Speaker 09: Nash Paul D'Souza lives in Leith, works at Owen Sound, and was available to work on our community profile.

00:41:28 Speaker 09: So that brings us to the creation process.

00:41:31 Speaker 09: Our principal creative team was myself, our designer, who you can see there, Nash Paul D'Souza, and that is our main photographer for the Neighbours series, Sophie Torres.

00:41:43 Speaker 09: In these behind-the-scenes photos, you can see us reviewing the proofs of the print edition at a cafe, you can see Sophie taking a shot of Dennis Crude at Hydrogen Optimize.

00:42:00 Speaker 09: He's the CEO there.

00:42:01 Speaker 09: You can see her ducking behind the bridge in the virtual reality simulator at Georgian College,

00:42:08 Speaker 09: and just tucked behind Ali there is Nash and Terry at Quick Print having a meeting to discuss all of the different paper stock types and binding options that are all available right here in Owen

00:42:22 Speaker 09: Sound.

00:42:23 Speaker 09: So, I would like to speak more to the development of the creative team and all of the different people who were involved in the process within the report itself.

00:42:40 Speaker 09: But I would just like to highlight the amount of collaboration that went into this project.

00:42:45 Speaker 09: This community profile was truly a community effort.

00:42:49 Speaker 09: It involved more than three dozen different local community members who were either part of our featured neighbour series, part of the different locations that we featured, helped support the creation of the content,

00:43:03 Speaker 09: helped review the content, who really helped bring it together and make it what it is.

00:43:09 Speaker 09: And so, I would just like to thank everyone who was involved and who supported the effort to really help tell the story of Owen Sound.

00:43:21 Speaker 09: Without further ado, our new community profile.

00:43:24 Speaker 09: The councillors will have received their copy on Monday.

00:43:28 Speaker 09: The committee members, you will have them in front of you today.

00:43:31 Speaker 09: And for anyone else tuning in online, you can go to owensound.ca/community-profile.

00:43:34 Speaker 09: And if you scroll down to the bottom, there's an embedded flipbook, so you can also view what the print edition looks like as well.

00:43:45 Speaker 09: So first, I want to talk about our cover image.

00:43:49 Speaker 09: From the very beginning, the City Manager and staff discussed what we wanted people to feel when they received this profile.

00:43:59 Speaker 09: We wanted it to invoke a sense of surprise and curiosity.

00:44:04 Speaker 09: We wanted people to actually spend time with us, with our community and our story.

00:44:10 Speaker 09: And part of our goal with that was to create that sense of space and that feeling of you know beginning to like sit down and relax with something for a while,

00:44:21 Speaker 09: and that informed a lot of the design elements.

00:44:23 Speaker 09: So you have this beautiful shot of a person canoeing through the river in Harrison Park, and when you open up the community profile,

00:44:32 Speaker 09: you're greeted with a double page spread of a sunrise ceremony photo by Michael McLuhan from Kelsey Beach at Naywash Park.

00:44:42 Speaker 09: And you see the canoe landing, and you are here in our community.

00:44:46 Speaker 09: And that sense of space; these two photos really informed the feeling that we wanted people to get as they began to spend time getting to know us.

00:44:55 Speaker 09: You know, we used a lot of minimal design, minimal content, and we really let the images speak for themselves in terms of showcasing how extraordinarily beautiful our community is.

00:45:08 Speaker 09: So next, I would like to draw your attention to the featured neighbours.

00:45:11 Speaker 09: When we talked about Owen Sound's unique value proposition, really what we're talking about is our sense of community and connectedness.

00:45:20 Speaker 09: Owen Sound is really a natural incubator for innovation and creativity and resilience.

00:45:26 Speaker 09: It comes from our roots as a farming community, a rural community, a place where people really support each other, and that really is demonstrated through our community members.

00:45:37 Speaker 09: How much people care—the passion that we see with Own Sounders—and we wanted to highlight a number of people who we felt had the kind of impact on their community.

00:45:48 Speaker 09: Many of whom were newcomers to Owen Sound, especially in the last number of years.

00:45:54 Speaker 09: We also wanted to highlight the diversity of Owen Sound, both economic and social diversity and cultural diversity.

00:46:03 Speaker 09: And we also, in particular, wanted to showcase people who had made an active choice to either move to Owen Sound, move back to Owen Sound, to build a business here, to grow a family here.

00:46:17 Speaker 09: People who really, when asked why Owen Sound, had a very clear answer.

00:46:24 Speaker 09: So, starting from the upper left quadrant, we have Justin McMillan.

00:46:34 Speaker 09: Justin McMillan is the owner of Goods Kitchen, Pastry, and Coffee Bar.

00:46:41 Speaker 09: He moved to the area from Toronto.

00:46:43 Speaker 09: He began his store in a small shop front on, I believe, Ninth Avenue, before moving to his new expanded location in the front area of the GB Arts Building.

00:46:57 Speaker 09: Next in the centre top, we have Dr. Mike Collins.

00:47:01 Speaker 09: If you are looking for him in the print edition of the community profile,

00:47:05 Speaker 09: he's the one in the green shorts in the kind of workout collage picture because we felt it important to showcase that not only do we have great doctors,

00:47:14 Speaker 09: but we have great doctors with a great quality of life themselves, who have friends and you know a good work-life balance.

00:47:24 Speaker 09: Next in the upper right corner, we have Tiffany McMillan, Justin's partner.

00:47:29 Speaker 09: She was a photographer, a professional photographer, and when they moved to town, she actually took on a new role as a theatre manager for the Roxy.

00:47:40 Speaker 09: And so this is just an example with the pairing of the two of a you know a couple who came to town.

00:47:48 Speaker 09: One is a business owner, the other what is now employed in our arts industry.

00:47:52 Speaker 09: The idea that people who move here are going to find jobs and thrive, and make friends and have community and really become part of Owen Sound.

00:48:04 Speaker 09: Next in the middle row on the left, we have Arjun Goel.

00:48:08 Speaker 09: He is a marine navigation student at Georgian College.

00:48:11 Speaker 09: Found him in a coffee shop, and he told me all about big boats and how great they are.

00:48:17 Speaker 09: And we had such an incredible conversation that I reached out to Dave Shori at Georgian College and asked if we could have a special photo shoot in their bridge simulator,

00:48:27 Speaker 09: and we tried really hard to get shots of the really, really, really big bridge simulator, but unfortunately, the lasers—oh gosh, I'm really bad with technology.

00:48:40 Speaker 09: The way that the lasers hit the screen for this massive wooden structure replicating a real bridge of a real ship did not play well with our camera.

00:48:50 Speaker 09: So we went to the smaller bridge with the LCD-based screens and got the picture there instead, but we had a lot of fun doing it.

00:49:01 Speaker 09: Next in the middle row, we have a paired set of images.

00:49:05 Speaker 09: This is Hillary Coburn and Arthur Murgatroyd and their sons Jasper and Telly.

00:49:11 Speaker 09: Hill may be familiar to a number of you at Council.

00:49:13 Speaker 09: She's been here a few times.

00:49:15 Speaker 09: She is a teacher at Hillcrest.

00:49:20 Speaker 09: She is an educator, a passionate climate change activist and the founder of the Youth Climate Action Conference, she began this conference on parental leave.

00:49:32 Speaker 09: It is now in its fourth year as of two thousand and twenty-five, and Owen Sound has just become an official partner, and it will be hosted at the Bayshore Arena this fall.

00:49:44 Speaker 09: It's been growing each year, and they have outgrown their previous home, and we are delighted to partner with the conference this year.

00:49:52 Speaker 09: Arthur Murgatroyd, Hill's husband, he immigrated from Australia.

00:49:56 Speaker 09: Says that winter is his favorite season, and he is an educator at the Bluewater Outdoor Education Centre.

00:50:03 Speaker 09: So when I was thinking about how to showcase people that love the outdoors, I literally cannot think of a better example than Hill, Arthur and their family, and Jasper, who is now aged three,

00:50:15 Speaker 09: was careful to demonstrate how to do a proper snowplow on his skis before hopping into the chariot to go for a ride around Harrison Park on the day that we did the photos.

00:50:27 Speaker 09: Next, in the bottom left, we have May Ip.

00:50:31 Speaker 09: May immigrated from Hong Kong in, I believe, 1990, and just over a decade ago, she initiated the local Lunar New Year celebrations.

00:50:43 Speaker 09: It was actually in Councillor Kukreja's daughter's book, penciling it in, that I discovered the depth of her story,

00:50:52 Speaker 09: and she spoke about how her family used to go down to the city in order to attend Lunar New Year celebrations.

00:50:59 Speaker 09: Until she thought, you know what, we have a great community here in Owen Sound.

00:51:03 Speaker 09: Why don't we host celebrations locally?

00:51:06 Speaker 09: And I thought that that was an incredibly important story to highlight of a person who's really made an impact here.

00:51:13 Speaker 09: And so we gathered May and a number of her friends in the local business community,

00:51:17 Speaker 09: and we had them tour the Year of the Snake exhibit curated by artist Raquel Yang at our Grey Gallery right down on Second Avenue.

00:51:28 Speaker 09: Finally, the last two we have Dennis Crude.

00:51:32 Speaker 09: He is the CEO of Hydrogen Optimized.

00:51:35 Speaker 09: He immigrated here from Germany because he really believed passionately in the potential of Hydrogen Optimized ability to become a global leader in clean hydrogen tech.

00:51:47 Speaker 09: Clean hydrogen technology.

00:51:49 Speaker 09: He speaks very highly of our community.

00:51:52 Speaker 09: He's been on a number of hikes,

00:51:54 Speaker 09: and the anecdote that he felt was most important to share is that his very first day on the job was the day of the solar eclipse in two thousand twenty-four.

00:52:06 Speaker 09: So talk about a dramatic welcome to town.

00:52:10 Speaker 09: Finally, we have born and raised in Owen Sound, Chef Zach Kesich, who I swear is going to be our first Michelin star.

00:52:20 Speaker 09: Chef Zach Kishik's restaurant Noagan began as a pop up in the Owen Sound Farmers Market, and now has a brick and mortar location right on Tenth Avenue, or Tenth Street.

00:52:33 Speaker 09: And his efforts to incorporate like local foraging into his work is truly extraordinary.

00:52:41 Speaker 09: This is a person who has been professionally trained in Paris and all over, and he has chosen to invest in Owen Sound,

00:52:51 Speaker 09: and I felt that it was very important to highlight the story of Nawagin in particular because this is a person who was born and raised here, went away for their education,

00:53:01 Speaker 09: but you know began culinary school right here at Georgian College as well.

00:53:06 Speaker 09: So a really beautiful success story, and I encourage you all to check it out.

