EXCERPTS:
The public will have an opportunity later this month to comment on a new Willowdale Child Care and Learning Centre rising from the ashes of an old one.
The municipality's holding a public planning session on Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. in council chambers on a zoning bylaw amendment to allow a daycare centre and county offices.
Council is to hear public delegations at that time.
"We'll get feedback at the meeting," Guelph senior policy planner Stacey Laughlin said Friday. She noted councillors are gathering information and input that evening, including a report she's prepared, and won't be making a decision until another council meeting at a later date.
Wellington County operated a daycare centre on 0.78 hectares of city land at a 95 Willow Rd. site, a high-density residential area of the city, until the building was closed as a precaution.
That was when potentially hazardous asbestos was discovered in vermiculite insulation, and the county vacated the site in May, 2013. Asbestos had been used in Canadian construction into the 1980s as a fire-resistant material, until health risks emerged.
The county is looking to buy the property from the city for $150,000, demolish the structure and rebuild a similar centre, a project currently in midstream. A sale agreement was announced late last year, although the project requires rezoning to an institutional zone from the current regional park zone.
County communications manager Andrea Ravensdale reported Friday that the centre is still on track to open in the coming fall, after the sale goes through "this winter."
She added the new building will encompass about 409 square metres (4,400 square feet) of space.
A preliminary concept plan has been developed, calling for a one-storey building of similar size or somewhat smaller to the previous one, and with a similar configuration, Laughlin's report states.
The site is adjacent to Willow Road Public school, apartment buildings and other residential housing, the report reads.
County child care services director Luisa Artuso said recently the new daycare centre may open by this coming fall. It'll offer space for infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
The county has $2 million in funds from which it can draw for the development.
-reprinted from Guelph Mercury