417 King St W | 55 fl | Proposed

[ZEBuilder]

This is going to the next Planning and Strategic Initiatives meeting on the 30th. Staff are recommending approval of the development. The public comments are surprisingly minimal for this development with only 10 members of the public commenting. There were the usual too tall, doesn't fit into the existing downtown comments. There were also comments surrounding 3 bedroom units as well as not enough bike parking. Vanmar has updated the design to include 1 bike space per unit. There has been no 3 bedroom units included but city staff provided an interesting data point in that 27000 of the 3+ bedroom units in the city are occupied by only 1 or 2 people. This means 44% of large units in the city have more bedrooms than people living in them.

[dtkvictim]

There has been no 3 bedroom units included but city staff provided an interesting data point in that 27000 of the 3+ bedroom units in the city are occupied by only 1 or 2 people. This means 44% of large units in the city have more bedrooms than people living in them.

A bad way to frame it IMO. The only concern should be if 3 bedroom units fail to sell or are unoccupied, and not about how many people are in them. If an individual or couple sharing a single bedroom want or have need for more space then I don't see the issue and there should be supply to meet that demand. Especially with the increased demand for home offices.

If we stopped calling them bedrooms and just called them "rooms" no one would bat an eye.

It would only really be a problem if people are stuck in oversized units because there is a lack of smaller units that meet their needs, but that seems unlikely.

[tomh009]

There has been no 3 bedroom units included but city staff provided an interesting data point in that 27000 of the 3+ bedroom units in the city are occupied by only 1 or 2 people. This means 44% of large units in the city have more bedrooms than people living in them.

A bad way to frame it IMO. The only concern should be if 3 bedroom units fail to sell or are unoccupied, and not about how many people are in them. If an individual or couple sharing a single bedroom want or have need for more space then I don't see the issue and there should be supply to meet that demand. Especially with the increased demand for home offices.

I think the point is that there is actually a lot of supply of three-plus bedroom units, and the situation may not be as dire as it would appear from just looking at new condo/rental units being built. And that may explain why there appears not to be strong demand for such units (in multi-residential buildings) leading to developers prioritizing one- and two-bedroom units.

[dtkvictim]

A bad way to frame it IMO. The only concern should be if 3 bedroom units fail to sell or are unoccupied, and not about how many people are in them. If an individual or couple sharing a single bedroom want or have need for more space then I don't see the issue and there should be supply to meet that demand. Especially with the increased demand for home offices.

I think the point is that there is actually a lot of supply of three-plus bedroom units, and the situation may not be as dire as it would appear from just looking at new condo/rental units being built. And that may explain why there appears not to be strong demand for such units (in multi-residential buildings) leading to developers prioritizing one- and two-bedroom units.

That may be true, but that statistic doesn't seem to relate. Only vacancy rate of 3 bedroom units can tell you that.

Even developer preference for smaller units can't tell you that there isn't a shortage of 3 bedroom units, only that there is more demand and/or a more favourable profit margin for smaller units.

It might be "non-optimal" when you remove the human element, but on a personal level 1 person or 3 people occupying a 3 bedroom unit are equally valid if it meets their needs.

[ac3r]

It's not like we can police who rents what. That's unfair. If someone has the money and wants 3 bedrooms despite not having 3 people that's their right.

[Spokes]

Absolutely. Lots of people want a guest bedroom. We have an extra bedroom in our house. Is that an issue?

[nms]

Only way that the 27,000 statistic would be relevant would be if only 22,000 of the units were occupied and the rest were empty. The statistic doesn't speak to how many renters are currently in 1 or 2 bedroom units who would like to upgrade to a three-bedroom unit but can't do so due to a lack of capacity.

[Kodra24]

Absolutely.  Lots of people want a guest bedroom.  We have an extra bedroom in our house.  Is that an issue?

Unfortunately we know people that are FOR taxing households with extra bedrooms, smh

[Joedelay Highhoe]

Absolutely.  Lots of people want a guest bedroom.  We have an extra bedroom in our house.  Is that an issue?

Unfortunately we know people that are FOR taxing households with extra bedrooms, smh

Who is proposing an extra bedroom tax?

[Kodra24]

Unfortunately we know people that are FOR taxing households with extra bedrooms, smh

Who is proposing an extra bedroom tax?

I'm not sure if it's been proposed at any particular level in government or not but we heard this pop up a few times as one of the "solutions" to the housing crisis

And these are highly educated people spouting this nonsense, I'm really at a loss for words

[Spokes]

How could you even enforce that? Would be a logistical nightmare.

[Joedelay Highhoe]

Fortunately nobody actually proposed it. It's just a strawman hypothetical for people who like to wring their hands.

[CuilTard]

This is going to the next Planning and Strategic Initiatives meeting on the 30th. Staff are recommending approval of the development. The public comments are surprisingly minimal for this development with only 10 members of the public commenting. There were the usual too tall, doesn't fit into the existing downtown comments. There were also comments surrounding 3 bedroom units as well as not enough bike parking. Vanmar has updated the design to include 1 bike space per unit. There has been no 3 bedroom units included but city staff provided an interesting data point in that 27000 of the 3+ bedroom units in the city are occupied by only 1 or 2 people. This means 44% of large units in the city have more bedrooms than people living in them.

Yep. Neighbours got a mailer like this     . It's not easy to figure out what time this project will be discussed. I think this is the meeting agenda: 

https://pub-kitchener.escribemeetings.co...ng=English

and it's the last item 10.5 in part two (6:30 - 10 PM) https://pub-kitchener.escribemeetings.co...0Amendment

So does that imply it's scheduled to be discussed 9:30 - 10 PM?

My only other public comment/concern is the giant F design. Have they considered other letters or if we want to have a 55-story, giant F in DTK?

[Lebronj23]

The design can still change through the SPA process once this is approved. We won’t know what it will look like until it goes into marketing, and even then it can change slightly when built

[ac3r]

The F was specifically chosen to send a strong signal to the NIMBYs. Get F'd!

Joking obviously, but the tower looks fine. I don't know why this forum seems to dislike it. If you could see a physical model of it or additional renders I think you guys would like it more.