00:53:13 Speaker 09: Can you go next slide?

00:53:18 Speaker 09: Okay.

00:53:20 Speaker 09: So within the profile, we do a lot of storytelling.

00:53:23 Speaker 09: We felt that it was important to have people get to know our community through the stories of people who really live, work, and study here.

00:53:30 Speaker 09: However, we still needed to ensure that we are representing our community to the economic development community and investors, and that's where we come to our "Where You Want to Work" page.

00:53:44 Speaker 09: We included a few key demographics, and then this is a really great example of the QR codes that are peppered throughout the profile, which lead people directly to our website,

00:53:56 Speaker 09: where they can be integrated into our online environment and access real-time information that we can update on a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual basis at any point that we choose.

00:54:08 Speaker 09: We really tried to focus on putting evergreen content into the profile itself for any of the print materials, and then have any content that would need to be edited or amended hosted online,

00:54:21 Speaker 09: so that we can easily ensure that all of the information we are providing to people is as accurate and up to date as possible.

00:54:30 Speaker 09: So, with the QR code, I would also like to draw your attention to a couple of the design elements.

00:54:37 Speaker 09: Nash designed this circular text feature to mimic the interior of the "O" for Owen Sound.

00:54:45 Speaker 09: So little things like that that really, I think, speak to like this, you know, kind of more refined.

00:54:52 Speaker 09: Like it really makes us look good.

00:54:54 Speaker 09: And the mug—it may seem photoshopped, but I brought it with me here today.

00:55:01 Speaker 09: This mug was actually designed by our very own communications advisor, Carly McArthur, who did a great job, and it was gifted to staff as part of the 2024 holiday lunch as a token of appreciation.

00:55:15 Speaker 09: So this is a real mug and a real cafe, and it is not photoshopped, and I would like to emphasize that.

00:55:22 Speaker 09: Yep.

00:55:26 Speaker 09: Thank you.

00:55:27 Speaker 09: Okay.

00:55:28 Speaker 09: And finally, I would like to draw your attention to our website, and I believe with Nicole's help, we have a live demonstration.

00:55:40 Speaker 09: Voila!

00:55:41 Speaker 09: Okay, so everything on this website can be adapted.

00:55:47 Speaker 09: We are going to continue to add content over time and amend this to really highlight like a good, positive user experience.

00:55:55 Speaker 09: We tried to make the profile as accessible as possible.

00:56:00 Speaker 09: I personally went through and added alt text to every single image on the community profile site, including all of the data tables, which I will show you shortly.

00:56:10 Speaker 09: So here you can see we have an embedded version of the print edition created through Issue,

00:56:18 Speaker 09: so anyone can view the print edition online and flip through and see the stories and really get that sense of who we are.

00:56:27 Speaker 09: And I would just like to pause on this page for a moment.

00:56:31 Speaker 09: In terms of telling about our community's history, we were very grateful to have consulted with another committee member, Trish Meekins,

00:56:41 Speaker 09: and Saganawej Nation and other partners to really position our history at a different point than we have before.

00:56:49 Speaker 09: We are taking inspiration from the Gitche Gumee Wicwadong Reconciliation Garden as a space for reflection,

00:56:56 Speaker 09: both on our past as a community and on our future as a community that's going into the future together and building an idea of what we want our community to be.

00:57:07 Speaker 09: So with that,

00:57:08 Speaker 09: we kind of bring our timeline of our community back to the original Nez Wash village to honour and commemorate the fact that people have been gathering on this land for thousands of years.

00:57:20 Speaker 09: All right.

00:57:21 Speaker 09: So with that, I'm going to take you to the data page.

00:57:23 Speaker 09: Thank you, Nicole.

00:57:26 Speaker 09: Once again, you can see our beautiful mug.

00:57:29 Speaker 09: And on this page, you get a sense of a few more of the data figures.

00:57:37 Speaker 09: So, if you want to scroll down a bit further, Nicole, you have some key insights.

00:57:43 Speaker 09: And then in this section here, we've actually used our EnviroNics analytics abilities to pull some key data tables.

00:57:54 Speaker 09: If you want to just pop onto housing and income, so it scrolls down to the data table, and we didn't just pull the figures for Owen Sound.

00:58:05 Speaker 09: We pulled the figures for Owen Sound plus Owen Sound within a drive time of thirty minutes, and Owen Sound within a drive time of one hour.

00:58:14 Speaker 09: So this provides the context, which is necessary for our community, that we aren't just supporting the economic development of our own residents.

00:58:24 Speaker 09: Owen Sound is truly a region.

00:58:25 Speaker 09: Is truly a regional hub for employment, healthcare, community services, and various other amenities that are really critical to Grey County and the surrounding area.

00:58:38 Speaker 09: So, if you continue to scroll, yeah, scroll down.

00:58:43 Speaker 09: There's a lot of charts.

00:58:45 Speaker 09: Well, there's only six because I tried not to get too carried away with the data.

00:58:51 Speaker 09: There's also a drive time map just below here.

00:58:56 Speaker 09: Actually, yeah.

00:58:57 Speaker 09: Could you pause on this one and just show them the maps?

00:59:00 Speaker 09: So Owen Sound that's a thirty-minute drive time radius, and a sixty-minute drive time radius.

00:59:10 Speaker 09: All right.

00:59:10 Speaker 09: And then if you scroll down further here, you can see that on Walk Score we have an overall score of thirty-seven,

00:59:18 Speaker 09: but our River District actually has a Walk Score of eighty-six and a Bike Score of sixty-five.

00:59:24 Speaker 09: Which means that the infrastructure that we are investing into makes our community very attractive to the kinds of young urban residents who are getting priced out of housing markets in larger cities and might be

00:59:37 Speaker 09: looking for the kind of town that has all of the big city amenities with the small town charm of those communities,

00:59:45 Speaker 09: like the one that I moved here from in Toronto.

00:59:48 Speaker 09: And if you want to scroll down, you can see the interactive tables that Grey County is creating for us.

00:59:54 Speaker 09: This one will eventually have other metrics, and you can watch the community grow by using the tabs in the upper right-hand corner to view different years.

01:00:06 Speaker 09: So you can see our population growing over time.

01:00:09 Speaker 09: These are based on statistical projections, so they may not be accurate, but it's based on a variety of calculations and variables.

01:00:18 Speaker 09: But this is the most recent and accurate and up-to-date data, and this table will be updated live whenever our colleagues at Grey County update the figures on their end.

01:00:30 Speaker 09: And if you want to scroll down one more, yes.

01:00:34 Speaker 09: And this is the Grey County Census Dashboard, where you can view key demographic and population information about all nine member municipalities within Grey County, as well as the county as a whole.

01:00:49 Speaker 09: So once again, this is just an example of how we have the print edition of the profile, which takes a more storytelling-based approach.

01:00:57 Speaker 09: But we are still ensuring that partners can access the kind of data and information that they need to know key things about our community, and you know,

01:01:05 Speaker 09: really plant the curiosity seeds that are going to help them to get to know us on a deeper level.

01:01:14 Speaker 09: All right, so.

01:01:21 Speaker 09: And one thing that I would just like to finish by highlighting is that Kalina Sanford, who is an economic development officer at Grey County, has become the data expert for all of the member municipalities,

01:01:36 Speaker 09: hosting a monthly data meetup where she's teaching us how to use these tools and integrate them into our own websites and our own reports and practices.

01:01:47 Speaker 09: And this is like an invaluable resource.

01:01:50 Speaker 09: I cannot highlight enough how critical Kalina has been to the development of this community profile.

01:01:56 Speaker 09: So I would just like to thank Grey County for offering their resources and support, and continuing to build the team and helping us all work together.

01:02:07 Speaker 09: All right, and I believe that's it for me.

01:02:12 Speaker 09: I feel like I'm sure that people might have a couple of questions.

01:02:15 Speaker 09: In fact, I hope you do.

01:02:17 Speaker 09: But yeah, I will leave my presentation there.

01:02:20 Speaker 09: This is a report that's recommended for you to receive for information purposes.

01:02:25 Speaker 09: As the community profile is already out in Ottawa with the Mayor, we are doing a soft launch this week, and we hope to do the official launch the week of the twenty-eighth.

01:02:37 Speaker 09: Thank you, Rebecca.

01:02:37 Speaker 09: That's a lot, and it's very impressive.

01:02:40 Speaker 09: Looking around the table, Lance.

01:02:45 Speaker 09: I am just thrilled with what I'm seeing here.

01:02:47 Speaker 10: The fact that you got the web-based as well as this lovely storytelling hands-on document is great.

01:02:57 Speaker 10: So exceptional work.

01:02:58 Speaker 10: Kudos to everyone involved, and I see it improving over the next little while.

01:03:04 Speaker 10: Two comments.

01:03:05 Speaker 10: Really pleased to see that you've actually shown a picture of the hospital, healthcare, and the hospital in particular, given my history, has always been underplayed for some reason when it comes to economic development,

01:03:19 Speaker 10: and it is a big economic driver for the region, not just the city.

01:03:23 Speaker 10: So the fact you've highlighted it with an MRI, beautiful.

01:03:26 Speaker 10: More of that, please.

01:03:28 Speaker 10: The impact of the hospital and healthcare on this city in this region is massive, and we underplay it somehow for some reason.

01:03:35 Speaker 10: Don't understand it.

01:03:36 Speaker 10: Secondly, just the notion of the population of Owen Sound, 22,000.

01:03:42 Speaker 10: If you look at the greater Owen Sound area, it's like 35 or 40.

01:03:46 Speaker 10: And I know yes, small is good, but maybe somehow putting it in the context of that bigger, 35,000, just might add a little more.

01:03:54 Speaker 10: There's more to Owen Sound than just the municipal boundaries, and I get the importance of municipal boundaries, but there's much more out there, and it certainly attracts investment and people and interest.

01:04:07 Speaker 10: So those are just the two comments I see initially.

01:04:10 Speaker 10: Otherwise, fabulous, fabulous.

01:04:17 Speaker 10: Other members, Morgan.

01:04:21 Speaker 06: Just echoing what Lance said is, this is fantastic.

01:04:25 Speaker 06: I teach data analytics at Conestoga, and this is amazing.

01:04:30 Speaker 06: I'm so happy to see it.

01:04:31 Speaker 06: I love that it is real-time that you can click and see.

01:04:35 Speaker 06: I've helped a couple smaller organisations try to position Owen Sound as a place where people want to come work, and this is exactly what we've been waiting for.

01:04:47 Speaker 06: We were trying to go to videos.

01:04:49 Speaker 06: We're linking to the website.

01:04:50 Speaker 06: I think it's wonderful.

