Welcome Guest!
In order to take advantage of all the great features that Waterloo Region Connected has to offer, including participating in the lively discussions below, you're going to have to register. The good news is that it'll take less than a minute and you can get started enjoying Waterloo Region's best online community right away.
or Create an Account




Thread Rating:
  • 3 Vote(s) - 3.67 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
The Breithaupt Block Phase III | 11 fl | U/C
I have emailed the mayor twice about this project and never received a response, but my ward councillor responded within the same day.

I really like what Mr. Vrbanovic has done as mayor and hope he returns.
Reply


(05-01-2018, 07:17 PM)panamaniac Wrote: I wouldn't want to look at a five storey parking garage out behind my house either, but I'm surprised that their complaint does not seem to extend to the office tower itself.  A bit of division within the neighbourhood ranks, or a "one off" who offered good filler for the Record?

It would be somewhat hard to argue, as they currently are, that a parking garage which intends to service employment with roughly 35% less parking than normal is not at all apropriate for a site this close to transit, while also arguing that a site this close to transit isn't fit for a 12-storey office building. That's why they are trying both avenues, hoping one of them sticks.

(05-02-2018, 07:08 AM)jeffster Wrote:
(05-01-2018, 11:18 PM)Pheidippides Wrote: He claims to be concerned about increased carbon footprint that will result from induced driving from providing more parking, but then says that his preferred solution is to build another parking lot elsewhere AND run a shuttle bus. So the number of total parking spots is not reduced, they just aren't near his property, and you have a shuttle bus spewing fumes all day.

Aha..you caught that too.

Not everyone will ever get out of their car. We're a long way away from that.

So the Mayor of Kitchener hasn't said whether or not he'll run again. Perhaps crap like this is getting to him. Makes me jealous of Waterloo with their attitude, yep, get 'er done. You'd never see this issue in that city (though Cambridge I'd imagine you would).

How long have we waited in Waterloo for the former post office site to be redeveloped? Or the Alexandria to come about? To see Waterloo residents' attitudes, I suggest attending the Jane's walk What's Happening to UpTown Waterloo?, where current homeowners will ask whether UpTown should exist at all, which is to say that after years of building amenities to support a larger population (transit, refurbishing the core, Waterloo Park upgrades, and more), they'd like to keep the upgrades given to the core, while kicking out the ladder to prevent others from coming to enjoy them.
Reply
(05-01-2018, 11:02 PM)kevinchoi519 Wrote: this project better get approved as is or google will just go somewhere else and it will be so embarassing

This.  Not that I think we should just cater to big companies, but think about all Google has done for DTK over the years just by existing.  That needs to continue.
Reply
(05-02-2018, 10:12 AM)Spokes Wrote:
(05-01-2018, 11:02 PM)kevinchoi519 Wrote: this project better get approved as is or google will just go somewhere else and it will be so embarassing

This.  Not that I think we should just cater to big companies, but think about all Google has done for DTK over the years just by existing.  That needs to continue.

I don't agree with this argument in the least, and don't think it's helpful in this case if the intent is to try to convince people that this is a good project. It is a good project: it is in keeping with the goal of intensification right near major transportation investments. It is additionally (I think) fairly respectful of the existing neighbourhood.

Those are the merits on which it should be approved, not because the city is being held hostage by a big multinational company who will leave if it's not. There's been no indication of that, and I think that kind of FUD argument runs the risk of entrenching people against projects like this.
Reply
Point of order: The developer hasn't actually said anything about projected tenant(s) for the building. It's an understandable assumption, but still just an assumption.
Reply
That's a good point. So the argument that "Google will leave town if this isn't approved" is based on a number of assumptions.
Reply
(05-02-2018, 11:25 AM)kps Wrote: Point of order: The developer hasn't actually said anything about projected tenant(s) for the building. It's an understandable assumption, but still just an assumption.

