Downtown Guelph Heritage Conservation District Study

About the project

The City is completing a Heritage Conservation District (HCD) project to protect significant buildings and landscape features in Guelph’s core and create a heritage-sensitive plan to guide future development in the area.

In 2021, Council approved the recommendations of the Cultural Heritage Action Plan which included the priority, “For Old Downtown, undertake a comprehensive strategy, including community consultation, to direct future cultural heritage conservation efforts and planned change.”

The provincial government’s More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022, significantly changed the structure of municipal heritage registers. As a result, all properties currently listed on the Municipal Register of Cultural Heritage Properties must be removed by January 1, 2027. About 1,700 properties will lose protections, with 120 of these properties located in downtown Guelph.

To protect key cultural heritage resources within downtown Guelph, the City began work on the Downtown Heritage Conservation District project to determine the suitability for a heritage conservation district in the downtown and help guide growth and change in the core.

Phase 1: Study phase

The Downtown Guelph HCD Study assessed the natural, historical, design and contextual value of the study area. It reviewed the existing policy framework in the area and engaged with the community to understand the community’s experience of the are to help inform a proposed Heritage Conservation District boundary. The report was presented to council September 4, 2024 and unanimously approved, with staff being directed to begin phase 2.

Phase 2: Plan and guidelines

Phase 2 involves the creation of policy and guidelines to help manage change in the downtown in a way that enhances, highlights and conserves the distinct cultural heritage character of the area while allowing the growth and change needed in the downtown for the City to meet its goals.

A draft version of the Plan and Guidelines will be available for review in Q3 2025.

Community engagement

We encourage the community to follow and get involved with this project. Engagement opportunities will include:

• Four public open houses – two during the study phase and two during the plan and guideline phase
• Four Downtown Guelph Heritage Focus Group meetings with members who self-identify as belonging to the following groups:
  • Downtown Guelph Business Association
  • Urban Indigenous community
  • Study area property owners
  • Study area tenants
  • Guelph Black Historical Society
  • Resident at large
  • Local historian
• Three meetings with the Downtown Guelph Business Association
• Meetings with the City’s Heritage Advisory Committee
• Statutory meeting

Reports

• Downtown Guelph Heritage Conservation District Study Report

Images

For more information

Please contact the Project Manager for the HCD Study for more information:

Imogen Goldie (she/her)
Heritage Planner, Planning and Building Services
Infrastructure, Development and Enterprise Services
519-822-1260 extension 4240
[email protected]