Population and Housing

[panamaniac]

Good news. Will the church Sanctuary be saved?

[KevinL]

Good news.  Will the church Sanctuary be saved?

Yes, it will become a community space.

[Coke6pk]

St. Mark's Church (adjacent to KCI) is planning to be adapted into a community space with affordable housing.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/990...ble-place/

I told y'all it wasn't becoming a new tower.....

I thought the sale was secret for one year after the congregation agreed (to allow Indwell to do studies on the land/building), but I guess they are satisfied enough to go public.

Coke

[tomh009]

Great! ... but which part of the building is the sanctuary?

[KevinL]

The main church space, with the pews and the altar.

[tomh009]

I see, thanks!

[westwardloo]

Looks Like KWC has added about 50,000 people since 2016. Stats can has us just under 600,000.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/...1710013501

Will be interesting to see how the pandemic will affect population growth in the region. In the regions long-term population and housing report they forecast the region to have a population of 923,000 by 2051. I think that forecast is a little optimistic with the regions current land use policies. I can't see the region almost doubling in size without opening up a significant section of protected farmland for development. As much as I like and support infill and dense midrise neighborhoods. There is still huge demand for single family houses. I just hope when the region does open some of townships for development they are smart about it and build complete neighbourhoods that include not only detached homes, but town homes, midrise and walkable retail.

[ac3r]

Our own region has estimated the population to be 617'870 since 2019: https://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/regio...ation.aspx

Their forecast for 2021 will put us at 630,900, although this report was published pre-SARS-CoV-2.

[Rainrider22]

Looks Like KWC has added about 50,000 people since 2016. Stats can has us just under 600,000.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/...1710013501

Will be interesting to see how the pandemic will affect population growth in the region. In the regions long-term population and housing report they forecast the region to have a population of 923,000 by 2051. I think that forecast is a little optimistic with the regions current land use policies. I can't see the region almost doubling in size without opening up a significant section of protected farmland for development. As much as I like and support infill and dense midrise neighborhoods. There is still huge demand for single family houses. I just hope when the region does open some of townships for development they are smart about it and build complete neighbourhoods that include not only detached homes, but town homes, midrise and walkable retail.

With the rate at which GTA people are moving here, I imagine we will well surpass the estimates.  A friend of mine listed his house on Wed. 20 People through Wed, 30 on Thursday, 26 Scheduled for tomorrow, 16 on Sunday.  Bids are being accepted on Sunday.  Agent said 90 percent of the people are from Toronto...

[neonjoe]

Looks Like KWC has added about 50,000 people since 2016. Stats can has us just under 600,000.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/...1710013501

Will be interesting to see how the pandemic will affect population growth in the region. In the regions long-term population and housing report they forecast the region to have a population of 923,000 by 2051. I think that forecast is a little optimistic with the regions current land use policies. I can't see the region almost doubling in size without opening up a significant section of protected farmland for development. As much as I like and support infill and dense midrise neighborhoods. There is still huge demand for single family houses. I just hope when the region does open some of townships for development they are smart about it and build complete neighbourhoods that include not only detached homes, but town homes, midrise and walkable retail.

There's two rather large suburban developments about to open for Presale in South/West Kitchener.
Mattamy - Wildflowers Crossing (Along Bleams between Fischer Hallman and Trussler up to the Cemetery)  - Mattamy Builds Superfast https://mattamyhomes.com/kitchener-water...ssing.aspx
Activa - Trussler (Ottawa/Trussler) https://activa.ca/community/trussler-west-kitchener/

I can see Mattamy's Subdivision going very quickly they pretty much built all the Sprawl in the GTA and are pretty well known by buyers from the GTA.

[westwardloo]

Looks Like KWC has added about 50,000 people since 2016. Stats can has us just under 600,000.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/...1710013501

Will be interesting to see how the pandemic will affect population growth in the region. In the regions long-term population and housing report they forecast the region to have a population of 923,000 by 2051. I think that forecast is a little optimistic with the regions current land use policies. I can't see the region almost doubling in size without opening up a significant section of protected farmland for development. As much as I like and support infill and dense midrise neighborhoods. There is still huge demand for single family houses. I just hope when the region does open some of townships for development they are smart about it and build complete neighbourhoods that include not only detached homes, but town homes, midrise and walkable retail.

There's two rather large suburban developments about to open for Presale in South/West Kitchener.
Mattamy - Wildflowers Crossing (Along Bleams between Fischer Hallman and Trussler up to the Cemetery)  - Mattamy Builds Superfast https://mattamyhomes.com/kitchener-water...ssing.aspx
Activa - Trussler (Ottawa/Trussler) https://activa.ca/community/trussler-west-kitchener/

I can see Mattamy's Subdivision going very quickly they pretty much built all the Sprawl in the GTA and are pretty well known by buyers from the GTA.

