Various multi-unit buildings in and around the downtown

Built Form Standards

We're updating our Urban Design Manual and Built Form Standards, including standards for Downtown.

The Urban Design Manual was adopted in 2018, and the Downtown Streetscape was adopted in 2014, so it’s time for a refresh.

The updates are not intended to introduce major revisions, but instead will focus on:

streamlining existing guidelines and standards
consolidating information that is currently repeated in multiple places, and
update language.

This project will adapt existing built form standards to ensure there is design guidance for tall buildings throughout Guelph. In the end, our goals is to make the standards easier to implement as Guelph continues to grow.

Phases

Phases overview

Background work

Technical feedback from industry users

Building draft content

Draft Content Open Houses

More engagement coming soon

Draft Content Open Houses

November 19, 2025 - December 1, 2025

We hosted two Open Houses on November 27 at City Hall to share early components of the built form standards for your comments and to get your ideas for improvement.

3:00 p.m. - Developer focused open house - in this drop-in session we'll dig into the more process and technical aspects of the guidelines that speak directly to the needs of developers.
6:00 p.m. - General public open house - in this drop-in session we'll explore the standards more broadly to understand how it achieves the community goals for how we grow.

Following the open houses, we will continue to build out the draft. We'll then be back for broader engagement to receive comments on the full draft guideline document.