10-28-2020, 08:32 PM
(10-28-2020, 08:26 PM)tomh009 Wrote:(10-28-2020, 08:19 PM)panamaniac Wrote: More any port in a storm than good housing option. If it were up to me, Kitchener would have been insisting on affordable components in the new developments going up in DTK (and elsewhere).
Can't force developers to include those unless we require that in the zoning rules -- or the developer asks for variances.
As to would hotel rooms be good? Not as is, but there is no reason why a North American-sized hotel room (maybe 600 sq ft) could not be converted to a very functional bachelor apartment.
And, is it good to have affordable housing all in one building? No, it's not ideal. But if a hotel conversion can be funded by the feds, and can help take a few hundred people off the waiting list, I'm willing to accept that compromise.
Yes, I understand that is the mechanism, but why aren't we doing that. We just redid all the zoning and AFAIK didn't include anything for this. I feel like that was a missed opportunity...but there is no reason not to fix it now.
The only risk with this is that we limit the housing by increasing the restrictions (requiring affordable housing would be a restriction). That being said the simple solution is to eliminate other restrictions, parking, maximum density, etc. But that would be CRAZY I know.
As for converting, I suppose that's not unreasonable, but it would require a fair bit of modification.