The June 23rd meeting of Peterborough City Council’s general committee saw discussions over an extensive agenda of items to recommend for approval at next week’s city council meeting, the last before council’s summer break. 

Last Thursday, councillors received a meeting package of over 900 pages of reports, consultations, and site plans for endorsement. Over the course of a seven-hour meeting, council discussed 14 items of note—only one of which passed on the consent agenda. This item was a unanimous recommendation that the City post a crossing guard at the intersection of St. Paul's Street and Herbert Street before and after school days.

The night kicked off with the presentation of a final design for the Charlotte Street reconstruction and streetscape project. The redevelopment aims to make the arterial road’s stretch from Park Street to Water Street a key destination for those coming downtown. 

The project started development in 2022, alongside an upgrade to the existing stormwater infrastructure beneath Charlotte St. to further support the city’s flood mitigation strategy. In conjunction with infrastructure consultancy firm AECOM, the City is angling to begin the final design and construction phases and pre-commit capital funding in this year’s budget. 

“The Charlotte Street reconstruction project is made possible because of major sewer infrastructure and flood reduction works proposed,” Acting Director of Asset Management and Capital Planning, Ian Boland, told council. “It's creating a unique opportunity to address multiple infrastructure needs through a single and coordinated and efficient capital project.” 

With this redevelopment, the city aims to improve safety and accessibility for all users of Charlotte Street, better integrate all types of transportation and bring more economic activity to the area. 

“Charlotte Street is a key connector and destination within the downtown,” AECOM engineer K. Ashraf said. “This project strengthens that role by enhancing the public ground, supporting multi-modal transportation, and aligning the city's long term vision for a vibrant, accessible and economically resilient core.” 

After an extensive background review over the span of three years and a community consultation with over 850 responses from Peterborough residents last summer, Ashraf highlighted the proposed features of the streetscape project, including maintained on-street parking, street furniture, and a raised, partitioned bike lane. 

“A key focus of design is to provide a clear delineation of space and eliminate barriers and street clutter,” Ashraf told council. 

The planning agent was quick to identify the disruptions and financial issues posed by a major capital project of this nature, especially its impact on Charlotte Street businesses. 

“They're not sure how the city intends to manage that disruption, to mitigate some of those disruptions, and how their customers will have access to their business,” Ashraf said. 

Town Ward Councillor Alex Bierk also noted that capital projects of this size are under threat of having their design scope reduced because of cost, citing what occurred with the architecture of the Miskin Law Community Complex.

“The plan for the Miskin arena presented to us had beautiful, rounded architectural features to it. And because of the cost to that project, that was one of the features that had to be changed,” Bierk said. “There was also a concessions plan for that project that had to be changed due to cost.” 

“Often, design elements like streetscape enhancements, accessibility upgrades, active transportation features can get quietly scaled back if we have these cost overrides,” Coun. Bierk said. 

Council voted unanimously to recommend financing adjustments to the Charlotte Street Streetscape project, aiming for completion in 2028–2029, and to pre-commit $27.6 million in the 2026–2029 City Budgets to it. 

Following a short break, a series of public meetings under the Planning Act began with a proposed amendment to zoning on 1314 Water Street. The applicant, PM GP Inc., proposed that the currently vacant site be used for an eight-storey apartment building, much to the dismay of neighbouring residents.

PM GP Inc. wishes for zoning flexibility from the City to zone the site for either student or market rental use, despite a laundry list of site-specific concerns nearby residents brought to them and their agent, architectural consultant MHBC Planning Ltd.

MHBC Partner Aldon Theodore explained the proposed amendment’s inclusion of a holding symbol to place limits on development of land, citing the volatility of the Peterborough student housing market in light of the federal government’s international student permit cap. 

“It was included after November 2024 when the changes to international students occurred,” Theodore told council. “That just reminded us about how volatile the market is, and we wanted to ensure that there's flexibility around how we move on site.” 

Despite the holding symbol being asked for by the City’s planning staff, members of council were unconvinced due to the uncertain nature of the application. 

“The difficulty I have, as somebody who is conversant in the art of planning, what I'm troubled with is that we're considering two different development goals at the same time,” Otonabee Ward Councillor Kevin Duguay said of the proposal. 

“I'm also aware some of our previous multiple housing projects throughout the city had definitive concepts. We knew what was going to be complicated.” 

While the proposed building will have up to 219 units, there are only 117 surface parking spaces, meaning 0.2 parking spaces for every student room. 

For a market rental building,this falls short of the requirement to have one parking space per unit, so a reduction in spaces means a reduction in overall units and height. 

While presenting the application for amendment, Anne Taylor Scott, a manager of development planning at the city, acknowledged the complexity of the building’s current concept. 

“It would be difficult, in my mind, to go down the path of a student rental and to build on the premise of reduced parking, and then at some juncture, to switch gears and to establish a market rental,” Taylor Scott told council. “They look and feel the same.”

“Is it appropriate to potentially ask council to defer this until we have a final opinion from the developer as to what they want to do?” Monaghan Ward Councillor Matt Crowley asked, garnering applause from the public gallery.

Resident Judy Vye raised concerns over the changes the apartment building would bring to its surrounding neighbourhood.

