01-16-2019, 06:23 PM
(01-16-2019, 04:31 PM)kidgibnick Wrote: Perhaps this means passing building proposals that (albeit subjective) leverage the value of the land/location; ties the community and surroundings together; consider the building impact on social-engagement; considers community-focused design; meets socio-economic needs; as well as being generally unique/interesting/innovative, built of good quality, and aesthetically pleasing...and the list goes on. However, for most property developers it boils down to unit economics :/
Unless we're going to have government subsidies of development, it will always boil down to economics. Developers won't undertake projects unless they're profitable. We can require through zoning that buildings meet certain design standards, but "nice looking" is almost always synonymous with "expensive". When we make building more expensive, it makes housing more expensive. If we're going to focus on "meeting socio-economic needs" we're going to have to give up on every building being aesthetically pleasing.
I'd love to see more beautiful buildings in downtown Kitchener, but even more than that I want to see housing that can be afforded by a majority of people. We build subsidized housing for those of very low income (e.g. bottom quartile), but what about those of the median income? I don't want to see them pushed out of DTK, to where it's just subsidized housing and luxury housing, with nothing in the middle.