Baker District redevelopment

The Baker District includes two residential towers; 11 and 14 storeys with about 295–315 units in total. At least 12 per cent of the units are planned to be affordable housing. As outlined in the Urban Design Master Plan, there will be 31 affordable units available: 26 one-bed, and five one-bed or two-bed. The housing options presented include ownership and rental (or a mix of). As the Baker District project is a public-private partnership, only affordable, not social, housing units are included.

Wellington County, as the lead social service agency for Guelph, leads social housing initiatives. The City and the County work closely together, through the Mayor’s Taskforce on Permanent Supportive Housing, to create other housing options in our community. Since COVID-19, our partnerships have strengthened and together we are advocating to other levels of government for funding and supports to improve social housing options in the Guelph area.

Guelph has a citywide 30 per cent affordable housing target (25 per cent ownership, 1 per cent affordable primary rental and 4 per cent affordable secondary rental). We recognize the need to have affordable housing choices throughout the city and there are a number of private and not-for-profit housing projects in the development stage looking to address all levels of need, and not only housing options at 80 per cent of market rent.

Our Strategic Plan: Guelph. Future ready. sets clear directions for the City to help increase the availability of housing that meets our community’s needs. This includes advocating for increased funding from federal and provincial governments, and working with partners to create smart programs and policies that enable more people to obtain housing in Guelph.

Windmill will look into making some form of accommodation for The Bench Project. We were not previously aware of its existence but fully support local community initiatives under our One Planet Living principles. The new public square could accommodate similar opportunities with the added benefit of additional community focused resources; however programming of the square will be under the sole control of the City’s Parks Department.

Our shared goal with the City is to increase connectivity of the Baker District to the surrounding downtown at all access points.    

We also consider pedestrian access from the south to be very important and have designed for a new southern gateway into the Baker District as best we can within the parcels of our domain. The design considers a framework for future improvements by the city to complete these elements through their own capital improvements along Chapel Lane and possible future land acquisitions. 

At the same time,  one of the City’s goals for the project is to help anchor the North part of the Downtown core along Wyndham with the new library. A core idea is to help enliven the beautiful historic buildings and their uses along Wyndham by drawing pedestrian and bike traffic North to the new urban square and library. As a result, fostering the revitalization of Wyndham Street is a major factor in the design considerations.

Thank you for your positive feedback. The height of the buildings are limited by the City’s zoning by-laws.

Library Lane is not the official name for the new road but simply a place holder so that the numerous people involved with the development have a common reference. The final name will be selected in consultation with the City of Guelph.

While the original scope of the project envisioned by the City of Guelph included the redevelopment of the parking lot at the rear of the Dominion Trust Building, which is owned by Wellington County, mutually agreeable terms for the integration of that parking into the overall development site could not be agreed between the parties resulting in the current design. There is flexibility built into the current site plan so that the area could be integrated into the development in the future should the parties come to an agreement to do so.

Your feedback on how the affordable housing portion of the residential development is appreciated. Windmill envisages a mixed-use model similar to what you propose. This is however a private sector project that will rely on support/grants from government and non-government agencies to deliver the affordable component. Windmill also has to balance all its desired social and environmental goals and objectives derived from the One Planet Living model to achieve a successful outcome for all parties.

The height and massing of the buildings has already  been approved by the City of Guelph and forms part of the Secondary Plan for the downtown.  Windmill’s design is in compliance  within these parameters and is not seeking additional density or height from what has already been approved by the City following a full public engagement process.  In fact, the original massing plan proposed by the City in the RFP document showed the north tower on a north-south axis with its longest façade facing Yarmouth Street.  Our current proposal rotates the building 90 degrees to an east-west orientation with its shortest façade facing Yarmouth which will allow considerably more daylight penetration to your building than would have been the case had we followed the original massing design.

Parking is being relocated underground to replace the current public parking on the surface lot.   This public parking component will serve downtown businesses as well as library patrons.  Retail uses are limited to the ground floor of the south building in order to animate the street and provide some services for the new residents.

The library,  urban square and public parking below grade will all be owned by the city.  The residential tower above will be set back and separated architecturally from the library podium and will have its own separate entrance from Baker Street. 

Windmill committed to building up to 12% affordable housing with suitable financial support from various levels of government and non-government grants and incentives. If there are enough grants and incentives to build more than 12% of the residential units as affordable, Windmill will give that serious consideration. In Windmill’s commitment to the ten principles of One Planet Living, we are also balancing other social priorities and environmental requirements that are part of the development.  Since we haven’t yet determined who the affordable housing provider will be it is premature to comment on how that component would be managed. 

It is beyond Windmill’s scope to comment on future uses of the existing library property.  That decision will be made by the City and/or the Library Board.

The Baker District will be a complete community, providing both rental and condominium units and will provide housing that serves a range of income levels with various unit types.  The diverse population will add to the downtown population base and thus meet the City’s desire to revitalize the downtown and its businesses.  Adding new housing  to the downtown will create more supply so that the increasing demand does not drive up prices and thus maintains affordability in this market.

We anticipate a net gain of Downtown parking spaces upon completion of the development. The development will be adding new outdoor spaces along the new east-west road and we have planned for two levels of below grade parking extending under the footprint of the entire development site. The final number of parking stalls will be determined at the time the final construction drawings are approved by the City and Windmill.

The RFP and the original plan did assume the inclusion of the County parking lot land but currently the County is not willing to be part of the development.  The current plan has been designed with the flexibility to include the parking lot as part of the project in the future should the situation change and several options have been examined to demonstrate how it could be incorporated into the urban design when circumstances permit. 

We’re happy to hear you’re encouraged by the Baker District’s focus on Food, Carbon and Transportation—we’re excited about it, too. Near the end of the summer, we will be publishing the Baker District’s sustainability plan, called the One Planet Living Action Plan. This Plan outlines our desired sustainability outcomes for the site and how we intend to achieve those outcomes (i.e. specific strategies and performance requirements). Generally speaking, however, our objectives for Food, Carbon and Transportation are as follows:

Food

Promote sustainable, humane farming and healthy diets that are high in local, seasonal, organic food and vegetable protein.

Carbon

Make buildings energy efficient and supply all energy with renewables.

Transportation

Reduce the need to travel, and encourage walking, cycling and low carbon transport.

Stay tuned for the release of the Baker District’s One Planet Living Action Plan, where you’ll find further information about the specific sustainability strategies the District will strive to achieve.