01:04:51 Speaker 06: It's exactly what we need.

01:04:52 Speaker 06: One small comment is: I know on our website we have about Owen Sound or living in Owen Sound, and then this one is technically under the business development.

01:05:03 Speaker 06: I'd like to see it under the about Owen Sound as well.

01:05:06 Speaker 06: I know sometimes you have both hyperlinked in both areas, only because as an employee or new person coming to Owen Sound, you'd kind of go.

01:05:15 Speaker 06: You'd want to go to that about page, but that's the only comment I have on that.

01:05:19 Speaker 06: But otherwise, amazing job, Sunid.

01:05:24 Speaker 06: Through you, Madam Chair, just a quick comment that this is a very refreshing piece of information, and I couldn't have imagined a better community profile picture than these.

01:05:37 Speaker 11: Thank you for putting up an excellent report, and I'm hoping that in the future as well, with any major changes and with the data that Grey County puts in,

01:05:46 Speaker 11: it'll be updated from time to time.

01:05:48 Speaker 11: Great, and with that, I'm happy to move the recommendation as well.

01:05:52 Speaker 03: John, through the Chair, I'll echo all of the positive comments.

01:05:57 Speaker 03: I love Owen Sound, and it's great to have tools to help us spread that story.

01:06:01 Speaker 03: And I'm really impressed that you've been able to pull this off in just a few months.

01:06:06 Speaker 03: You've really hit the ground running, so props for that.

01:06:10 Speaker 03: Any other comments, Travis?

01:06:13 Speaker 03: Ali?

01:06:14 Speaker 03: Oh, yeah.

01:06:14 Speaker 03: I'm sorry, Ali.

01:06:15 Speaker 03: Go ahead.

01:06:16 Speaker 03: No problem.

01:06:17 Speaker 03: Again, I'm just echoing similar praise for this.

01:06:20 Speaker 03: This is a great document.

01:06:21 Speaker 04: This is something when I was moving to Owen Sound, I would have turned to and felt really enthusiastic about my decision and my experience.

01:06:31 Speaker 04: It's reflected in what you have put there.

01:06:33 Speaker 04: So I think it's a great way to showcase what the community offers.

01:06:39 Speaker 04: Thank you.

01:06:40 Speaker 02: One of the most impressive pictures I think is this one.

01:06:44 Speaker 02: It just shows we have a lot of trees, we have good residential area, we have a river going through us.

01:06:50 Speaker 02: It's wonderful.

01:06:51 Speaker 02: It's a great neighbourhood.

01:06:52 Speaker 02: It is.

01:06:52 Speaker 02: I noticed someone's house on there.

01:06:58 Speaker 02: I noticed that.

01:07:00 Speaker 02: So we have a motion on the floor to receive the information.

01:07:06 Speaker 02: All those in favour of that motion, that's carried.

01:07:09 Speaker 02: Thank you so much for your enthusiasm, Rebecca, and for all the people who had a hand in making this document.

01:07:17 Speaker 02: Thank you.

01:07:25 Speaker 02: Just move on to the next item here, which is a report from the Events and Activation Coordinator, Jen, and we're so excited to hear about the 2025 events.

01:07:39 Speaker 02: Thank you.

01:07:40 Speaker 02: Good evening, Chair and Committee.

01:07:42 Speaker 02: This report, the purpose of this report, CS Twenty-Five-Dash-Zero-Three-Nine, is to update the Community Services Committee on the 2025 events for information purposes.

01:07:53 Speaker 02: The City Events Department oversees a number of free events each year that are supported by tax levy sponsorship and donations.

01:07:59 Speaker 12: First up is the Home and Cottage Expo, which is a partnership between the City of Owen Sound, the Greater Home Builders Association, and the Knights of Columbus.

01:08:07 Speaker 12: The Expo will take place Saturday, May third, and Sunday, May fourth, at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre and J.D. MacArthur Arena, from ten a.m. to four p.m. on both days.

01:08:16 Speaker 12: The event will feature up to four hundred and forty indoor and outdoor exhibitors from across Ontario, including businesses, interactive displays, green energy solutions, municipal building officials, and a kids zone.

01:08:27 Speaker 12: Visitors can explore outdoor furniture, sheds, equipment, vehicles, and local home-based businesses.

01:08:33 Speaker 12: This year's expo highlights the Ask the Expert panel, which is new, featuring top professionals sharing insights on home renovations, cottage ownership, and sustainable smart home trends.

01:08:45 Speaker 12: The city's development team will have a space at the show with information about building permits for renovations, sheds, decks, new builds, and be able to respond to questions.

01:08:53 Speaker 12: Environmental Services will also be attending with information on the new Green Bin programme, which will be featured in the Green Energy section, as well as the Tourism Division, the Tom Thomson District.

01:09:04 Speaker 12: Following the success of its reimagined format, next up we have Midweek Music, formerly Music at the Market, returns Wednesdays from 4:30 to 6, running June 18 to September 10th,

01:09:15 Speaker 12: at various accessible locations in Owen Sound, including the Farmers Market, River District, DRP2 Boardwalk, the gazebo at the Bayshore, Owensound Farmers Market, and more.

01:09:26 Speaker 12: The series will be promoted via social media, Spotify, local radio, and printed rack cards featuring a musician lineup.

01:09:33 Speaker 12: Sponsorship packages released in early February have received a positive response.

01:09:37 Speaker 12: In case of inclement weather, performances will move to the Harmony Centre.

01:09:42 Speaker 12: Now in its twenty-seventh year, Harbor Nights returns with live Sunday concerts at 7 p.m. from June 1st to August 10th on the West Waterfront near the Rail Museum and the Community Waterfront Heritage Centre,

01:09:53 Speaker 12: with the final night featuring two shows at 4 and 7 p.m.

01:09:57 Speaker 12: This event is presented by TD Bank with a $5,500 sponsorship, and all individual evening sponsorships have been secured at $600 each.

01:10:06 Speaker 12: The event will be promoted through social media, media releases, newsletters, website, radio, print materials, and distributed to local businesses and tourism offices.

01:10:15 Speaker 12: And again, in case of inclement weather, we have secured the Harmony Centre.

01:10:20 Speaker 12: Doors open Ontario, which is a free province-wide heritage tourism programme, returns to Owen Sound on Saturday, June 24th, and with a whopping eighteen sites this year in Owen Sound,

01:10:31 Speaker 12: we open from 10 to 4 on that Saturday, which includes the Billy Bishop Museum, Tom Thomson Art Gallery, the CFOS Radio Station's eighty-fifth birthday celebration, and more.

01:10:42 Speaker 12: The day begins at 5:30 a.m. with the sunrise ceremony at the Reconciliation Garden, marking the summer solstice and National Indigenous Peoples Day.

01:10:51 Speaker 12: Each venue will provide volunteers with the city offering training, signage, and promotion.

01:10:54 Speaker 12: Doors open Ontario will be promoted via social media, websites, and local radio, and all sites are featured on the provincial Doors Open Heritage Canada website.

01:11:04 Speaker 12: Then we're on to Canada Day.

01:11:06 Speaker 12: Canada Day celebrations will be held on Tuesday, July 1st, at Kelso Beach at Nawash Park, with the gates opening this year at 10 a.m.

01:11:14 Speaker 12: This free all-day event will feature entertainment, food, craft vendors, kids' activities, and fireworks to close the night.

01:11:20 Speaker 12: Highlights include opening act Gracie Jet with official ceremonies and Canada's Rock of Fame, a tribute concert at the amphitheater showcasing iconic Canadian music performed by our amazing local musicians.

01:11:35 Speaker 12: Sponsorship packages were shared through the online process, and the event will proceed rain or shine unless emergency services advise otherwise.

01:11:44 Speaker 12: Outdoor family movie nights will take place on five dates this year: July 25th, August 8th and 22nd, October 25th, and November 25th, with free evening screenings in park neighborhoods with public washrooms.

01:11:56 Speaker 12: Following last year's summer success, we've decided to do an October-November event, which will feature Halloween and holiday theme movies, and will be in partnership with the River District.

01:12:07 Speaker 12: One will take place at the Farmers Market, and the second will be out front in front of City Hall.

01:12:12 Speaker 12: And again, sponsorship packages have been shared with local businesses.

01:12:18 Speaker 12: Our last event for the year, which is our annual New Year's family celebration,

01:12:22 Speaker 12: will take place on December 31st from 12 to 4 at the Julia MacArthur Recreation Centre in partnership with the Family Y. This free, family-friendly event includes skating, swimming, entertainment, and crafts, offering a safe,

01:12:34 Speaker 12: inclusive space for all ages to celebrate together—a cherished tradition in Owen Sound.

01:12:38 Speaker 12: It encourages physical activity and flexible participation, attracting many families each year.

01:12:44 Speaker 12: The 2025 event series, planned, marketed, and developed by the city staff, reflects and achieves several strategic goals and targets in the strategic plan.

01:12:53 Speaker 12: The city also prides itself in offering free, inclusive events to the community and surrounding area.

01:12:59 Speaker 12: We have a busy year ahead, and I hope to see you all out enjoying the many events the city offers.

01:13:03 Speaker 12: Talk to the visitors that venture to our beautiful city, and be sure to share with them all that our city has to offer.

01:13:08 Speaker 12: Thank you.

01:13:11 Speaker 12: Thank you, Jen.

01:13:11 Speaker 02: And it sounds like you've got a busy year ahead of you too, organising all these events.

01:13:18 Speaker 02: Questions, comments, motion, Travis.

01:13:24 Speaker 02: Thank you, Madam Chair.

01:13:26 Speaker 08: I just want to say, first of all, thank you, Jen, for you and your team for the amount of work that your department does.

01:13:34 Speaker 08: Just reading that out loud is a lot of different things that makes a lot of people happy, and has a big impact on a large number of people.

01:13:42 Speaker 08: Also, into consideration, everything has a sponsorship package.

01:13:47 Speaker 08: So we talk about every year, every budget that we go through.

01:13:49 Speaker 08: The council goes through.

01:13:50 Speaker 08: This committee is now seeing the operating side of the costs and the strains that this has.

01:13:55 Speaker 08: And your department does a fantastic job to run all these events with the sponsorship packages you do.

01:13:59 Speaker 08: So I think you deserve a lot of credit for being able to do all this for the cost that we pay as a city.

01:14:06 Speaker 08: And we've got to thank all of those businesses in our community that are supporting these events going forward, so I'd be happy to move the recommendation.

01:14:14 Speaker 08: My only question for you, and I probably should have asked it on one of the 2024 events in your review, but with regard to the outdoor movie nights,

01:14:23 Speaker 08: I know last year it was neighborhoods voted on where they went and what they wanted, and I noticed this year it was going to be more in proximity to a public washroom.

