The May 12th general committee meeting of Peterborough city council saw councillors approve the rezoning of three properties for residential use, as well as the construction of new veterinary and medical clinics. 

Councillors also approved the modernization of the Peterborough Affordable Housing Community Improvement Plan (AHCIP) to provide stronger financial incentives for the development of affordable housing, a report detailing the progress of the municipality’s physician recruitment pilot project, and the implementation  of an Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) program.

The evening began with a short public meeting under the Planning Act, where council were presented with an application to construct an additional residential unit above a residential garage. After Mayor Jeff Leal endorsed the necessary zoning by-law amendment, the motion passed with little fanfare.

The next zoning by-law amendments presented to council concerned the conversion of an existing residential home at 112 Hospital Drive, which doubled as an optometrist’s office for over 40 years, into a two-dwelling unit and a clinic for two Peterborough physicians. The two applicants currently operate out of the Turnbull Medical Building as part of the Peterborough Family Health Team (PFHT), but seek to open their own clinic to better serve their growing patient roster.

This rezoning did not require any significant modifications to the building itself, and was not met with any pushback from council. Northcrest Ward Councillor Andrew Beamer commented that this was “a good news story,” before he and his colleagues unanimously approved the application.

The final zoning by-law amendment on the table was put forth by Sherbrooke Heights Animal Hospital, seeking to repurpose a property on 1628 Sherbrooke Street into a new veterinary clinic for themselves. Sherbrooke Heights Animal Hospital currently operates out of 1625 Sherbrooke Street, and are looking to expand their operations to the nearby property. 

Despite initial concerns about the effects of the construction on the site on stormwater drainage, City staff concluded that the project was in line with the municipality’s goal of promoting mixed-use neighborhoods. The amendment motion was once again approved by the ten voting councillors, as Otonabee Ward Councillor Kevin Duguay did not vote due to a disclosure of pecuniary interests

Closing out the Planning Act hearings, council received staff recommendations for a modernized AHCIP. These recommendations were presented by City Housing Manager, J.J. Thevasagayam, and Housing and Homelessness Program Specialist, Casey Bradfield, who began by detailing the shortcomings of the City’s current affordable housing plan.

Thevasagayam showed councillors the projected cost of offering affordable housing for a developer—over $400,000 over 25 years. Further, the city’s incentive system was compared to that of similarly sized cities such as Muskoka, where developers can receive anywhere from $15,000 to $100,000 to assist them in building affordable housing. Bradfield and Thevasagayam used these numbers to make the case for the necessity of greater financial incentives for building affordable housing in the city.

These incentives could reach up to $80,000 per unit to cover developers’ municipal fees and project costs, taken from Peterborough’s Housing Accelerator Fund grant, as well as a 10-year tax exemption for units addressing Council’s housing priorities. The revised AHCIP would detail the eligibility criteria for both incentive programs, and expand its project area to the entire municipality.

Following this update, the AHCIP would offer $38,000 more in incentives per unit to eligible developers, according to Thevasagayam. Town Ward Councillor Alex Bierk asked how the City would ensure that these incentives create “long term, deeply affordable housing rather than units that are only marginally below market.”

Duguay quickly followed suit, questioning the absence of reference to accessible housing in the AHCIP modernization report, to which Thevasagayam clarified that accessibility would be one of the criteria for financial incentive eligibility. Town Ward Councillor Joy Lachica echoed her colleagues, wondering about the omission of environmental impact from the presentation. Thevasagayam once again explained that this would be considered in the finalized eligibility criteria.

The presentation ended on a hopeful note, with Bradfield explaining that the updated AHCIP incentive program would likely bring 11 new housing units in its first year, 27 in the second, and exponentially more as time goes on. Ultimately, the staff-recommended and modernized AHCIP was adopted by council.

The next item on the agenda was the presentation of a report on Peterborough’s physician recruitment pilot project by Director of Economic Development, Darryl Julott. This $580,000 pilot project was announced in response to a municipal shortage in family physicians, leaving over 30,000 residents without a primary healthcare provider.

As Julott detailed in his report, the project has established a financial incentive program for physicians moving their practice to the city, funded a physician recruitment coordinator position, and established a presence at job fairs and other avenues to hiring physicians.

As of the time of the report, the PFHT’s unattached patient clinic has seen over 6,000 patients, and 2,200 Peterborough residents have been rostered with a primary healthcare provider. The project also allowed for the hiring of eleven new physicians, six of them being registered with Family Health Organizations and three with the Community Health Center.

The incentive system used by this pilot project offered $15,000 over three years to physicians practicing, keeping their practice, and recruiting colleagues to practice in the city.

In the wake of the new Provincial Primary Care Action Plan, which will unlock $1.8B in funds for municipalities in need of more primary care physicians, Julott explained that three different funding applications had been sent to the Province for the Trent Hills Family Health Team, VON Keene Health Centre, and 360 Degree Nurse Practitioner Led Clinic.

Immediately following the presentation, Councillor Bierk pushed for an amendment to the report asking City staff to inquire about the trend of United States-based physicians moving to Canada to escape political instability, in hopes of facillitating and incentivizing their move to Peterborough.

Bierk said of the amendment “its intention is just to enable our staff to follow through on this trend, and this is a moment in time, and I feel that if we’re proactive [...] important work can be done.”

After short deliberations, the amendment motion was carried unanimously.

At last, council deliberated on a set of staff recommendations for the implementation of an Automatic Speed Enforcement (ASE) program, which would see the introduction of radar speed camera technology to many of the city’s Community Safety Zones (CSZ)—usually areas surrounding schools or populated by young children.

As it stands, the average speed in CSZ is about 10km/h above the posted limit, and ASE’s introduction to other cities in Ontario has proven successful at reducing speeding. Councillors questioned staff about the scope of this project, asking where and when radar speed cameras would be active.

Infrastructure, Planning and Growth Management Commissioner, Blair Nelson, explained that the precise location of each camera was yet to be determined, but that once installed, they would be active 24/7 to protect children who may be out after school hours.

“A lot of our streets are designed to be safe at 60 kilometres an hour,” said Monaghan Ward Councillor Matt Crowley who worried that the project was little more than a “cash grab.”

 Still, he recognized that current speeding enforcement measures often failed due to the busy nature of police work, preventing officers from responding  when called about speeding offenses.

Responding to a question about project costs from Ashburnham Ward Councillor Keith Riel, Gregory Giles, the City’s Director of Engineering and Capital Works, explained that Peterborough’s ASE program is expected to be cost-neutral, if not profitable, presumably because of the greater amount of fines resulting from its implementation.

Ashburnham Ward Councillor Gary Baldwin and Mayor Leal took the occasion to deliver personal anecdotes about speeding mishaps.

“A number of years ago, when I went in to get my license plate sticker renewed, I think I had a charge for 407 and a speeding ticket, so I had to pay them all,” recounted Mayor Leal.

“One of my children goes through a school safety zone and he’s now picked up four of these,” shared Councillor Baldwin.

The recommended program was ultimately carried, with only Northcrest Ward Councillor Dave Haacke voting against it.