“We currently are a neighborhood of low rise, mostly single, scrambled homes, mostly retirees. It's very quiet,” Vye told council. 

“It has a poor walking score, minimal access to pathways and almost no shopping. It's across the street from the zoo; it will overshadow everything! Our animals, the natural environments, the park, the river and the playground, [especially] with inadequate parking on the property.” 

Nearby residents’ opposition to the project conflicts with the municipality’s goal to build 4,700 new housing units by 2031. 

“I'm under an incredible amount of pressure from the community to create more housing,” Coun. Alex Bierk said. “We're in a housing crisis, and if I was on the fence of a decision like this, the reason to support it would be because of that.”

“I understand that you're under pressure to provide this, but eight stories and 600 people? It’s just not right,” resident Blair Johnston told Bierk. 

After more discussion of the building’s logistics, coun. Duguay moved to defer the application to amend the property’s zoning designation, “pending confirmation from the applicant on the intended use of the property.” 

The motion carried 9–1, with Otonabee Ward Councillor Lesley Parnell voting against the deferral. 

Following another break, the meeting proceeded with committee reports pulled from the consent agenda. Council first discussed an unaudited financial report detailing where the City’s public spending exceeded budgeted expenditure during the last year. 

The report showed a variety of transfers—approximately $5.2 million in total monies moved—to and from various reserve funds during the end of the 2024 calendar year. Most notably, the municipality’s Public Works department surpassed its budget by $1.26 million due to unexpectedly high costs associated with street cleaning, sidewalk plowing in the winter and forestry costs. 

“It truly is a reality check for us. It helps us take stock, and then we look again, and we see that we have a $26 billion gap,” coun. Lachica said. 

Members of council bemoaned the length of the Asset Management and Water Services Asset Management plans presented to them. Both plans made up over 400 pages of the total meeting package. 

When council moved to the Water Services plan, Ashburnham Ward Councillor Keith Riel felt he did not give the item enough attention due to the size of the document. 

“This was 329 pages long,” Riel told staff. “I wish I could say I’ve given this the service it needs, because this is a service that we brought in house.”

Following council’s recommendations to ratify the Asset Management plans next week, the horseshoe received another report detailing options for its winter homelessness strategy. What followed was a lengthy discussion about which aspect of the city’s social services programming was most crucial to the most vulnerable in Peterborough. 

Staff’s recommendation for maintaining existing homelessness included pre-committing $1.05 million of the city’s 2026 operating budget to broaden the scope of the Trinity Overnight Drop-In Program ($269k) and expand its daytime program hours ($244k), a $250k increase to the Housing Stability Fund, and an expansion of the Brock Mission’s 24/7 capacity costing $285k. 

The current service agreement the city has with the service provider for Trinity Community Centre, OneCity Peterborough, will expire in September of 2026, with the current Trinity overnight overflow program only going until March 2026.

Some members of council, including Mayor Jeff Leal, expressed hesitation at providing OneCity more funding despite the accountability structure the City has in place with the organization through its liaison committee.

“The City of Peterborough is not getting its fair share, so I think we need to have a level of accountability,” Mayor Leal told council. “And I'm not comfortable shoveling money over to OneCity with no accountability.” 

Town Ward Councillor Joy Lachica expressed her frustration with her fellow councillors’ responses.

“Some of what I'm hearing feels like we're throwing up our hands,” Lachica told council. “We're classifying a group with a sweeping brush again, and it's because we're frustrated. We're frustrated that it's not going away, that it's still with us, and the numbers don't seem to be decreasing.” 

Both chairs of the homelessness portfolio—councillors. Alex Bierk and Keith Riel—fought for council’s support on the recommendations outlined.

“What we have in front of us right now is a system that has been at capacity, beyond capacity,” Coun. Bierk told council. “We heard from staff. People are trading off halfway through their stay at night to allow the next person in who doesn't have access to that service.”

Council then moved to divide the recommendations into separate motions, declaring some support for the Brock Mission and maintaining the Housing Stability Fund, but coun. Keith Riel became aggravated at what he dubbed “cherrypicking.” 

“Come on, people, let's get together here!” Riel shouted at council. “We've got a plan, support us!” 

“It’s pretty simple, not picking A, B, C or D. If you think all of these other shelters don't have problems, you're crazy.” 

Following an extensive discussion of the options presented, Coun. Matt Crowley then moved to recommend an overnight warming space—operating from November 2025 to April 2026—for approval, only to have the motion withdrawn 5– 5, with couns. Crowley, Bierk, Lachica, Riel, and Mayor Leal voting in favour and couns. Vassiliadis, Beamer, Parnell, Duguay and Baldwin against. 

The homelessness winter shelter strategy recommendations were then partitioned and drafted into four separate motions by Coun. Riel. 

Both recommendations relating to the Trinity Community Centre’s programming were withdrawn 5–5 with couns. Lachica, Bierk, Crowley, Baldwin, and Riel for and couns. Vassiliadis, Beamer, Parnell, Duguay and Mayor Leal against. 

Both recommendations to pre-commit a $250k increase to the Housing Stability Fund and a $285k expansion of the Brock Mission’s 24/7 capacity were approved unanimously.