01:14:33 Speaker 08: So could you just provide a little bit of feedback on kind of something or what has changed from last year to this year on that event, for sure?

01:14:41 Speaker 08: Through the chair.

01:14:42 Speaker 12: So we didn't have a lot of buy-in from the local neighborhoods to actually do the voting process.

01:14:47 Speaker 12: A few of them we had to just put them out there ourselves, and then there wasn't really community support to want to volunteer to help at those events.

01:14:55 Speaker 12: So one of them was so far out at the soccer fields, which we thought at the beginning was a great idea, but we only ended up with about 25 kids.

01:15:05 Speaker 12: It was real.

01:15:06 Speaker 12: It's really difficult, especially since we dealt with a lot of inclement weather.

01:15:10 Speaker 12: I would say last year we spent a lot of time at the Harmony Centre and indoors, and ended up having to cancel and reschedule.

01:15:16 Speaker 12: So, using the Farmers Market and then with City Hall proximity to the Farmers Market for those fall/winter events also allows us to go inside if we have to.

01:15:26 Speaker 12: So for those two, that's what we considered.

01:15:31 Speaker 12: Thank you.

01:15:31 Speaker 12: Other comments, John.

01:15:34 Speaker 12: Thank you, through the chair.

01:15:35 Speaker 03: Just building off of that, for the concerts, they have a location inside.

01:15:40 Speaker 03: It doesn't—I thought I read that the movie nights are just a wash if the weather turns bad.

01:15:46 Speaker 03: Is there a reason for that difference between the movie and music, other than the musicians are probably already here?

01:15:55 Speaker 03: Through the chair.

01:15:56 Speaker 12: So yes, we have a massive blow-up screen that we use, and that blow-up screen won't fit into some rooms.

01:16:06 Speaker 12: We can go to the Bayshore; they do have a pull-down screen, so that is a backup.

01:16:11 Speaker 12: It all just depends on the timing and the weather.

01:16:13 Speaker 12: And does that help?

01:16:18 Speaker 12: Maybe.

01:16:21 Speaker 12: Yes, through the chair again.

01:16:22 Speaker 12: Yeah, maybe in terms of like...

01:16:24 Speaker 03: I thought I read that it's like there is no plan for a rain date, but are we considering that if we're advertising, getting sponsors for movies anyway, to set an indoor location?

01:16:34 Speaker 03: I'm conscious that I might not totally understand the amount of work that it takes to shift on a dime like that.

01:16:41 Speaker 03: Through you, chair.

01:16:43 Speaker 12: The one thing that I don't like doing is cancelling or rescheduling.

01:16:46 Speaker 12: That is the most complicated.

01:16:48 Speaker 12: I'd rather just try to do it somewhere else.

01:16:50 Speaker 12: So it would all depend.

01:16:52 Speaker 12: I hate to say that they're going to be rescheduled because it's a matter of also having to find somewhere to go.

01:16:57 Speaker 12: The farmers market is a great spot.

01:16:59 Speaker 12: The Bayshore is a great spot, but if they're already booked, then it's hard to do that last minute.

01:17:04 Speaker 12: And the agreement that we have with the Harmony Centre is on the Wednesdays and the Sundays, so we can go there.

01:17:11 Speaker 12: But I just hate to promise that if we don't have a place for us to be and to go.

01:17:16 Speaker 12: So that would be a decision we'd have to make on that day.

01:17:21 Speaker 12: Thank you.

01:17:21 Speaker 12: Other comments?

01:17:22 Speaker 12: Questions?

01:17:24 Speaker 12: Seeing none.

01:17:25 Speaker 02: Dodd has moved the motion, which is to receive the report.

01:17:29 Speaker 02: All those in favour?

01:17:31 Speaker 02: That's carried.

01:17:32 Speaker 02: Thank you very much, Jen.

01:17:35 Speaker 02: Next, we have a verbal report from the Manager of Planning and Heritage regarding the Community Improvement Plan grants.

01:17:45 Speaker 02: Sabine, go ahead.

01:17:50 Speaker 02: Thank you, and through you, Chair.

01:17:53 Speaker 02: So, my first verbal report is in regards to the Community Improvement Plan applications that we approved in 2024.

01:18:01 Speaker 02: Oh, and I need to move my thing here.

01:18:04 Speaker 02: Sorry.

01:18:08 Speaker 02: So just very quickly, for a little bit of background, the City adopted a new Community Improvement Plan in 2020.

01:18:14 Speaker 02: So it's not so new anymore.

01:18:16 Speaker 02: It includes a total of twelve programmes, of which there are five active capital grant programmes, and this presentation will focus on those grant programmes.

01:18:36 Speaker 02: Sorry.

01:18:38 Speaker 02: The presentation will focus on the Accessibility Improvement Grant, Facade and Structural Improvement Grant, and the Startup Space Leasehold and Improvement Programme.

01:18:50 Speaker 02: For the 2024 year, we did not receive any applications for the Landscape and Property Improvement Grant programme or the Vacant Building and Conversion Expansion Grant.

01:19:00 Speaker 13: The tax incentive programmes listed on the right-hand side are processed under sort of a different process, and so we report on them differently.

01:19:09 Speaker 13: At a glance, in 2024, the CIP budget and reserve funds facilitated the approval of eleven grant applications, including two Accessibility Improvement Grants, two Startup Space Leasehold Improvement Grants, and seven Facade and Structural Improvement Grants.

01:19:30 Speaker 13: The yes, sorry.

01:19:35 Speaker 13: The City Council, through their budget process, approved a $60,000 operating budget for the CIP Grant Programme in 2024, and we're really excited to announce that in 2024, that budget was fully spent.

01:19:50 Speaker 13: Last year, there was strong interest in the capital grant programmes, and an additional $20,000 was withdrawn from the CIP reserve to fund the eligible applications.

01:20:04 Speaker 13: As a quick summary, in 2024, the project value of all CIP Grant applications approved was approximately $360,000, and the total estimated value of grants was $67,163,

01:20:20 Speaker 13: which amounts to that for every one dollar invested by the City, five dollars and forty-three cents were invested by the grant applicants.

01:20:32 Speaker 13: The City's investment is leveraged and multiplied five times over by the private investment.

01:20:40 Speaker 13: So the next few slides will go through the individual grant programmes.

01:20:45 Speaker 13: The purpose of the first one is the Accessibility Improvement Grant.

01:20:49 Speaker 13: The purpose of this grant is to promote improvements to properties for the purpose of enhancing accessibility.

01:20:55 Speaker 13: The programme guidelines provide for a capital grant up to 50% of eligible costs, to a maximum of $10,000, whichever is less.

01:21:03 Speaker 13: And two grant applications in regards to accessibility were approved in 2024.

01:21:10 Speaker 13: One for Sunday Service at 945 Second Avenue East, and one for New East, and one for the BME Church at 245 Eleventh Street West.

01:21:19 Speaker 13: The BME Church has not constructed the ramp at this time, but the agreement with the City provides for a September 2025 timeline to finish the accessibility work.

01:21:29 Speaker 13: So we were not anticipating for those works to be completed in 2024.

01:21:35 Speaker 13: In regards to the Startup Space Leasehold programme,

01:21:40 Speaker 13: it's intended to assist new businesses and startup companies to set up shop by providing grants for the financing of permanent leasehold improvements to commercial or mixed-use spaces that increase the marketability of the property and

01:21:52 Speaker 13: commercial rental units.

01:21:54 Speaker 13: And the two approved grants from last year are really great examples of this.

01:22:00 Speaker 13: This is not a grant that you easily see on the outside.

01:22:04 Speaker 13: So Noggin Dining provided upgrades to electrical services and interior painting, and Upwards Art Studio did upgrades to their electrical services as well, making existing spaces usable in 2025.

01:22:21 Speaker 13: The Facade and Structural Improvement Grant programme is to encourage restoration and rehabilitation of street-facing exterior buildings within the City's downtown and harbour area, as well as properties that are on the City's heritage register.

01:22:36 Speaker 13: This is by far the most popular programme, and we approved seven facade grants.

01:22:44 Speaker 13: There's the quick listing of them, and this is always the exciting part where we can show you the before and after picture of some of the finished grants.

01:22:56 Speaker 13: So the first one is the Bluewater Quilters on Second Avenue East.

01:23:01 Speaker 13: They installed new fascia sign and repaired and painted the wooden paneling on the front facade.

01:23:07 Speaker 13: The Wallers Optical, which is the former Oretsky First Store, went through heritage designation process in the last couple years, and continues to invest in their property by completing several improvements,

01:23:24 Speaker 13: including the replacement of the flat roof, repointing portions of the brick wall, and repainting the trim around the doors and windows in accordance with a heritage permit.

01:23:35 Speaker 13: This one is probably the most exciting one.

01:23:37 Speaker 13: I think the most significant improvement and dramatic change to appearance.

01:23:43 Speaker 13: Sunday Service.

01:23:44 Speaker 13: It's the former Bleeding Carrot.

01:23:47 Speaker 13: Did facade work, which resulted in a significant improvement, and renovations that are sympathetic with the original facade.

01:23:55 Speaker 13: So, on the left is the before.

01:23:58 Speaker 13: On the right is the after, and this one shows the before.

01:24:02 Speaker 13: Before, so historic picture of this amazing building that is coming back to life with help of the CIP grants, and then finally the former Photo Art also received a facade grant,

01:24:16 Speaker 13: and you can see the improvements with what some new windows can do to a facade.

01:24:21 Speaker 13: So that's exciting to see as well.

01:24:23 Speaker 13: In summary, the recommendation is that in consideration of the verbal report provided on April 16th, 2025, from the Manager of Planning and Heritage respecting the 2024 approved Community Improvement Plan applications.

01:24:37 Speaker 13: The Community Services Committee recommends that City Council receive the verbal report for information purposes, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

01:24:46 Speaker 13: Thank you, Sabine.

01:24:47 Speaker 13: John, you have a question.

01:24:49 Speaker 13: Thank you, through the Chair.

01:24:50 Speaker 03: I just note that one of the buildings that received the grant, specific to internal electrical work: are those grants applied for by the commercial tenants or by the building owner?

01:25:02 Speaker 03: Or by the building owners, recognizing that one of those businesses just this week is moving out of its current location.

01:25:10 Speaker 03: Sorry, I don't know which one that is.

01:25:15 Speaker 13: Okay, so the improvements can be applied for by either the tenant or by the property owner, and one of the qualifiers for receiving the grant is that they are improvements that stay with the property,

01:25:33 Speaker 13: so that the next tenant can take advantage of those improvements as well.

