Ontario Construction News staff writer
Two City of Guelph planning initiatives aimed at improving housing affordability have earned the 2025 PlanON Vision Award of Excellence from the Ontario Professional Planners Institute (OPPI). The award was presented to staff from the City of Guelph and Dillon Consulting Limited at the PlanON Awards event on Sept. 18.
The PlanON Awards recognize OPPI members for exceptional planning work and their commitment to advancing the profession in Ontario. They are OPPI’s highest honour.
“We’ve long recognized housing affordability as a key issue, and community input reaffirmed just how important it is,” said Krista Walkey, general manager of Planning and Building Services. “Our planning staff have been working on strategies and tools to help meet this need, and we’re proud to see OPPI recognize their leadership in this area.
“We’re humbled by this recognition and remain focused on delivering real, lasting solutions for people and families in our community.”
Guelph is growing quickly and the demand for housing is growing with it — especially affordable rental options. The Housing Affordability Strategy: a 10-year plan with 30 actions to increase the supply of affordable housing, remove barriers and build strong partnerships. The Strategy sets a bold target: making sure about one in every three new housing units built in Guelph is affordable.
One of the strategy’s goals is to speed up affordable housing development in Guelph. To help meet this goal, the City looked at the Stone Road/Edinburgh Road area — a key growth area in Guelph — to explore ways to get homes built faster and more affordably. The solution? A Provincial planning tool called a Community Planning Permit System, which streamlines approvals from roughly 180 days to just 45. It also offers meaningful incentives for developers, such as allowing taller buildings when they include community benefits, like a minimum percentage of units as affordable.
Guelph is the first urban municipality in Ontario to apply this planning tool in a strategic growth area, setting a precedent for other cities across the province. The City is now exploring how this tool could be used in other key growth areas — like Downtown Guelph — to support density, faster approvals and priorities like affordable housing.
The 2025 PlanON Vision Award of Excellence celebrates the meaningful work already underway to help address housing affordability in Guelph. To learn more about the City’s work and other initiatives underway on housing, visit guelph.ca/housing.