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Park Plan

This consultation is now closed.

Guelph is growing and the way people use parks is changing. It’s important we plan Guelph’s park system to provide optimal services as our population grows and changes.

What is a Park Plan?

A Park Plan is needed to ensure we have an optimal level of service for parks that is accessible to all residents as we grow and is sustainable, affordable and realistic.

The Park Plan is a continuation of the parks conversation from the Parks and Recreation Master Plan (PRMP) and aims to address time-sensitive legislative changes to the Parkland Dedication Bylaw required before September 2022.

Parkland dedication alone will not achieve Guelph’s Official Plan parkland targets. The larger PRMP will explore creative solutions to address those goals. The final Park Plan will be integrated into the PRMP and delivered to Council in 2023.

The Park Plan will:

  • Define our park system to understand our existing conditions
  • Outline future challenges and opportunities facing our park system
  • Plan for an optimal level of service as our community grows and changes
  • Develop strategic directions for parkland retention, optimization and expansion

We need a Park Plan in order to update our policies and priorities in line with the City’s Strategic Plan and to take advantage of new approaches, legislation, trends and guidelines in park planning and development.

Please note: This project began in an older version of our website. Some of the tools and information may appear different than originally designed.

Who's Listening

awaiting a headshot

Mallory Lemon, OALA, CSLA, Park Planner

mallory.lemon@guelph.ca

awaiting headshot

Luke Jefferson, Manager, Open Space

luke.jefferson@guelph.ca

Related projects

Phases

Phases overview
Phase 1 – consultation open
Under review
Phase 2 – Review and comment
Final Report

Phase 1 – consultation open

January 6, 2022 - January 20, 2022

To ensure the Park Plan reflects the needs of the community, we invited residents to share their thoughts and opinions through conversations and an online survey on the City's Have Your Say page. This engagement was linked to development of the Parks and Recreation Paster Plan, the Parkland Acquisition Strategy and Parkland Dedication Bylaw engagement, all of which happened together at various times along the way.

Specifically for the Park Plan, we invited feedback through:

  • An online survey on the City's Have Your Say webpage completed by 334 people
  • Two community focus groups facilitated by Dr. Rebecca Sutherns attended by a total of 67 people
  • One developer specific focus group facilitated by Dr. Rebecca Sutherns with two attendees
  • Individual meetings with Grand River Conservation Authority, Upper Grand District School Board, Wellington Catholic District School Board and Six Nations of the Grand River
  • Internal interest-holder meetings and engagement with other City departments
  • Email correspondence from people in our councils and treaty partners
  • Correspondence with Indigenous governments
  • A virtual Urban Indigenous Sharing Circle as part of an ongoing relationship building initiative with community members of First Nation, Inuit, Métis and mixed Indigenous ancestry – themed conversation around park and outdoor spaces attended by 9 community members

To learn more about what we did and what we heard, check out the engagement summary

Phase 1 – Focus Group Presentation.pdf
(1.3 MB)
Phase 1 – Park Plan – Questions and answers from public meetings.pdf
(156.0 KB)
Phase 1 – Park Plan Developers Focus Group.pdf
(228.4 KB)
Phase 1 – Park Plan Public Focus Groups summary.pdf
(694.3 KB)

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