Heritage Guelph has asked for more negotiations on an issue seen as having the potential to scuttle plans for a downtown GO Train station. If this were to happen, the GO station would eventually go instead on the former Lafarge property near the Hanlon Expressway –with major consequences for an inter-regional transit terminal to be built on Carden Street this year.

The focus of attention is an 1890 factory known as the Cotton Mill, which faces the railway tracks and is part of the Hammill building complex on Farquhar Street east of Wyndham Street.

The Cotton Mill isn’t designated under the Ontario Heritage Act, but it is listed on the city’s Municipal Register for Cultural Heritage Properties.

City hall staff are recommending that this building be demolished –except perhaps for its north façade –in accordance with GO Transit’s wish to build a “Kiss and Ride” drop-off area for GO Train patrons at the site. However, at a special meeting last week, Heritage Guelph said it prefers retention of the Cotton Mill and wants more options to be explored before it makes a recommendation to city council.

“I’m hoping we can negotiate a win-win on this,” said Coun. Leanne Piper, city council’s representative on Heritage Guelph. “The building is an important piece of that historical section of the downtown.”

Heritage Guelph will reconsider the matter after GO Transit responds to motions passed by the heritage committee at the special meeting last Wednesday, Piper said in an interview Friday.

The Hammill complex at 72 Farquhar St., which is currently for sale and not being used, also includes four other buildings. But only one of them, the Drill Hall building facing Wyndham, which was built in 1866, is seen as having significant heritage value.

Metrolinx and GO Transit, which is now a division of Metrolinx, have agreed to retain the Drill Hall in any future development of the property linked to a downtown GO Train station, says a city staff report.

“Keeping the Drill Hall is my priority,” Piper said. “Other buildings might need to be sacrificed for the greater good.”

She has reservations about the idea of saving only the north façade of the Cotton Mill building, though. “I hate the idea of just saving walls. We seem to do a lot of that in Guelph,” she said.

However, she said she would prefer retaining this north wall rather than having the building totally demolished.

Heritage Guelph isn’t yet convinced that the Cotton Mill must be demolished, Piper said. She said she wonders if GO really needs all four “Kiss and Ride” lanes shown in its currently proposed design, or if fewer lanes would suffice.

Metrolinx-GO doesn’t want to buy the Hammill property unless it is assured that it can build what it thinks is needed on the south side of the tracks for a GO Train station in the downtown, the staff report says.

Metrolinx-GO is open to the possibility of preserving part of the Cotton Mill’s north façade if this is found to be “feasible,” the report says. (It says Metrolinx-GO isn’t willing to pay for preserving the façade, “but would be willing to discuss cost-sharing if necessary.”)

Negotiations are going on between all affected parties to finalize plans for an interregional downtown transit terminal, which is to become the new transfer point for Guelph Transit buses next year.

“The consequences of failing to reach agreement between all the agencies at this juncture is serious,” the report says. “At worst, the development of the transportation terminal may have to be stopped, or, at best, the north side facilities will have to be significantly modified to such an extent that the new facility may not be able to fully accommodate the transfer-point requirements of Guelph Transit and Greyhound.”

If a workable compromise can’t be reached on the Hammill property, “Metrolinx-GO has indicated that they may use the existing VIA station in the short term, but will be compelled to look at alternative station locations before commencing full service,” the report says. “Locating a future GO station outside the downtown will be counterproductive to the downtown revitalization plans and the growth plans for the city as a whole.”

Piper agreed that having a GO Train station built at the alternative location on the Lafarge lands would “jeopardize the effectiveness” of the planned new transit terminal on Carden Street.

She said it would also be detrimental to the city’s strategic plan for the downtown, which is identified as a growth centre under the province’s Places to Grow legislation. A downtown GO Train station is “a key piece of infrastructure” for the city’s strategic plan for the downtown, she said.