01:25:39 Speaker 13: Other questions?

01:25:42 Speaker 13: Looking for someone to move the motion.

01:25:45 Speaker 13: Travis.

01:25:46 Speaker 13: All those in favour?

01:25:48 Speaker 13: That's carried.

01:25:49 Speaker 13: Thank you, Sabine, for that information.

01:25:52 Speaker 02: And you have a second report on development update.

01:26:03 Speaker 02: Before you begin, can I just ask: Will these slides be embedded into the agenda for later?

01:26:08 Speaker 02: Okay, thanks.

01:26:12 Speaker 02: Thank you.

01:26:12 Speaker 13: Through you, Madam Chair, the purpose of this presentation is to provide an update on the Planning Act applications processed in 2024.

01:26:21 Speaker 13: Last year, at around this time, Jackie, the Senior Planner, presented the 2023 version of this presentation, and we thought it would be a good exercise to do this annually,

01:26:31 Speaker 13: so that as a Committee and then through you to Council,

01:26:35 Speaker 13: we can give you a bit of a snapshot of the work that sort of happened behind the scenes in the planning world within the City in the last year.

01:26:48 Speaker 13: As a quick agenda, we'll work our way through sort of the draft approved plans of subdivisions, site plan approvals, zoning by-law amendments, and we'll also talk about, which is different from last year,

01:26:59 Speaker 13: pre-consultations that we do with developers, and then speak a little bit to the Committee of Adjustment.

01:27:05 Speaker 13: The Committee of Adjustment is a significant portion of our work on a monthly basis, and I'm not sure that either the Committee or Council really hears about that very much.

01:27:16 Speaker 13: So I think that's important to hear, and then some of the anticipated applications that we're expecting to receive in the next few months and over the course of the rest of the year.

01:27:28 Speaker 13: This is just a takeout from the presentation or from the development update from last month, and it gives a snapshot of Planning Act applications that were received in 2024,

01:27:41 Speaker 13: which is on the left in blue, and versus 2023, which is green on the right.

01:27:47 Speaker 13: And so you can see that across the board, there was a significant increase in applications that we received and processed over 2024 in a wide range of planning application types.

01:28:09 Speaker 13: The draft plans of subdivisions have gone through the Planning Act process.

01:28:15 Speaker 13: They've received draft approval with conditions, which basically means that they need to address a number of conditions before they can receive final approval, register the lots, and start to build on them.

01:28:28 Speaker 13: I think this is fairly similar from last year, and I'll go through these fairly quickly because you've seen them before.

01:28:36 Speaker 13: But basically, they're on the southeast side of the City, on the north and south side of Eighth Street East, and sorry, just skip this across all three draft-approved subdivisions,

01:28:52 Speaker 13: and there's a bit of a snapshot of them here.

01:28:54 Speaker 13: That doesn't include completely Telford Creek to the north.

01:28:57 Speaker 13: There are 1,410 residential units proposed among the three developments, and it'll essentially result in a newly defined neighbourhood within the City's east side.

01:29:08 Speaker 13: All three developers are working towards fulfilling their conditions of approval, and like I said, registering the subdivisions.

01:29:17 Speaker 13: It is a large and complex process because you are creating new neighbourhoods, and so it does take sometimes a bit longer than what we would originally think to go through those processes.

01:29:34 Speaker 13: The next portion is the site plan approval, and I'll just give a quick overview of what site plan approval is and a bit of history,

01:29:44 Speaker 13: so that as we work our way through these different examples, that maybe helps you understand them.

01:29:50 Speaker 13: So, site plan approval is a technical review process whereby City staff confirm consistencies with the policies of the PPS, the County Official Plan, and the City Official Plan,

01:29:59 Speaker 13: and confirm that the requirements of the City Zoning By-law, site development engineering standards, and requirements of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act are met.

01:30:09 Speaker 13: Previously, site plan applications did require approval by Council.

01:30:13 Speaker 13: However, over the last year or so, the Province has made legislative amendments to the Planning Act under Bill 109, which mandate that approval of site plan applications be delegated to staff.

01:30:27 Speaker 13: Approved site plan applications continue to be shared with the Committee and Council for information purposes in the interest of transparency.

01:30:34 Speaker 13: So, approval is often, or pretty much always, granted subject to conditions, including any required revisions to the submitted plans and studies,

01:30:44 Speaker 13: and that the owner enters into a site plan agreement with the City that is registered on title of the property.

01:30:50 Speaker 13: If the development requires significant offsite improvements to occur on City property, like the extension of municipal services, a service agreement may also be required.

01:31:01 Speaker 13: The next few slides illustrate site plan approvals that have assigned site plan agreement securities and stamp plans.

01:31:07 Speaker 13: These proposals are shovel-ready; that is, they are ready to apply for building permits, and in some cases, they actually have already applied for build.

01:31:11 Speaker 13: Actually, we have already applied for building permits, so I'll just take you through them quickly.

01:31:16 Speaker 13: So, the first one, also noted in last year's presentation, is 3195 East Bayshore Road, which is the SkyDeck development in the city's northeast quadrant.

01:31:30 Speaker 13: It consists of eight six-story apartment buildings containing 89 dwelling units each, for a total of more than 700 dwelling units.

01:31:39 Speaker 13: These are some of the renderings of the building.

01:31:40 Speaker 13: Renderings of the buildings, and like I mentioned, this application now has a site plan agreement registered on title, and therefore they are ready for a building permit.

01:31:57 Speaker 13: The next one is 1,144 First Avenue West.

01:32:01 Speaker 13: This is the former BCK site.

01:32:02 Speaker 13: It also has site plan approval and an agreement registered on title.

01:32:08 Speaker 13: It'll provide for six four-story apartment buildings containing a total of 20 to 24 dwelling units.

01:32:18 Speaker 13: They have applied for building permits, and so we're excited to see what will happen this summer on site.

01:32:26 Speaker 13: Next is 2125 16th Street East, which is the Heritage Grove site.

01:32:31 Speaker 13: The development includes a 35,000 square foot grocery store, a thousand square foot grocery store, and a fourteen thousand square foot retail pet food store, and if you've driven past that area,

01:32:44 Speaker 13: you see that those buildings are now under construction, and so that's very exciting to see.

01:32:51 Speaker 13: This next one is sorry, the picture is a little outdated because our air photos are four years old at this point, and we're anticipating new ones to come in the next year or so.

01:33:03 Speaker 13: But this is commercial development at the corner of Tenth Street East.

01:33:05 Speaker 13: At the corner of 10th Street East and 16th Avenue East, it's a 492 square metre office building, and it will contain offices,

01:33:18 Speaker 13: and it's in a way the extension of the existing commercial development at the corner of 16th Street East and 16th Avenue East, and so this is a Google Air Photo shot,

01:33:31 Speaker 13: which is a little bit more recent than ours, and it's really exciting to see this area of the city because it's seen significant development in the last five years, with the East Court Residences subdivision,

01:33:43 Speaker 13: which includes various forms of townhouse developments, a senior residence, and a nursing home, and so we have the development of the commercial office building,

01:33:54 Speaker 13: as well as a hotel and a multi-unit commercial building on adjacent lands that are anticipated to continue this year.

01:34:04 Speaker 13: So, here's a quick site plan of the picture with some air photos.

01:34:10 Speaker 13: There, okay.

01:34:13 Speaker 13: Then we have the next one.

01:34:16 Speaker 13: These are developments that have conditional site plan approval.

01:34:20 Speaker 13: So similar to those draft plans of subdivisions, they have the approval.

01:34:24 Speaker 13: They're working to fulfil the conditions, and we are working towards a site plan agreement to be registered on the site.

01:34:31 Speaker 13: The first one is, I think we talked about this last year as well.

01:34:35 Speaker 13: Is the existing Walmart site?

01:34:38 Speaker 13: The lands proposed for development are located behind the Walmart and hospital,

01:34:43 Speaker 13: and it is a residential development consisting of apartment buildings and townhouse dwellings with a total of 477 units to be developed in two phases.

01:34:55 Speaker 13: So again, they're continuing to work on meeting the conditions of their site plan approval, and we're working towards a site plan agreement.

01:35:03 Speaker 13: This next one is 10th Avenue Estates.

01:35:09 Speaker 13: It's located on the east side of 9th Ave East.

01:35:13 Speaker 13: It's a 94-unit residential development consisting of seven cluster townhouse buildings and two apartment buildings.

01:35:20 Speaker 13: The cluster townhouse buildings are single-story buildings which will contain three to four units, and the 34-unit apartment buildings are four-story in height and will include underground parking.

01:35:31 Speaker 13: The approval for that is included in tonight's development update for March.

01:35:37 Speaker 13: And so you can see the layout here.

01:35:39 Speaker 13: It is a development that is entirely private, and so the city will not be assuming the road.

01:35:47 Speaker 13: It'll be maintained by the owner.

01:35:50 Speaker 13: Here's an elevation shot of the apartments and the townhouses.

01:35:56 Speaker 13: Next one is Ninth Avenue East.

01:36:01 Speaker 13: It's in the sort of more commercial area, and it's a four-story, 1,255 square metre mixed-use building, which includes 175 square metres of commercial space on the ground floor,

01:36:14 Speaker 13: and a total of 12 residential units on the upper stories.

01:36:17 Speaker 13: So it's a great example of a mixed-use development developing on Ninth Ave East.

01:36:23 Speaker 13: Here is an elevation shot.

01:36:27 Speaker 13: Okay, and continuing on, this again was I think included in last year's development update as well.

01:36:36 Speaker 13: This is St. Clair Place, which will provide for affordable housing in the city's River District.

01:36:45 Speaker 13: So it's a six-story, 40-unit rental apartment building, together with approximately 75 square metres of commercial space on the ground floor.

01:36:54 Speaker 13: Again, Lutheran Social Services is working towards meeting the conditions of site plan approval, and they're getting really close.

01:37:01 Speaker 13: So we hope to have a shovel-ready development in the next few months.

01:37:08 Speaker 13: There's some pictures of it.

01:37:11 Speaker 13: Okay, again, this one was included in last year's: the Royal Rose Court development on Third Avenue East, which will provide for mixed-use commercial development which will include restaurants and entertainment and event space.

01:37:34 Speaker 13: Super excited development that is an adaptive reuse of an existing building.

01:37:40 Speaker 13: And the plans, as you can see here from the developer, really will take advantage of those existing buildings and structures to make a fabulous entertainment venue.

01:37:50 Speaker 13: The next couple of examples are very exciting for me, I have to say, because they are adaptive reuses of existing developments at a much smaller scale,

01:38:02 Speaker 13: but really important to keep existing neighborhoods coherent and providing sort of a different style of apartments that we don't always necessarily see in Owen Sound.

