General Retail News

[ZEBuilder]

I've heard rumours that Laurentian Centre (at Ottawa and Strasburg) may be redeveloping its northern portion (everything except Zehrs, Montana's, and Rona). Is that a big enough footprint for an Ikea?

It is the intent of Smart Centres to redevelop it, however it is still a while away and is almost guaranteed to be mixed use in nature. They've done geotech work throughout the site this past year. They did a borehole and monitoring well in the Rona parking lot, they've done one in the middle of the Zellers parking lot, then they've done boreholes and monitoring wells along the Strasburg side of the older Zellers. However geotech/hydrogeological work is often done years ahead of any site plan.

One thing to keep in mind is the Region's long term intent is to have the plaza redeveloped into a mixed use development through ROPA 6 so a use such as Ikea would not conform to that and likely be rendered as illegal without a ZBA/OPA. The policies relevant to this particular can all be found in Section 2.D.3 of ROPA 6, I'll highlight some important statements from it and text I add will be in brackets.

2.D.3.3
Area municipalities, in consultation with the Region, will establish minimum density targets for all Regional Intensification Corridors that:
(a) are measured in people and jobs per hectare; 
(b) support transit-supportive development with a more compact built form; 
© reflect opportunities for the intensification and support the transition of any surrounding neighbourhoods into 15-minute neighbourhoods;
(d) recognize the diversity of uses along the corridor and reflects the local context; and 
(e) will be implemented through official plan policies and designations, and zoning by-laws (Such as the current Kitchener OP update)

2.D.3.4
Area Municipalities will establish policies in their official plans with implementing zoning by-laws to ensure that Regional Intensification Corridors (ION Stage 1/2 and Ottawa from Sunrise Centre to Fountain St) are planned in a matter that: 
(a) accommodates intensification and higher-density mixed uses in a more compact built form;
(b) prioritizes walking, cycling, and rolling, and taking transit over automobile trips;
© provides for an appropriate range of main street uses, such as retail, cultural, institutional, residential, personal services, offices and other uses;
(d) prohibits reverse lotting and positions new buildings as close as possible to address the street edge while ensuring adequate space for sidewalks and a street planting zone; (Likely impossible with the way Ikea's are generally designed)
(e) requires new buildings to be a minimum of two storeys;
(f) locates the highest densities and encourages a greater mix of uses close to transit stops within Major Transit Station Areas; 
(g) provides an appropriate transition of use, intensity and scale from higher-density development to any surrounding low density areas; 
(h) prohibits land uses and built form that would adversely affect the achievement of the minimum density targets set out in Policy 2.D.3.3; and, 
(i) is consistent with the relevant transit-supportive development policies of Section 2.D.6.

2.D.3.5
As part of the next update to the Region’s Transportation Master Plan, the Region, in collaboration with the area municipalities, will examine the potential for establishing a new ION rapid transit route along the east-west Regional Intensification Corridor (Ottawa St) shown on Map 2 that would: 
(i) provide a direct link from the Region’s transit system to the Region of Waterloo International Airport; and
(ii) serve as a key transit corridor connecting the west side of the City of Kitchener to the East Side Lands Employment Area in the Township of Woolwich, and City of Cambridge via the Fountain Street corridor.

The Region of Waterloo was stripped of planning powers with Bill 23 however one of the purposes of the new Kitchener OP is to incorporate those ROPA 6 changes, eventually the only OP that will be relevant is Kitchener's but for now everyone is still operating with both ROPA 6 and each cities own OP until ROPA 6 is incorporated into each cities own OP or the Province says to stop using it. Kitchener could decide to ignore everything about Ottawa St but that seems highly unlikely given the policies around the MTSAs.