Population and Housing

[danbrotherston]

Current minimum lot size in Kitchener is 235m² in Kitchener. Add 20% for roads and other infrastructure, about 34ha.

34 houses/hectare? That would then require about 40 hectares (0.4 km2) per year for the single-family housing.

@Dan, I agree that the balance should shift toward low-rise and townhome (and maybe some semi-detached). But I suspect completely throttling SFH construction would be politically unpalatable. The 1:1:1 proposal I made would already create a lot of opposition.

Housing starts in 2020:

• Single-family 859
  
• Semi-detached 124
  
• Townhouse 635
  
• Apartment/condo 2,131
  

The total is 3,749, which is actually higher than the 30-year average that I guesstimated. Single-family/semi pace is about 1,000/year which more or less matches the projection (maybe 1,000/year now increasing to 1,400/year) but the apartment construction starts are way higher.

https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/professio...cumulative

That's a significant underestimate. Average lot size will be larger and an order of magnitude underestimate of extra space needed for roads + common elements + stormwater management.

Yes, there will be considerable opposition to not destroying the earth through climate change.

It does not change the fact that it must be done. We need to set the goals we need to reach, and then figure out how to make the possible. If we aren't going to set goals that actually solves our problems, we might as well not bother.

For Apartment/condo, that's starts, not completions right? If buildings take 2-3 years to complete, so it needs to be averaged over a few years.

The other problem is that even the mid-density development in sprawl continues to be car dependent incomplete communities.