01:38:17 Speaker 13: So this is great.

01:38:18 Speaker 13: So this is Frost Manor.

01:38:20 Speaker 13: It's the former Breckenridge Ashcroft Funeral Home, and it consists of both the buildings that you see here, plus the garage in the back.

01:38:29 Speaker 13: And so the funeral home has been converted into Frost Manor with seven residential units.

01:38:34 Speaker 13: The detached building to the west contains three residential units, and the converted garage, which you can just see peeking around at the back, will contain four residential units.

01:38:45 Speaker 13: With the site plan right here, so close to downtown, walkable, just a really great development that reuses existing buildings that would be a shame to lose.

01:38:57 Speaker 13: This one is similar.

01:38:58 Speaker 13: It's on Fifth Ave East at the intersection of Fifth Ave and Tenth Street East, and it is taking this building, which has been a rental for a long time,

01:39:10 Speaker 13: and adding an additional four units in the basement.

01:39:13 Speaker 13: So again, walkable, close to the River District, just a really great opportunity for infill in existing buildings.

01:39:24 Speaker 13: This next one is a type of development we haven't done before, but very exciting to see these kind of relationships happening between the city and developer.

01:39:38 Speaker 13: So this is the Westside Boat Launch, and over the last couple of years, it's been operated by Experience Great Brews as a restaurant and patio, with seasonal equipment rentals like kayaks and canoes,

01:39:52 Speaker 13: and this proposal is proposing to expand the patio slightly and add additional restaurant use through adding shipping containers to the site that have been converted into an outdoor pizzeria.

01:40:08 Speaker 13: So, really great type of development along the waterfront.

01:40:16 Speaker 13: There, okay, so the next few are site plan approvals that are currently at the beginning of the process.

01:40:26 Speaker 13: So they've been circulated to the agencies.

01:40:28 Speaker 13: We've received the application, and we're working towards that conditional approval.

01:40:33 Speaker 13: The first one we're going back to Heritage Grove, 2125 Sixteenth Street East, where they are proposing a new Princess Auto.

01:40:44 Speaker 13: So the existing Princess Auto building will be taken over by Homesense.

01:40:49 Speaker 13: Winners will move over, and a new, bigger building will be provided for the Princess Auto franchise.

01:40:58 Speaker 13: The next one is 2261 Ninth Ave East.

01:41:03 Speaker 13: It's the Hadera development.

01:41:05 Speaker 13: I'm just going to flip through here because it might help if you see it.

01:41:08 Speaker 13: So it's on Ninth Ave East.

01:41:09 Speaker 13: It's a clustered townhouse development again on a private road.

01:41:14 Speaker 13: The city will not assume these roads, and it is phase two of the development, which originally was proposed as an apartment building, which now has been changed to three additional cluster townhouse buildings,

01:41:30 Speaker 13: providing 13 units and really extending the development in a similar manner.

01:41:37 Speaker 13: And then this is really I think one of the most exciting developments out of all this: 297 Eighteenth Street East, which is the former Georgian Landings, just across from the Bayshore Arena.

01:41:53 Speaker 13: The original owner or the property and the development has been sold to a new owner, and they're proposing a four-story, 30-unit multiple apartment building to be constructed on the existing base.

01:42:07 Speaker 13: So it's very similar to the original development.

01:42:09 Speaker 13: proposed, it's just taking down a story, reducing the number of units a little bit, and continuing with what's there.

01:42:15 Speaker 13: So, I think this will be a great development to see pick up again and finish off in that area of the city.

01:42:26 Speaker 13: Okay, this next section is policy development.

01:42:32 Speaker 13: So, we've had a couple of zoning bylaw amendments that we processed in 2024 to facilitate the site plan approvals that are coming through now.

01:42:44 Speaker 13: The first one is the 10th Avenue East Estate that I just mentioned, and that's in your package with the March development update this month.

01:42:52 Speaker 13: So it was a zoning to permit the apartment buildings and to slightly increase the building height to facilitate four-story buildings.

01:43:02 Speaker 13: The other zoning bylaw amendment was the Hampton Inn, which we anticipate site plan approval will be submitted in the next month or so,

01:43:12 Speaker 13: and it was a rezoning to align the zoning on the property with the official plan designation and to permit a hotel,

01:43:19 Speaker 13: and the site-specific provisions were required to increase the building height and to provide for EV parking spaces with charging facilities.

01:43:32 Speaker 13: So, sort of almost finally now, before we start with all like the zoning bylaw amendment and the site plan approval and all those Planning Act processes,

01:43:43 Speaker 13: we very strongly encourage developers to pre-consult with City staff.

01:43:48 Speaker 13: Until last year, pre-consultation was required under the Planning Act.

01:43:54 Speaker 13: The Planning Act was changed so that pre-consultation is no longer mandatory.

01:44:01 Speaker 13: But developers understand really the value of pre-consultation because it allows us to clarify the application process, provide preliminary comments and identify issues, meet and consult with external agencies, determine what drawings, documents,

01:44:18 Speaker 13: and technical studies are required, and identify any additional supporting information and materials that they may be required to submit.

01:44:27 Speaker 13: Pre-consultation is very essential in facilitating an efficient process for Planning Act applications.

01:44:33 Speaker 13: It lets everybody on our side and the developer side know what the issues are and how we're going to address them with complete Planning Act applications.

01:44:42 Speaker 13: I'm very passionate about preconsultation.

01:44:47 Speaker 13: So, in 2024, we received and processed 21 preconsultation applications, and they sort of covered a fairly wide range of types of development, including industrial, commercial, residential, and institutional.

01:45:00 Speaker 13: Since then, we've seen ten of those pre-consultation applications turn into Planning Act applications, which is very exciting.

01:45:09 Speaker 13: And there's sort of a couple different ways that they come to us: Committee of Adjustment, sometimes, and Site Plan Approval.

01:45:16 Speaker 13: And so that leads me to Committee of Adjustment.

01:45:20 Speaker 13: So the city's Committee of Adjustment is appointed by City Council to consider consent applications and applications for minor variances to the zoning bylaw.

01:45:30 Speaker 13: The committee has five members, including a chair, and it meets monthly on the fourth Tuesday of the month.

01:45:36 Speaker 13: And so, Committee of Adjustment applications are submitted and then processed within four to six weeks, basically by the time the appeal period is done.

01:45:48 Speaker 13: So these are very efficient processes, and this is a slide.

01:45:56 Speaker 13: I think that's very important for people to sort of see: in 2024 we processed 22 applications, both minor variances and consent combined, and in 2025 we have already processed 14 applications.

01:46:12 Speaker 13: So this year has been a significant portion of our workload.

01:46:17 Speaker 13: Over the last four months, we have been processing those Committee of Adjustment applications, and there are two things that the Committee of Adjustment does.

01:46:28 Speaker 13: Like I said, the first one is minor variances, and a minor variance is basically what it says: it's a minor variation from the requirements of the city zoning bylaw.

01:46:38 Speaker 13: The Planning Act details the four tests that a minor variance has to meet,

01:46:42 Speaker 13: and it allows property owners to obtain a building permit or use a property in a specific way which does not comply with the provisions of the city zoning bylaw.

01:46:50 Speaker 13: So, zoning bylaws have specific regulations, including required setbacks, lot coverage, maximum floor area, height, etc. While the zoning bylaw is written to anticipate most scenarios, the document cannot capture all properties or proposals,

01:47:04 Speaker 13: and that's where the minor variance application comes in and allows for that slight shifting of those regulations to make something fit on a specific property.

01:47:13 Speaker 13: Consents are basically land division and easement, and so through consent applications, we create infill lots.

01:47:22 Speaker 13: We provide easements for various uses, including stormwater management.

01:47:26 Speaker 13: We create new lots in sort of adjacent areas and lot additions, so adding a little bit of land from one property to another.

01:47:36 Speaker 13: The themes for Committee of Adjustment over the last sort of let's say 12 to 18 months have been adjusting site and building regulations to allow for the severance of infill lots,

01:47:49 Speaker 13: and for adding to existing residential developments, or for example, if you want to add in addition to your house, sometimes you need a minor variance.

01:47:57 Speaker 13: Also, we do minor variances to the city's sign bylaw, and parking and height provisions are something that we have varied consistently over the last few months.

01:48:07 Speaker 13: And so, we'll take that information into consideration as we update our zoning bylaw.

01:48:14 Speaker 13: Anticipated applications for 2025: If you've driven through the east side of town, you might have noticed that there's been some tree clearing, and so that's the Telford Creek Square commercial development,

01:48:26 Speaker 13: and we anticipate that they'll submit for site plan approval in the next three or four months.

01:48:32 Speaker 13: Georgian Heights is a former nursing home that's been basically closed down, and it will be rezoned to allow for an apartment use,

01:48:44 Speaker 13: and the conceptual site plan right now provides for an addition to the existing building with more apartment units, so that's exciting to see.

01:48:52 Speaker 13: Finally, the Bruce Grey Districts District Catholic School Board applied for consent last year.

01:48:59 Speaker 13: That consent has been finalized, and we anticipate that they'll apply for the zoning bylaw amendment to facilitate the high school in the next four weeks,

01:49:10 Speaker 13: and then a subsequent site plan approval application later on in the year once they've sort of completed the studies in support of that.

01:49:17 Speaker 13: And finally, the Hampton Inn rezoning that was completed at the end of last year will facilitate a site plan approval application.

01:49:26 Speaker 13: And again, we anticipate that in the next four to six weeks.

01:49:31 Speaker 13: In conclusion, staff recommendation is that, in consideration of the verbal report provided on April 16th, 2025, from the Manager of Planning and Heritage, respecting the development update 2024,

01:49:44 Speaker 13: the Community Services Committee recommends that City Council receive the report for information purposes.

01:49:51 Speaker 13: Thank you.

01:49:52 Speaker 13: Thank you, Sabine.

01:49:53 Speaker 02: That's a lot of information, but a great walkthrough of all the phases that the Planning Department has to go through and all the applications they look at.

01:50:03 Speaker 02: Looking for questions from committee members, John.

01:50:06 Speaker 02: Thank you, through the chair.

01:50:08 Speaker 03: Yeah, that's so much both to say and to process.

01:50:12 Speaker 03: So first, thanks for all of that.

01:50:14 Speaker 03: A couple of questions: the changes to the Hadera Phase Two plan, as well as the Georgian Landing across from the Bayshore, both of those, while finally providing for new development or completion of a project,

01:50:32 Speaker 03: reflect, to my understanding, a reduction in the number of units from what was originally proposed.