Perimeter hasn't, but Google has internally announced it to their employees as an expansion. With several hundred of them locally it's not exactly a secret anymore.
Reply


Could they at least make the exterior walls of the parking garage interesting to look at? Some kind of large scale art or mural ? I'm fairly sure there are options other than blank concrete that could make the whole thing more palatable. Also, I'm surprised they haven't added a pedestrian bridge to the existing buildings?
Reply
I'm sure they'd never spend the money, but a laser-cut aluminum latticework would make a nice cladding. (I'd do the same with the Market Square garage).
Reply
(05-02-2018, 02:12 PM)panamaniac Wrote: I'm sure they'd never spend the money, but a laser-cut aluminum latticework would make a nice cladding.  (I'd do the same with the Market Square garage).

There has been talks about that already in fact. But some of that has moved to potentially a giant mural. We'll see.
Reply
A good indication of the usefulness of a shuttlebus or reduced parking needs due to transit should happen when the LRT starts running. From what I can tell, both GRH and Sunlife run shuttles from their headquarters to the parking lots next to the train tracks. The question always is, regardless of where the offices are, will people get out of their cars? There seems to be a steady movement of people from north Waterloo to points south in the afternoon (and presumably the reverse in the morning). Also, how easy is it to convert parking garages if they turn out to be overbuilt due to non-driving transportation?
Reply
(05-04-2018, 01:27 PM)nms Wrote: A good indication of the usefulness of a shuttlebus or reduced parking needs due to transit should happen when the LRT starts running.  From what I can tell, both GRH and Sunlife run shuttles from their headquarters to the parking lots next to the train tracks.  The question always is, regardless of where the offices are, will people get out of their cars?  There seems to be a steady movement of people from north Waterloo to points south in the afternoon (and presumably the reverse in the morning).  Also, how easy is it to convert parking garages if they turn out to be overbuilt due to non-driving transportation?

For Sunlife and LRT, this was out of necessity and it helped that there was an available lot. However, in the upcoming years, that lot will be used for some other tenants. Parking garages and condo's will be be built in the existing lot between Sunlife and GRH.

As for Breithaupt, I'm not sure if there are any lots close enough to this proposal that would make a shuttle bus a good option. You do have a parking garage at Benton/Charles, but I doubt people want to pay $170/month for parking, even if they had free transit (Ion) or shuttle.
Reply
There has been a few articles casting this project in a negative light a couple from the Record and a couple in the Kitchener Post. I am really surprised that there haven't been some positive articles talking about how this project has the potential to bring many high quality jobs to the core.

There was an article today stating that due to the negative feedback received about this development the city is reviewing how it communicates to residents about projects. I think that this is a good idea, sometimes finding project information can be difficult ( even for people like us who are interested in development ).
Is it just me or does Frank Etherington always come off salty?

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/859...g-process/
Reply


(05-02-2018, 02:03 PM)PassTheBruce Wrote: Could they at least make the exterior walls of the parking garage interesting to look at? Some kind of large scale art or mural ? I'm fairly sure there are options other than blank concrete that could make the whole thing more palatable. Also, I'm surprised they haven't added a pedestrian bridge to the existing buildings?

This is intentional. They want people to activate the street level, going in and out of buildings (yes, even in winter), which is great in my opinion.
Reply
(05-11-2018, 09:16 AM)urbd Wrote: This is intentional. They want people to activate the street level, going in and out of buildings (yes, even in winter), which is great in my opinion.

Frankly, that’s silly. If somebody needs to get from their office to a meeting in the other building, they just want to get there, and forcing them to put on their coat and trudge through slush just so they can “activate the street level” is absurd, and won’t work in any case.

What’s so magic about the elevation at which the cars travel, anyway?

The weird thing is that we get this sort of thing from planners from here, not just California imports.
Reply
« Next Oldest | Next Newest »



Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 2 Guest(s)

About Waterloo Region Connected

Launched in August 2014, Waterloo Region Connected is an online community that brings together all the things that make Waterloo Region great. Waterloo Region Connected provides user-driven content fueled by a lively discussion forum covering topics like urban development, transportation projects, heritage issues, businesses and other issues of interest to those in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and the four Townships - North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot, and Woolwich.

              User Links