LIVE: City council hears from residents on proposed 2025 budget

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Follow Windsor Star reporter Taylor Campbell’s live blog below for up-to-the-minute coverage of Windsor city council’s meeting on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. Today, city council will hear from residents on Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens’s proposed 2025 budget. Council will also decide whether to adopt master plans for Festival Plaza and Sand Point Beach. 

10:03 a.m. — Today’s council meeting has two agendas: one for the regular council meeting, and one for a special council meeting on the 2025 operating and capital budget recommendations, which will allow for public delegates but won’t involve council delibration. Council is starting with items on the regular council agenda.

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10:09 a.m. — There are roughly 100 people seated in the gallery in council chambers this morning. Some are city staff, but the majority are members of the public. Around 40 people have signed up to speak before council as delegates. Some of them will appear virtually.

10:14 a.m. — On item 8.5 of the regular agenda Response to CQ 7-2024 – Converting Downtown One-Way Streets to Two-Way Streets – Ward 1 Coun. Fred Francis says he cannot support this item, which is on the consent agenda. That’s because, if approved, council could spend $200,000 to investigate converting one-way streets to two-way streets and ultimately take no action. The item has been removed from the consent agenda and will be put to a vote.

10:18 a.m. — Ward 6 Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac asks about item 8.4, Response to CR227/2024 DHSC 609 Regarding 6 story building with 54 Multiple
Dwelling units, located at 835 Tecumseh Rd. E, 2148 Marentette (the Caboto Club). She asks that a clause from this item that requests a traffic impact study — a study city staff would do on how the proposed development would impact traffic in the surrounding neighbourhood — be applied to item 8.9, Zoning Bylaw Amendment Z 020-24 [ZNG-7216] Farhi Holdings Corporation 8565
McHugh Street – Combined Use Building Development. As a result, item 8.9 has been removed from the consent agenda and will be put to a vote along with Gignac’s request. She’s concerned the Farhi development will negatively impact traffic in the Villages of Riverside neighbourhood.

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10:21 a.m. — On item 8.4, Ward 9 Coun. Kieran McKenzie asks why the city should invest time and resources to perform a traffic impact study when the analysis could be driven by and paid for by the developer. He asks if council can compel the developer to undertake the study. City engineer David Simpson says a neighbourhood-wide traffic review would be outside the scope of a development. He suggests that cost recovery could be charged to the developer. He also suggests development charges could fund the study.

Kieran McKenzie says he doesn’t think council should approve this development today and wants a traffic impact study performed first.

Gignac: “As we intensify our neighbourhoods, I think this is becoming a real issue with many developments that we see. I think we’ve got to find a way to have it (a broader traffic impact study) as part of the fee in planning.”

Item 8.9 has been pulled from the consent agenda for further discussion.

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