01:50:39 Speaker 03: Does the city have any ability to encourage denser development, or are we at the mercy of what folks want to follow through with for a plan, even if that's changing over time?

01:50:54 Speaker 13: So, so we do have density requirements in our official plan, and in a way, our zoning bylaw facilitates density as well.

01:51:04 Speaker 13: I would say that for both of them: for the Hadera development, I think they found that there's a target market, or there's a very solid market for those cluster townhouses,

01:51:15 Speaker 13: and that operating a rental townhouse versus a rental apartment are two different sort of things.

01:51:24 Speaker 13: And they felt very comfortable at this point with the townhouses, and that's why they chose to keep going with that.

01:51:30 Speaker 13: And it fits well into that existing development that they have, which is especially on that side of Ninth Avenue East: it's sort of lower, like height-wise density provisions,

01:51:43 Speaker 13: because there are those single cluster townhouse stories in their development, and then that's what keeps going up on the east side of Ninth Avenue East.

01:51:55 Speaker 13: In regards to the Georgian Landing development, I think it was just a slight reduction, and I can't really comment on why, other than it fits the parking ratio well,

01:52:12 Speaker 13: and maybe just makes for a building that is appropriate to build and develop in the future.

01:52:19 Speaker 13: But like I said before, the official plan does have minimum density provisions, and across those planning areas, those developments meet those minimum density provisions.

01:52:33 Speaker 13: So, one of the considerations in the official plan and zoning bylaw update is to see where it may be appropriate to increase density provisions within the city.

01:52:45 Speaker 03: Thank you again, through the chair.

01:52:48 Speaker 03: The Graham development looks a little different than I remember it the first time through.

01:52:53 Speaker 03: Is there an additional entrance to that property now in the current plan?

01:53:01 Speaker 03: Yes.

01:53:02 Speaker 03: Yes, there is.

01:53:03 Speaker 03: There was some slight refinement.

01:53:05 Speaker 13: So the plan that Council would have seen through the zoning bylaw amendment was conceptual, and then as you go through the policy process and into the site plan approval process, refinement of the development occurs,

01:53:17 Speaker 13: and that was one of the refinements: they were able to acquire additional lands and therefore provide access from Ninth Avenue East.

01:53:25 Speaker 13: Thank you.

01:53:26 Speaker 03: And finally, we hear a lot of chatter, both from the provincial government and generally in the community, around like delays in development.

01:53:33 Speaker 03: and not understanding like timelines.

01:53:35 Speaker 03: This is super helpful in kind of pulling the black box apart.

01:53:40 Speaker 03: But I'm conscious too that there's like a lot of complexity there between owners' plans and everything they have to do through consultation and finance.

01:53:49 Speaker 03: And I know that city staff now have to work to much tighter deadlines, and that you folks have been faster than those deadlines most of the time.

01:53:58 Speaker 03: But is there anything that you think folks should, in general, know about what does cause delay in development that might more accurately reflect what's going on,

01:54:11 Speaker 03: rather than red tape or other catchphrases that might be misleading?

01:54:16 Speaker 13: Through the chair, so I would say that, and I know, in general, that Planning Act approvals are probably the most efficient and fastest part of the process,

01:54:28 Speaker 13: and there are outside influences on the developers that have a much more serious impact than Planning Act approvals, including financing and interest rates and availability of building supplies.

01:54:47 Speaker 13: So the provincial government has made significant changes to the Planning Act processes in the last few years to speed up approvals.

01:54:56 Speaker 13: Frankly, after delegated approval of site plans,

01:54:57 Speaker 13: delegated approval of site plans is one of those because we no longer have to hit council meetings and you know go through those processes to go through a site plan agreement.

01:55:08 Speaker 13: And quite frankly, it's a technical process where the policy context laid out in the official plan, the zoning bylaw amendment,

01:55:15 Speaker 13: and sort of the site engineering standards really provides very black and white rules about how this development has to be, and it's basically checking to see that it meets those.

01:55:25 Speaker 13: So, yeah, we and pre-consultation is really the key to providing for an efficient process because we can identify all the issues at that point.

01:55:39 Speaker 13: The developer can use that information and provide us with an application that is basically ready to be approved.

01:55:46 Speaker 13: Sometimes it requires a second submission, and that is honestly because these, as you can see through this, these are increasing.

01:55:54 Speaker 13: These are increasingly more and more complicated applications.

01:55:59 Speaker 13: They have more residential units.

01:56:02 Speaker 13: They are denser, and so they're just more complicated.

01:56:06 Speaker 13: It takes more thought and design to basically provide for seven hundred apartment units in one space.

01:56:15 Speaker 13: And so as we move towards these kind of developments, honestly, there is just more complexity; those applications are more complex.

01:56:23 Speaker 13: But I think, in general, site plan approval or the Planning Act processes are one small portion of the pie that ends up being the development.

01:56:36 Speaker 13: And so the outside processes, honestly, of financing, acquiring land, doing the sign before it even comes to us, are really significant impactors on how long it takes to get to that building permit stage.

01:56:51 Speaker 13: And I think going back to the presentation, so there are three or four large-scale developments now that are shovel-ready,

01:57:01 Speaker 13: and it is up to those developers to pull the building permits and then act on those building permits and put shovels in the ground and, you know, put up buildings.

01:57:15 Speaker 02: And when you issue a building permit, there's a time limit to it.

01:57:18 Speaker 02: Is that correct?

01:57:20 Speaker 02: Yeah.

01:57:20 Speaker 02: Yes, maybe Pam can speak to that.

01:57:22 Speaker 02: I think six months.

01:57:27 Speaker 02: I just don't want to get it wrong, but you're absolutely right.

01:57:30 Speaker 05: There is a time limit in which they have to start work, or the CBO can revoke that permit, and they would have to reapply.

01:57:38 Speaker 05: But we did have the building code change at the end of March, so we did have a flurry of applications right then.

01:57:47 Speaker 05: So that's really great.

01:57:48 Speaker 05: And as you have time with the republished agenda, you'll be able to go back to these slides and sort of see which ones of the developments are right at the end,

01:57:58 Speaker 05: really waiting just for that developer.

01:58:00 Speaker 05: And as Sabine has outlined, you know, we've done our part, but there's so many things on their end: issuing tenders.

01:58:11 Speaker 05: You know, they're building and installing infrastructure, and that takes time to design, tender, award, and build.

01:58:19 Speaker 05: So, thank you, Lloyd.

01:58:24 Speaker 05: Through you, Chair.

01:58:25 Speaker 05: The mind boggles at all the changes.

01:58:27 Speaker 05: It's very positive and exciting to see them over the next ten years.

01:58:30 Speaker 14: I don't think you ever mentioned anything about affordable housing in any of these projects, and so the question is: How is that decided?

01:58:38 Speaker 14: Is it up to the market itself to provide affordable housing as more homes become more dense, and then supply and demand are there, and for prices for rentals come down, or is it subsidies?

01:58:54 Speaker 14: Is that we're at the mercy of the provincial or federal government for that to take place?

01:58:59 Speaker 14: I don't really understand where that's going to come from.

01:59:09 Speaker 14: Through you, Chair.

01:59:10 Speaker 13: So there is, and I can't click back to it.

01:59:14 Speaker 13: Sorry, but the St. Clair Place development downtown on Third Avenue East by Lutheran Social Services is geared to income for seniors, so it is affordable, like affordable housing from that perspective.

01:59:29 Speaker 13: Affordable housing is a very complex topic with a lot of different players.

01:59:37 Speaker 13: I would encourage you to sort of check out the Grey County Planning website.

01:59:44 Speaker 13: They have somebody that's basically assigned to develop and think about affordable housing.

01:59:49 Speaker 13: And you're right.

01:59:51 Speaker 13: Part of it is that it's at the mercy of the market, and part of it is that it is sometimes dependent on subsidies.

02:00:00 Speaker 13: And so, for the federal and provincial government to initiate those kind of programmes where they will provide subsidies, and Pam can speak a little bit more.

02:00:13 Speaker 05: If I could, I just would point out: I think it was last month we reported on the additional units that were created on the lower level of St. Francis Place.

02:00:24 Speaker 05: I think there were four, and two of those were affordable units.

02:00:29 Speaker 05: The affordable units in the new project by Lutheran Social Services.

02:00:35 Speaker 05: I understand that is a partnership between the provincial government; the County of Grey is participating in that, and I understand those units will be deeply affordable.

02:00:46 Speaker 05: Onsa Municipal Nonprofit has recently finished that project, so that Odaawa project had a significant number of affordable units.

02:00:56 Speaker 05: I believe both the Strathcona development, eighty-plus residential units, and Twenty-Eight Street West apartments again about eighty units; percentage of both those buildings have affordable units in them,

02:01:10 Speaker 05: so those are just the ones off the top of my head.

02:01:13 Speaker 05: So certainly there are, and it would be fun to sort of go back in the last five years and say of all the housing units completed, what percentage of those would be affordable?

02:01:25 Speaker 05: I think we'd be surprised at the number.

02:01:29 Speaker 05: Travis, thank you, Madam Chair.

02:01:31 Speaker 08: And I believe with those two developments that you just talked about were because of CHMA when they were doing their lending; when they're doing their lending,

02:01:39 Speaker 08: they're able to get a part of the conditions of getting funding to do those developments was to have a portion of those rental units to be affordable.

02:01:48 Speaker 08: So there are other mechanisms out there to do it.

02:01:50 Speaker 08: I think we're all just at the mercy of the market generally, and maybe Big Brother up there can run deficits and big deficits, and sometimes those deficits just don't come to lower-tier little brother.

02:02:07 Speaker 08: So, federal government and the provincial government would be great if they could provide a little bit more to help that housing issue.

02:02:13 Speaker 08: I'm going to move the recommendation for receipt.

02:02:16 Speaker 08: I'm just going to note as well.

02:02:18 Speaker 08: I don't know why you guys are saying that you're always so busy.

02:02:20 Speaker 08: I don't know what's happening.

02:02:22 Speaker 08: And just to acknowledge the fact that you are down a planner, and you've been down a planner for several months.

02:02:28 Speaker 08: So, I just do want to recognize that you're doing a lot of work.

02:02:31 Speaker 08: Your department's doing a lot of work, and clearly as we see it, you're creating a huge development within the city, and we thank you for all the work that you do.

02:02:40 Speaker 08: Because I know you're going to have some late days and stressful days to get that to council and to get to committee and to get everything done in the time frame that you do.

02:02:48 Speaker 08: Because we know we have a set time limit that we need to complete the projects and have it done.

02:02:53 Speaker 08: And I would say you're what 99.9% always have those in time.

02:02:59 Speaker 08: So I did want to just make note that you know, you are down a planner, and you're still doing all of these things.

