Discover our St. George's Square design options and share your feedback

Share your preferences and comments with our design team right inside a dedicated Virtual Open House site. We will use community feedback to refine a preferred design to share back in March.

• Participate online January 20 to Feb 19
• Join us In person February 12 at City Hall (1 Carden St.). Drop in to review the concepts and speak with our team between 6 and 8 p.m.
• Our next Construction Cafe will be on February 20 at Capistrano. Look out over the square and chat with our team about the designs and potential for this jewel of a public space.

Downtown Guelph is the heart of our city. It’s a place where residents and visitors come to live, work, play, and love. We’re going to make it even better and breathe new life to our Downtown.

We have a vibrant and thriving Downtown, and we want it to stay that way for years to come. We also have aging water and sewer pipes, roads and sidewalks that must be replaced; some of the underground pipes are over 100 years old! We’re replacing our aging infrastructure and upgrading utility services, and, before we put the roads back together, we’ll also have an opportunity to modernize the streetscape.

Improving this important Downtown infrastructure will allow us to provide better community-driven service and help support the economic vitality of our vibrant Downtown core.

However, work like this takes time. It takes years to research, engage with the community, create a dependable plan, and replace the infrastructure. This necessary renewal work will ultimately improve our Downtown for all businesses, residents, and visitors. Let’s work together to create a place for everyone in Downtown Guelph.

The Downtown Infrastructure Renewal Program project is one of many exciting projects under the overarching Downtown Renewal efforts. The overall Downtown Renewal program will transform and revitalize how Downtown looks, feels and functions while still preserving its unique cultural heritage, which will make it future-ready to continue supporting growth to 2051 and beyond.

Planning phase

Planning for Downtown Infrastructure Renewal began in the spring of 2021. During the planning phase, we’re looking at the existing infrastructure and the future needs of Downtown Guelph to determine what needs updating..

As part of the planning work, we initiated two Municipal Class Environment Assessments (EAs). Environmental assessments involve collaborating with the community to support the planning and decision-making for large-scale projects. These EAs looked at various options for traffic flow, pedestrian areas and public spaces in Downtown streets, and the bridge and dam structures along Macdonell.

• The Wyndham Street EA examined the function of the road for all users including the number of traffic lanes and available active transportation infrastructure.
• The Macdonell and Allan Dam structures EA across the Speed River is being completed to confirm required improvements and the preferred solution for each. This part of the project has an dedicated project page on Have Your Say. click through to learn more.

In February 2024, City Council approved the Wyndham Street North cross-section and St. George’s Square reconstruction, which came from the original Wyndham EA. The Macdonell and Allan Dam structures EA will be brought to Council for consideration in early 2025, as this work is still being completed.

We have started to work on the final design of the first phase of construction for Downtown Infrastructure Renewal and will finalize that design in 2025. Construction will start in 2026.

The overall design and construction process for this infrastructure renewal is likely to last over the next few decades.

Project study area

Engagement opportunities

St. George's Square design options:

We're back to share two design options informed by ideas and comments we heard throughout 2024 at our community pop up events and online activities. We've developed a special site to take you through the history of St. George's square and how we got to these two designs, then we share the designs, how we expect the community might use them and present possible fixtures that could be included.

Share your preferences and comments with our design team right inside the design discovery site. We will use community feedback to refine a preferred design to share back in March.

• Participate online January 20 to Feb 19
• Join us In person February 12 at City Hall (1 Carden St.). Drop in to review the concepts and speak with our team between 6 and 8 p.m.

Join us for a Construction Café

On the third Thursday of every month, or project team will be at a different downtown café to meet with downtown businesses, hear your questions and share information. Drop in to have a chat in the morning. Coffee's on us!

The at the February 20 Construction Café, we will be joined by the designers working on St. George's square. Join them in small group conversations about the presented designs and share your feedback with them directly while overlooking the space from the comfort and warmth of Capistrano.

Check out the 'More Information' section below to find out more about Construction Cafés and the upcoming schedule.

Upcoming Engagement Opportunities

Wyndham Street N. preliminary design: Based on the earlier work done to determine the travel lanes and pedestrian areas for Wyndham North, we'll share a design that is 60% detailed to show specific elements such as pedestrian crossings, parking and patio spaces. Before we go any further with the design, we want to hear from you to make sure downtown's main street will make us proud for generations to come. This deign will be presented along with the proposed final design for St. George's Square for comment.

• Online March 25 to April 23
• In person March 9 from 6 to 8 p.m. at City Hall (1 Carden St.)

More engagement dates and announcements coming soon!

Past Engagement and how the project has progressed

A summary of past engagement activities and what we heard from 2022 until our most recent phase of engagement can be found in the “Documents” panel on the right-hand side of this page, including:

• Fall 2024 engagement summary
• Spring 2024 engagement summary
• Fall 2023 engagement summary
• Summer 2023 engagement summary
• Fall 2022 engagement summary
• Summer 2022 engagement summary

How to reach us:

We're always here to answer your questions. Please reach out any time at mydowntown@guelph.ca. We'll get back to you within a few business days.

Sign up to follow the project for regular updates. Simply subscribe using the "stay informed" link in the upper right corner of this page.