03-29-2023, 08:36 PM
I don't know if there is a specific rule (been ages since I've done work in that city) but there is certainly a tradition of this limit. Of course developers can apply to have larger building projects (that big Drewlo one is proposing some of the buildings be as high as 28 floors), but most don't bother since it's easier to get approval if you don't do this. It's one reason why Waterloo has so many buildings with huge rectangular footprints: if they can only build up to a certain point, they try to make sure the building contains as much square meters per floor as possible.
There's nothing wrong about doing that IMO. There are cities all around the world where building height rarely exceeds a certain height. Washington, DC for example has fairly strict rules that nothing may exceed 130 feet (90 in residential areas). European cities are heavily dominated by 4-8 floor buildings. You can achieve high density even without skyscrapers all over the place. It is just super irrelevant in Waterloo. I mean somewhere like Montréal where they don't allow any buildings to be higher than Mont Royal makes sense symbolically, but here...? There's no real reason other than some arbitrary "it's to preserve the skyline and urban experience on the ground" argument. Okay yeah open spaces are nice - I'd rather see the sky than buildings - but this isn't Manhattan or Chongqing.
There's nothing wrong about doing that IMO. There are cities all around the world where building height rarely exceeds a certain height. Washington, DC for example has fairly strict rules that nothing may exceed 130 feet (90 in residential areas). European cities are heavily dominated by 4-8 floor buildings. You can achieve high density even without skyscrapers all over the place. It is just super irrelevant in Waterloo. I mean somewhere like Montréal where they don't allow any buildings to be higher than Mont Royal makes sense symbolically, but here...? There's no real reason other than some arbitrary "it's to preserve the skyline and urban experience on the ground" argument. Okay yeah open spaces are nice - I'd rather see the sky than buildings - but this isn't Manhattan or Chongqing.