02:03:05 Speaker 08: So, thank you for all the hard work that you do.

02:03:09 Speaker 08: Other comments?

02:03:10 Speaker 08: I just want to.

02:03:12 Speaker 08: I'll come to you in a second, Morgan.

02:03:15 Speaker 02: Please extend our appreciation to all the members of your planning and building team for all the work that they do.

02:03:21 Speaker 02: That you certainly outlined just a portion of it.

02:03:25 Speaker 02: So, Morgan.

02:03:27 Speaker 02: Thank you.

02:03:28 Speaker 02: Just two questions, if I can, through you, Madam Chair.

02:03:30 Speaker 06: Is the first one is when the streets are not serviced by the city.

02:03:37 Speaker 06: This is more of an interest question.

02:03:40 Speaker 06: Are their taxes the same?

02:03:45 Speaker 13: So I'm not sure if I can completely answer that.

02:03:48 Speaker 13: But it is the choice of the developer to provide developments that they service themselves, and they have their reasons for doing that.

02:03:58 Speaker 13: But that's maybe a good question to ask your Corporate Services committee to see how the taxation for those falls out.

02:04:05 Speaker 13: Sorry.

02:04:10 Speaker 06: And the next one is: I love that we're growing, and I love that we have all this.

02:04:14 Speaker 06: How do we know when our infrastructure is not enough to maintain the growth that we want?

02:04:25 Speaker 05: Through the Chair, we do calculations of hydraulic reserve capacity for the water and sewage treatment plants.

02:04:34 Speaker 05: So, as development is approved, those are factored in, and we're continually monitoring that.

02:04:38 Speaker 05: So, we're never in an embarrassing situation where we would say, "Well, jeepers, we don't have enough capacity."

02:04:48 Speaker 13: Sort of further to Marion, your point just now is, and this is that we, as the planning department, work inherently as part of the development team,

02:04:59 Speaker 13: and that's I think really a key component of why we can keep working as we have for the last little bit.

02:05:07 Speaker 13: So, development team meets weekly and includes planning, engineering, building, finance, asset management.

02:05:16 Speaker 13: Sort of has representatives from all the key sort of divisions and components of the city that contribute to making development happen,

02:05:24 Speaker 13: and so all this is really because of the development team working together the way we do, and bringing those various parts of the city together, and really making sure that we don't work in silos,

02:05:39 Speaker 13: that we work together as a team.

02:05:44 Speaker 13: Okay, any others?

02:05:46 Speaker 13: Ali, you're okay.

02:05:48 Speaker 13: Okay, thanks.

02:05:50 Speaker 02: We have a motion on the floor to receive the information.

02:05:53 Speaker 02: All those in favour.

02:05:55 Speaker 02: That's carried.

02:05:56 Speaker 02: Thank you.

02:05:58 Speaker 02: You might as well stay, Sabine, because we're moving on down.

02:06:03 Speaker 02: No matters postponed.

02:06:04 Speaker 02: No motions for which notice was previously given.

02:06:08 Speaker 02: In our correspondence, we have our building update for March.

02:06:12 Speaker 02: If you could comment, please.

02:06:15 Speaker 02: Thank you, through chair.

02:06:18 Speaker 13: So, I think unless the second page as well.

02:06:22 Speaker 13: Can you flip to that for a second?

02:06:25 Speaker 13: So we're sort of splitting it up, and we'll give you this one as well.

02:06:30 Speaker 13: And I'll go back to the building part for a second.

02:06:33 Speaker 13: Sorry, can you switch back to the other one?

02:06:37 Speaker 13: So this is planning act applications received in sorry March of twenty twenty-five year to date, and then year to date in twenty twenty-four.

02:06:49 Speaker 13: And again, you can see how much.

02:06:49 Speaker 13: And you can see how much further ahead we already are this year compared to the same times last year.

02:06:56 Speaker 13: If you want to switch back to so, basically, we've received a number of sorry building permits in regards to the deadline of March thirty-first.

02:07:11 Speaker 13: And so the BCK site, like I mentioned, the application was received and permits were issued on April one, and payment was received.

02:07:21 Speaker 13: So that's a significant development that will has now is shovel ready, and so hopefully we'll continue to keep going.

02:07:30 Speaker 13: And sorry, I didn't have this in front of me, but basically it's March, and we're gearing off for April, May, and June, which will be the busy months.

02:07:42 Speaker 13: Thank you.

02:07:44 Speaker 13: Thank you.

02:07:46 Speaker 13: Can we?

02:07:47 Speaker 02: Can we receive both of the information items together?

02:07:50 Speaker 02: Okay.

02:07:51 Speaker 02: Sorry.

02:07:52 Speaker 02: Go ahead.

02:07:54 Speaker 02: Through the chair, just the second point.

02:07:56 Speaker 03: There, a permit was issued to convert a vacant commercial space in the River District into six rental apartment units.

02:08:01 Speaker 03: Is that Frost Manor or is that a different development?

02:08:05 Speaker 03: My radar goes up a little bit any time that we're talking about losing commercial space in the River District.

02:08:42 Speaker 13: But sorry, but if commercial, so certain parts of the downtown that have frontage, especially onto Second Avenue East, are protected in the zoning bylaw,

02:08:55 Speaker 13: or the commercial space of those areas is protected in the zoning bylaw.

02:09:03 Speaker 13: In that, it requires there always be a commercial space at the front, and only a portion of the rear of the ground floor can be converted to residential,

02:09:13 Speaker 13: and so if we issued a building permit for that, I'm assuming it is out of that very core, outside of that very, very core downtown River District.

02:09:25 Speaker 02: It's and it's beyond the time of when the shoppers' clothing store conversion took place.

02:09:31 Speaker 02: Okay.

02:09:33 Speaker 02: Any other questions on that one?

02:09:34 Speaker 02: Okay.

02:09:34 Speaker 02: Next item is a site plan.

02:09:41 Speaker 02: Are we doing separate motions?

02:09:42 Speaker 02: I thought we were doing one for both, one motion for both items.

02:09:46 Speaker 02: Okay.

02:09:47 Speaker 02: So the next one is the site plan for Tenth Avenue East.

02:09:52 Speaker 02: I think you've gone over that one.

02:09:55 Speaker 02: I don't know if there just are further questions on it.

02:09:59 Speaker 02: None, seeing none.

02:10:00 Speaker 02: Okay, I'm looking for a motion then to receive the two items of correspondence.

02:10:06 Speaker 02: Lantz, all those in favour of that motion.

02:10:11 Speaker 02: That's carried.

02:10:11 Speaker 02: Can I see Ali on the screen?

02:10:13 Speaker 02: Sorry, you're okay, Ali.

02:10:17 Speaker 02: Thank you.

02:10:18 Speaker 02: Okay, so those two are received.

02:10:21 Speaker 02: And additional business.

02:10:24 Speaker 02: I'll go to John first regarding climate and your other urban zoning.

02:10:32 Speaker 02: Thank you, through the chair.

02:10:33 Speaker 03: Just first, the city manager's most recent update suggested that we'd get an update on that massive project that's working its way through to review the zoning bylaw and official plan update.

02:10:43 Speaker 03: I was only today realized that that was missing from the agenda, and just wanted to check in with staff to hear a little bit more about where that's at and why that might be.

02:10:56 Speaker 03: Thank you for that question.

02:10:57 Speaker 05: And through the chair, we should always say plus or minus on those city manager updates.

02:11:02 Speaker 05: But the OP zoning and urban design guidelines, we were aiming for this month.

02:11:09 Speaker 05: We always do try to prioritize development over policy, but we expect that it'll come next month.

02:11:18 Speaker 05: So, just with the volume of work and wanting to make sure that you know the first bit of information we bring you does its best to sort of hit the mark.

02:11:30 Speaker 05: To the chair, thank you.

02:11:32 Speaker 03: As an amateur baker, I appreciate that you want to deliver stuff when it's ready, not the way I may have delivered some birthday cakes in the past.

02:11:39 Speaker 03: My second point was around the climate resilient Grey public consultation that's happening right now.

02:11:44 Speaker 03: So Grey County is developing a community-wide climate adaptation plan.

02:11:48 Speaker 03: The plan is going to identify how climate change is impacting the region and what we can do about that.

02:11:53 Speaker 03: Not from the lens of how do we reduce emissions.

02:11:56 Speaker 03: This is specifically around how do we make sure that what we're building and how we're building it and what we're using for public space is suited.

02:12:03 Speaker 03: Public space is suited for the changes that are upon us, and anyone can participate in their public events and fill out their survey.

02:12:11 Speaker 03: The survey is just like ten minutes online.

02:12:13 Speaker 03: The mayor gave council all these postcards, and he said, "I didn't get enough postcards for all the committee members."

02:12:19 Speaker 03: So tell them about that.

02:12:21 Speaker 03: And my hope would be that we can tell our friends.

02:12:24 Speaker 03: I think this is really important.

02:12:26 Speaker 03: The weather is getting weirder, and if we don't understand what that's going to mean, then we can't make good decisions.

02:12:31 Speaker 03: And you folks are informed and well connected.

02:12:34 Speaker 03: I am not seeing a deadline on the postcard.

02:12:41 Speaker 03: Just all you have to do is go to grey.ca/climate-resilience, and I'm.

02:12:45 Speaker 03: They're doing a number of in-person events as well.

02:12:50 Speaker 03: It looks like this will be done in May, by the end of May, by the timeline that's on the website.

02:12:58 Speaker 03: They're also going to be at Earth Day Grey Bruce, which is in Owen Sound.

02:13:01 Speaker 03: on Saturday, April 26th.

02:13:04 Speaker 03: They're on the Grey Bruce Cruise and Connect on Thursday, April 24th.

02:13:08 Speaker 03: If you're going for a ride on the Chichiman, but it's important, and y'all are connected, so help us spread the word and share your insight, please.

02:13:18 Speaker 03: Thank you.

02:13:19 Speaker 03: Just second, Travis.

02:13:21 Speaker 02: Pam, did you say that you could send that to committee?

02:13:25 Speaker 02: Through you, we will send a link to committee for that survey.

02:13:29 Speaker 02: Travis, is there any chance that link can be shared on our social media for the community as well?

02:13:45 Speaker 02: Okay.

02:13:47 Speaker 02: Any other items of additional business?

02:13:50 Speaker 02: I didn't have any listed.

02:13:52 Speaker 02: There are no notices of motion, and with that, I want to thank the committee so much.

02:13:57 Speaker 02: We've had a few long committee meetings, and I appreciate your dedication and the time that you give to the city to attend these meetings and participate.

02:14:08 Speaker 02: So, with that, I will declare the meeting adjourned.