General Suburban Updates and Rumours

[ac3r]

Office building going up on Kingsbury Dr.

Whatever this is, it's gone up to about 6 floors as of today. Pretty unfortunate motel to be behind, though.

[mpd618]

In Kitchener, there appears to be some residential development that has sprouted pretty quickly on (or behind) Highland, between Westheights and Westheights.

[timio]

@mpd618: http://huroncreek.com/westacres

[MacBerry]

@mpd618:  http://huroncreek.com/westacres

Seems like calling this location as part of the "mature Forest Heights neighbourhood" is a stretch ... IMO

[tomh009]

The Westheights area (a few blocks from this development) was built in the 1970s and 1980s. Don't know about this particular street, though.

[timio]

Late 1980's.

[panamaniac]

@mpd618:  http://huroncreek.com/westacres

Seems like calling this location as part of the "mature Forest Heights neighbourhood" is a stretch ... IMO

You mean the "mature" bit?  It is in what I would have considered "Forest Heights".

[tomh009]

Late 1980's.

Through the 70s and 80s.  Much of Driftwood was built up in the 70s already, and the Westheights Public School was built in the mid-70s.  Other parts in the late 80s, sure.  But even then, I think a 30-year-old neighbourhood is already pretty mature.

[DHLawrence]

Do we know what's going up near Marten's Furniture on Weber?

[rangersfan]

I believe that is the 5 story office building on Kingsbury Dr..


With the pumping station work completed plans for development in South Kitchener can proceed.


http://m.therecord.com/news-story/707938...evelopment

[rangersfan]

Run, there is an invasion on the horizon!!!


http://m.therecord.com/news-story/709789...ghbourhood

[KevinL]

When you live in walking distance of a postsecondary institution, this pretty much goes without saying. The college has been there for decades, what did they expect to happen?

[Markster]

Ughhhhhhhhhhhh

"We don't want to allow new student housing here!"

"Why are the houses converting into student housing?! Stop it!"

[Section ThirtyOne]

As someone who used to live in that neighboorhood, the NIMBYism there is off the charts. Never seen anything like it anywhere.

[nms]

But were the houses there that long?   My guess is that part of this push-back comes from people who bought houses in the last 10-20 years in newer development that ignored the presence of Conestoga College.  If the the developers and the City had been proactive, they might have come up with a development plan that allowed the greenfield development to skip the initial single-detached housing stock step and move immediately towards something like what is planned for Northdale 3.0 (1.0 Victory Houses; 2.0 stucco towers; 3.0 the current plan).

I understand that this is not unique to the area.  The greenfield neighbourhoods around the Ontario Institute of Technology ran into the same problems shortly after it opened in 2003.

On a related note, a University of Waterloo Yinzhou Xiao student wrote a thesis in 2013 that looked at these kinds of conflicts in 23 muncipalities.  From the abstract:

The study results showed that at least 23 Ontario municipalities faced challenges
associated with the concentration of student population in near-campus neighbourhoods.
The challenges relate to demographic imbalance, decreased rates of homeownership, a
deteriorating neighbourhood environment, and student behavioural issues. However, only
around half of the affected communities have developed planning strategies to respond to 
the challenges. Eleven planning approaches are identified, analyzed, and evaluated in the
study. In general, planning policies to encourage high-density development to
accommodate students are common approaches and considered effective: purpose-built
student housing has significantly increased its market share in some university
communities. This type of development relieves housing pressure, but it is not clear if it
helps to stabilize low-density neighbourhoods near campus; the attempt to regulate the
student private rental market by zoning and licensing regimes has several drawbacks. The
study also reveals diverse interests of different stakeholders in near-campus
neighbourhoods, and the lack of effective collaboration and partnerships among them in
addressing challenges in their neighbourhoods in general.