Post your pictures of Waterloo Region!

[BuildingScout]

Okay, I've had it.

Can we please get a citation for the oft-repeated "Only 3 storeys allowed in Uptown?

I see you answered your own question by finding the restriction. That was the point to say "gee I guess they are right, there is such a restriction". Instead you focused on the possibility that rules can be overridden which we already know is the case for anywhere in the city.

(i) For properties within the Main Street height limit on Schedule

‘B1’ – Height and Density, minor increases in height beyond
16 metres may be considered by way of an Amendment to the
Zoning By-Law, subject to the applicant demonstrating to the
City’s satisfaction that the four storey built form character and
massing of the streetscape is maintained through an appropriate
upper storey façade setback and other massing and supporting
design strategies.

So how realistic is that prescription? well not long ago the HSBC developer asked for four stories and his request was denied.

You want to know what happens when you allow development without this kind of design review?

The King St N student canyon.

Right, because mankind hasn't yet invented anything between 3 stories and 25 stories. The people who know about this have computed what is the ideal height for the width of a street in terms of aesthetics and human dimensions. King St. clocks around five to six stories.

You want to know what a development can look like that, through setbacks and massing, can preserve the 4-storey character of a main street, while still providing high density?

First, it's three story not four. Second you are doing circular reasoning here, we want to preserve three story because??  I can see preserving a nice unified street front such as downtown Stratford, but what three-story character are we preserving in Uptown Waterloo. The character of that part of the street is contained in exactly three old buildings: Waterloo Hotel, Time Square, Huether Hotel. Anything else is unremarkable.

In this case, the half of the block fronting Yonge is retained, while the half of the block fronting St. Nicholas has a condo tower.  While I don't see Waterloo approving a 48-storey tower in Uptown, I see no reason to think that a similar development that is within the 75m height in the zoning map could not eventually be approved, subject to design review that maintains the character of King St.

Well you are wrong on this count too as I pointed out already.

The development process is always a give-and-take.  This is why Zoning exists. So that if you want to push the envelope, that there are checks, balances, and leverage to make sure that you do it well.

Building a five story high building in downtown is not pushing the envelope in any sense of the word. The parkade, the Waterloo Hotel, the Huether Hotel are almost already there and they don't stand out in any way.

Can we please stop bitching and moaning about how development in Uptown is impossible, and accept that development fronting King St is simply held to a higher standard?

I won't dignify with a response the bitching and moaning part. As to the second, you got it exactly backwards King St. development is held to a lower standard. For one, demanding a maximum three storey when the ideal is four to six means that structures built will be inferior by default. For another, and this is what brought the whole discussion up, City council was happy to authorize the demolition of nice two and three storey brick buildings and replace them with a parking lot, as shown in the picture posted. So where is this "higher standard" you talk about?