09-04-2018, 04:13 PM
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Waterloo Region Connected
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Land Development and Real Estate
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Suburbs
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General Suburban Updates and Rumours
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General Suburban Updates and Rumours
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General Suburban Updates and Rumours
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09-06-2018, 08:52 AM
(09-04-2018, 04:13 PM)jeffster Wrote:(09-04-2018, 03:57 PM)Coke6pk Wrote: OPP Detachment in Cambridge is on fire. Guess they will be getting a new building. Maybe we should wait until school is out and do the same thing..... only way you'll get infrastructure improvements under this government.... Coke [Note: Sarcasm detector should be hitting high.... I do not condone arson in any way, shape or form] 
09-12-2018, 12:26 PM
Just wondering how the Waterloo Region Official Plan will impact development in the Region once all the remaining city land has been used up (see a link to a recent Record article on this subject below).
I understand that there is a plan to add density by building more condos and apartments within city boundaries, but how will the Region accommodate families who want to live in single detached homes? Ultimately, some new subdivisions will have to be built. It would seem to make sense that new subdivisions would be built in the townships directly adjacent to the city boundaries where development has already occurred (these locations will be closer to existing infrastructure (e.g roads, sidewalks, sewers, etc.) and also closer to amenities/transit). But the notion of a countryside line between the cities and the townships suggests that any future subdivisions in the Region (outside of city boundaries) will emanate from the cores of the townships (e.g. Expansion around New Hamburg and Elmira) as opposed to expansion directly adjacent to the K-W/Cambridge boundary lines. Does this make sense in the long-term (i.e. once the cities have run out of land to develop) or is the notion of a countryside line intended only as a short-term solution to encourage in-filling within the city boundaries? https://www.therecord.com/news-story/888...oo-region/ https://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/resou...access.pdf 
09-12-2018, 12:52 PM
The various villages also have a countryside line. My understanding is that there is still significant greenspace available for development, so it's not an issue that we really have to worry about in the immediate term. In the long term, it's certainly an issue we will face, though. It's not an insurmountable problem, though. Families still manage to live in Toronto and Mississauga despite there not being any new land available for development in those cities. As a community, we have to determine how important that countryside is to us, and whether we are willing to protect it even with mounting housing prices and a changing urban form. In some ways, we don't have a choice. Waterloo Region depends on the aquifers in the region recharging from those lands. At the same time, there is a significant cultural heritage that would be lost if we allow development to further encroach on our rural areas. I for one, would rather find alternatives to developing the townships.
09-12-2018, 12:58 PM
The short answer is no, there is no plan to allow large-scale development in the townships. See the map here, from the regional growth management strategy summary.
Developers and the region agreed on a compromise that will make some 450 ha of land (about 1100 acres) by next year, with possibly 200 ha made available later. That's a lot of single-family houses and townhouses, but probably not on 30m-wide lots. See the Record story here: https://www.therecord.com/news-story/568...d-dispute/ As the available amount of land shrinks, most of the housing growth will be rom intensification. Whether condo/apartment towers in the core, or medium-density townhouses/apartments further out, it will add a lot of housing units. Some people will still want to live in single-family houses, yes. The existing single-family housing stock will not disappear, so there will be plenty of resale opportunities. However, the choices for new single-family houses may grow more limited over time.
09-12-2018, 01:58 PM
People are moving out to places like Listowel in search of cheaper single-family housing.
09-12-2018, 02:07 PM
(09-12-2018, 12:26 PM)Tony_Plow Wrote: I understand that there is a plan to add density by building more condos and apartments within city boundaries, but how will the Region accommodate families who want to live in single detached homes? Ultimately, some new subdivisions will have to be built. Single detached houses are not some God-given right. They're a particular choice of land use, one that does happen to be glorified in our culture. But we don't have to build more of them. For one, because there are other ways to provide good housing for individuals and families in a way that has fewer irreversible environmental impacts - more densely, in particular. For another, because there's a ton of existing single detached housing stock that's still there for those who value them more than their existing occupants. I think we all know that a lot of big detached houses only have one or two people living in them. 
09-12-2018, 02:30 PM
09-12-2018, 02:33 PM
I don't think you'd have to do much calculating to find a lot of local areas whose resident supply vastly outstrips its job supply for adults. We might not have many like Orleans (population ~140K, with some strip malls but zero industry and pretty much zero non-retail employment, a bedroom area of Ottawa post-amalgamation), but we definitely have our equivalents.
09-12-2018, 04:07 PM
Most of the towns in the region's townships qualify for that.
09-12-2018, 04:15 PM
Which is a bit funny to an extent, when people say that they love township living when no, in fact, they love aspects of it divorced from reality. There isn't the industry, office or heavy, to support employment needed by those populations, nor many services from ones like hospitals and police, to libraries, to services and retail. Many of those are "borrowed" from the cities, and if you plunked one of the townships down truly as just a township without a reasonable ability to borrow these necessities from outside its borders, it just wouldn't work. Then again, we all do this in different ways: the neighbourhoods around UpTown love being close to UpTown, they just don't want the core of a major city to actually have other people living nearby. We want to have good assets like hospitals and libraries and courthouses, but we don't like to deal with the realities of those living in poverty or with substance abuse or mental health issues. Too often we act like we should be able to pick and choose only what is best for us, and toss away responsibility for the things we don't like as much, even when they are absolutely essential.
09-12-2018, 05:16 PM
09-12-2018, 10:25 PM
Just curious - why did the Region decide that the vast majority of future development of undeveloped lands would occur in Woolwich Township North and South of Breslau?
From the Growth Strategy Map it appears that at least 3/4 of all future development will occur in this area. |
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