Viva Towns (19-41 Mill St) | 4 + 3fl | U/C

[tomh009]

The thing that gets me is that there are not even 18 single family homes on that section of Mill St. What "neighbourhood" are these people from?!

If you exclude the houses already purchased by the developer, the REEP house and the three houses donated to affordable housing by the region, there are probably only half a dozen other houses on Mill, between Queen St and the railway tracks. The development backs onto the railway and an industrial property, so no homes there. And the houses on Queen are commercial properties.

So, yeah, where did all those people come from?

[danbrotherston]

The thing that gets me is that there are not even 18 single family homes on that section of Mill St. What "neighbourhood" are these people from?!

If you exclude the houses already purchased by the developer, the REEP house and the three houses donated to affordable housing by the region, there are probably only half a dozen other houses on Mill, between Queen St and the railway tracks. The development backs onto the railway and an industrial property, so no homes there. And the houses on Queen are commercial properties.

So, yeah, where did all those people come from?

More importantly why do they feel they are entitled to a say, why do they care, and why were they listened too?

[tomh009]

OK, it's now clear to me where the resident complaints originated from: it appears that most of them were from the Victoria Park neighbourhood. Not adjacent, I think the closest houses would be several hundred metres away, and on the other side of a tall apartment building (and a proposed condo development). Nevertheless, it appears they were strongly opposed.

Neighbourhood association meeting minutes are here:
https://www.victoriaparkna.com/2021/05/1...-6th-2021/

Some selected quotes:

New developer proposal was approved by Council on April 26th.
The new proposal is greatly reduced from the original. There will be no affordable units.
New proposal is considered a big win by community residents.
No affordable units included in the new proposal which was of concern to some Counsellors.

It's clear that affordable housing was not a concern for them.

Wendy indicated that Kitchener has surpassed the province of Ontario’s minimum requirements for intensification.

The minimum is good enough, then?

Unanimous support for VPNA to have a Development Sub-Committee.
Peggy, Mario and Wendy volunteered to be on the Sub-Committee.
Development Sub-committee will:

• Develop terms of reference
  
• Finalize draft letter to City Planners
  

I expect there will be more organized opposition to development, intensification and affordable housing in the future for anything near the Victoria Park neighbourhood.

[ijmorlan]

OK, it's now clear to me where the resident complaints originated from: it appears that most of them were from the Victoria Park neighbourhood. Not adjacent, I think the closest houses would be several hundred metres away, and on the other side of a tall apartment building (and a proposed condo development). Nevertheless, it appears they were strongly opposed.

…

I expect there will be more organized opposition to development, intensification and affordable housing in the future for anything near the Victoria Park neighbourhood.

Yes, better to have out-of-luck people on the street than housed!

[Joedelay Highhoe]

No problem, they'll just call the cops when people experiencing homelessness set up tents near their properties.

[ac3r]

There's a UW architecture professor who talks about how opposed the people living around Victoria Park are to intensification. I'd write them off as entitled, wealthy snobs who want to protect their piece of paradise as long as they possibly can.

[cherrypark]

Leads one to wonder what the alternative is. The problem persists downtown whether or not the VPNA is happy they've won the day here.

It doesn't seem like medium density development is much the interest of developers, regrettably, and a misalignment of how the city is getting buy-in on their affordable/inclusionary zoning. Nor would I expect these residents to be any more supportive of it when the priority is keeping single-family home as the standard.

[nms]

Here is an interesting tweet from MennoHomes from May 24, 2021. I'm not sure which house they are referring to.

In December, we acquired a house on Mill St. as part of a lottery held by the Region of Waterloo. There was no cost for the property but having been vacant for 10 years, it required extensive renovations. We partnered with Mennonite Disaster Services to get the work done.

[panamaniac]

Here is an interesting tweet from MennoHomes from May 24, 2021. I'm not sure which house they are referring to.

In December, we acquired a house on Mill St. as part of a lottery held by the Region of Waterloo. There was no cost for the property but having been vacant for 10 years, it required extensive renovations. We partnered with Mennonite Disaster Services to get the work done.

24 Mill St.

[panamaniac]

Here is an interesting tweet from MennoHomes from May 24, 2021. I'm not sure which house they are referring to.

In December, we acquired a house on Mill St. as part of a lottery held by the Region of Waterloo. There was no cost for the property but having been vacant for 10 years, it required extensive renovations. We partnered with Mennonite Disaster Services to get the work done.

24 Mill St.  32 and 34 Mill went to a First Nations NGO in the same lottery.

[nms]

Thanks. What prompted the lottery?

[tomh009]

Thanks. What prompted the lottery?

The region is working on increasing the amount of affordable housing, and, in the case of those three houses, decided that gifting them to non-profits for use as affordable housing made more sense than razing them and building a small affordable housing development.

[danbrotherston]

There's a UW architecture professor who talks about how opposed the people living around Victoria Park are to intensification. I'd write them off as entitled, wealthy snobs who want to protect their piece of paradise as long as they possibly can.

They also advocated against the downtown cycling grid...

Yeah...these folks are not a positive influence on the city.

[tomh009]

There's a UW architecture professor who talks about how opposed the people living around Victoria Park are to intensification. I'd write them off as entitled, wealthy snobs who want to protect their piece of paradise as long as they possibly can.

They also advocated against the downtown cycling grid...

Yeah...these folks are not a positive influence on the city.

Why? They didn't want bicycles on neighbourhood streets?

[danbrotherston]

They also advocated against the downtown cycling grid...

Yeah...these folks are not a positive influence on the city.

Why? They didn't want bicycles on neighbourhood streets?

They state loudly they are worried about traffic...which is why they oppose (and succeeded in killing) traffic calming?!!

Most likely they oppose change of all kinds.