Southwest Kitchener and south east Cambridge are the last available swath of land for suburban development. Those three subdivisions are large, but they are not going to hold 400,000 people. I understand that the plan is to accommodate a large chunk of population growth in midrise/ highrise developments. The region is going to have to eventually open up areas like breslau, bridgeport, bloomingdale, and blair to development if they realistic expect to be a region of 900,000.  Based on the regional plan for 2041 they have no plan on providing additional land for housing. 

Don't get me wrong I want the region as a hole to become denser and don't want to be see endless sprawl in the region. I think for the most part we have done a great job at building up rather than out. I just feel that at some point the region needs to be realistic and identify sections of farmland that will be gradually opened for sustainable master planned development. I don't want developments to be tradition subdivisions with endless cul de sacs, strip malls and box stores. Personally I would prefer the city to control the layout of the streets and zoning requirements. Rather than have the mattamy's of the world create endless disconnected subdivisions with 4 lane artillery roads connecting them to the rest of the city.

[tomh009]

The cities could also require new subdivisions to include a certain percentage of land used for medium or high-density housing.

[ijmorlan]

The cities could also require new subdivisions to include a certain percentage of land used for medium or high-density housing.

Or stop micro-managing zoning. Just have a residential zone that excludes noisy commercial/industrial but allows everything from single-family up to 4-story apartment buildings. Let individual landowners decide what to build, and allow the neighbourhoods to evolve naturally over time.

[taylortbb]

The cities could also require new subdivisions to include a certain percentage of land used for medium or high-density housing.

Or stop micro-managing zoning. Just have a residential zone that excludes noisy commercial/industrial but allows everything from single-family up to 4-story apartment buildings. Let individual landowners decide what to build, and allow the neighbourhoods to evolve naturally over time.

I like the theory, but that would almost certainly result in exclusively single detached homes. We don't split up the land and then let individual landowners build what they want, single developers buy acres and subdivide them in to lots. Most buyers want nothing but single family homes, and developers would be all too happy to provide.

Unless we appropriately price the externalities of cars, which we're nowhere close to doing, leaving it to the free market would be terrible. 

I'd certainly rather we fix the car externality problem, but I see it as much less feasible.

[ijmorlan]

Or stop micro-managing zoning. Just have a residential zone that excludes noisy commercial/industrial but allows everything from single-family up to 4-story apartment buildings. Let individual landowners decide what to build, and allow the neighbourhoods to evolve naturally over time.

I like the theory, but that would almost certainly result in exclusively single detached homes. We don't split up the land and then let individual landowners build what they want, single developers buy acres and subdivide them in to lots. Most buyers want nothing but single family homes, and developers would be all too happy to provide.

Unless we appropriately price the externalities of cars, which we're nowhere close to doing, leaving it to the free market would be terrible. 

I'd certainly rather we fix the car externality problem, but I see it as much less feasible.

I agree about pricing the externalities of cars (both the desireability and the political difficulty), but I think there is empirical evidence against the idea that developers would just build detached homes everywhere. Remember, we are constantly seeing developers asking for more floors on their developments. In other words, they’re asking to build more than is allowed by zoning. Why would eliminating the rules cause them to stop wanting to build larger?

From a more theoretical point of view, suppose I have a plot of land. I can fit 4 detached houses on it with big yards all around, or 8 with much less yard space, or 16 townhouses, or 50 apartments in a low rise, or 200 in a highrise (suppose). Which one makes more sense to build will depend on the market — for how much do I think I can sell or rent those various options? For the 4 detached houses to make sense compared to the 200 highrise apartments, there has to be very low demand for highrise apartments in that location. Now obviously there are locations where the detached houses will be built, not the apartment, but anywhere there is a housing shortage I don’t see how the detached houses get built.

There is another advantage to relaxing the zoning restrictions: years after initial development, the neighbourhood can evolve for new circumstances. How many lawyer and doctor offices are in old mansions downtown? Conversions of this sort are now illegal in most of our residential areas. Or consider Northdale: the single-family houses gradually turned into student rentals, with extra bedrooms packed into every basement corner and garage. Why? Because it was illegal to build more appropriate small apartment buildings. When the City finally changed the rules, almost the entire neighbourhood was razed and rebuilt as apartments over a period of maybe 20 years (process still ongoing). Before they changed the rules, all sorts of problems occurred because it was illegal to build appropriate housing for the demand.