Many seem to misconstrue what heritage really means anyway. NIMBYs tend to look at heritage as protecting the existing core as it is today. They think that new developments will either ruin the feel of things or outright demolish existing, historical buildings to make way for something new...which is not the case here. They usually just don't want to see new construction, they want downtown to look like it has always looked since they were growing up. But this is not a small region anymore, we're the fastest growing region in the country. Get with the times.
Heritage protection, from a professional point of view, means preserving existing structures and adding new ones that do not make insignificant the existing ones to look awkward (such as that proposal for a tower on Duke Street in downtown Kitchener, which has a developer who wants to build the tower literally on top of a beautiful old house - and rightfully so, heritage advocates, architects and normal people in the community think that's a stupid compromise).
I think the former is what is keeping Cambridge from having many new developments get approved or even proposed. People want to protect that historical, small town appearance and I can sympathize with that - but you can still build new things beside those old ones. This also seems to be an issue in uptown Waterloo, albeit less so. The 25 floor office tower proposed for Regina Street has stalled as has the Strata project because of NIMBY pushback, with the argument that these tall buildings will ruin the charm of uptown. All I can say to them is: sorry, but what charm? It doesn't have the feel of an old downtown anymore, it's just new low rise commercial fronts everywhere, a few old buildings and bars. I suppose...the more this happens...the more developers will just focus on downtown Kitchener because it has struck a perfect balance between preserving its old buildings and homes and rapidly modernizing with new ones and new infrastructure.
Heritage protection, from a professional point of view, means preserving existing structures and adding new ones that do not make insignificant the existing ones to look awkward (such as that proposal for a tower on Duke Street in downtown Kitchener, which has a developer who wants to build the tower literally on top of a beautiful old house - and rightfully so, heritage advocates, architects and normal people in the community think that's a stupid compromise).
I think the former is what is keeping Cambridge from having many new developments get approved or even proposed. People want to protect that historical, small town appearance and I can sympathize with that - but you can still build new things beside those old ones. This also seems to be an issue in uptown Waterloo, albeit less so. The 25 floor office tower proposed for Regina Street has stalled as has the Strata project because of NIMBY pushback, with the argument that these tall buildings will ruin the charm of uptown. All I can say to them is: sorry, but what charm? It doesn't have the feel of an old downtown anymore, it's just new low rise commercial fronts everywhere, a few old buildings and bars. I suppose...the more this happens...the more developers will just focus on downtown Kitchener because it has struck a perfect balance between preserving its old buildings and homes and rapidly modernizing with new ones and new infrastructure.