900 King St W | 25 fl | U/C

[jeffster]

I wonder how CTV and Bell media feels about the building? I'm assuming a 25 floor tower across the street from there studio would block a big portion of there aerial view of Waterloo from the tower.

Move the tower on top of the new building … I understand that is why the CN Tower was built, although in other big cities the same problem was typically solved less iconically.

Yes, but Kitchener isn't other cities.

We're one step closer to the Google Tower.

[ac3r]

Headline = 25-storey rental tower slated for midtown Kitchener, across from Grand River Hospital

Some in the nearby Mary-Allen neighbourhood in Waterloo are worried about additional traffic congesting their streets.

Legally, do they even have a say? Not their city.

Lol...checkmate, NIMBYs.

And in a sense, it is checkmate. Out of the tri-cities, we're the ones "winning". Kitchener is happily, rapidly densifying and modernizing by permitting everything from 44 floor skyscrapers in its core to having beautiful 16 floor condo developments proposed basically next to farm fields like 1593 Highland Road West, in addition to all of the other infrastructure, green and social improvements we're doing for everything from cyclists to homeless people. Heck, you can have a campfire in your backyard in Kitchener.

Meanwhile, Waterloo has achieved next to nothing uptown (if you ignore the student ghetto of buildings, which really don't count). There's The Barrelyards - which has taken over a decade and is still not done - and a couple other ugly, forgettable condo towers a few blocks south...but that's it. What happened to Isabella Residences? The two towers next to Sun Life? 87 Regina? Strata? Oh yeah, they went nowhere and now no developer is willing to waste their time trying to get anything built there now. Even the Westmount Place project is still stuck trying to negotiate with NIMBYs (they agreed to reduce the tower heights) yet that project still hasn't had full approval. I'll be surprised if that actually gets off the ground.

At this rate, Cambridge is going to do better than Waterloo because there is a lot of interest, new projects and plenty of new proposals all around the city and the LRT hasn't even been extended there yet. Wait until that's finished...Cambridge will enter a renaissance period and become one of the most unique cities in all of Ontario: two beautiful rivers running through it and tons of nature, 3 distinct "downtowns", beautiful historic architecture, a strong and highly visible industrious background (which really helped Kitchener have its renaissance moment), light rail rapid transit, direct access to the 401. The company I work for right now expects Cambridge to become a very, very, very desirable place and we're currently working on a few research projects regarding it as well as letting designers and interns play around with designing theoretical projects/towers.

Apart from the University of Waterloo...Waterloo - as a city - sucks. Their only contribution has been Kik and Blackberry ... :^)

[tomh009]

So where do I file a NIMBY complaint about this project. It's going to block my view of the CTV Microwave tower from my place...

(Just kidding)

I wonder how CTV and Bell media feels about the building? I'm assuming a 25 floor tower across the street from there studio would block a big portion of there aerial view of Waterloo from the tower.

I think their view will still be sufficient.

The peregrine falcons might want to move their nest to the taller building though!

[ac3r]

Interesting view point on Cambridge. How do they fix the mess that is Hwy 24 south of the 401?

TBH I'm not that knowledgeable on infrastructure planning so it's hard to say, but I'll just "theorize". I don't think there's much that can be done now due to fucked up urban planning in the 20th century. I had hopes that the LRT would reduce the highway/road to - at the very least - 4 lanes instead of the sort-of 6 lanes it is now (half of them are turning lanes but they're so frequent that much of it is as wide as a 6 lane road), but that isn't the case. The thing about Highway 24/Hespeler Road, though, is that it acts as a pretty important thoroughfare for Cambridge - it's a bit like the Conestoga Parkway in that it offers drivers a high speed, heavy capacity road...just one with a lot of stoplights (so it's not a true expressway). But why? It doesn't make sense. It's a straight road that basically just goes through big box stores and industrial developments - it barely connects Hespeler to the rest of Cambridge, for example. Having the LRT run along it would have been a perfect excuse to turn it into a 2 or 4 lane, much less traffic heavy road. Highway 24/Hespeler Road basically exists because it funnels people from the 401 into Cambridge and it funnels people from Brantford into Cambridge. It doesn't serve any other purpose, at least in the way it currently exists.

Now, while I'm not an urban planner who deals with roads, if it were up to me I'd have reduced Highway 24/Hespeler Road into a normal, modest 2 or 4 lane road with the LRT going in the middle. Then I'd say, let's improve Regional Road 80/Can-Amera Parkway into something more high capacity because the route that takes makes more sense. It connects to the 401 and continues into downtown Cambridge - where it connects to Highway 24 but at that point is reduced to a 2 lane road anyway. The problem with that, however, is that there are already residential developments near that and we all learned our lessons about running expressways/highways through residential areas. It completely fucks them up, often turning them into undesirable, low income areas.

The road itself sucks. It doesn't serve much purpose for people who live in Cambridge/Waterloo Region because half of it just goes through big box developments or industrial areas; it only vaguely connects Hespeler to Galt/downtown Cambridge (trying to break the habit of referring to 3 villages that don't exist anymore...lol). People coming from Kitchener or going back just take Coronation Boulevard already. The lack of density is one reason it exists - at least in its worst sections where it's 4/6 lanes - due to sprawling development planning...once you're around downtown Cambridge (Galt) it's just a 2 lane road. Ultimately, it's just the result of a poor decision making. But unless you can offer an alternative to deal with the 401 and Brantford traffic, what can you do, really? High speed rail doesn't exist on this continent, laughably. We can make amazing cruise missiles and tanks, but can't connect our cities like the Chinese can! I think the LRT going down there will really help, however, because a lot of those shit big box stores will get redeveloped (SmartCentres already has approval for what is possibly the largest highrise project in the region due to the LRT/direct proximity to the 401) and there will be less need to have that road be as wide as it is. With time, maybe all that wasted space will become densified residential and office towers, leaving only Cambridge Centre Mall as the mall. Then maybe the road itself will become smaller, as it becomes a more walkable, public transit oriented area. One can dream.

Below is quick idea of what I mean by turning Can-Amera Parkway into something more high capacity. It wouldn't even have to be high capacity because not that much traffic uses Highway 24 anyway, but it can divert it and free up and create a more human space. The green would be an improved, safer road for people trying to go between the 401, downtown Cambridge (which can reduce to 2 lanes near downtown, the way Highway 24 does already) and Brantford. The red is the shit situation as it is today. The white shows that both serve the exact same purpose...and some random scribbles since my laser mouse went crazy from cat hair:

Either way, I don't think we'll see much improvement here for many, many, many, many decades to come. The LRT will hopefully alleviate some traffic, densify the area and maybe put more emphasis on pedestrian street activity, but it'll still be an exceptionally wide road with or without densification for a long time.

Also, this goes to show you why grids in urban planning are a terrible idea. It works in large cities like New York City or San Francisco where you have a long history and well developed rapid transit networks, but a terrible idea elsewhere. Kitchener and Waterloo - while they both still have pretty wack infrastructure - aren't as bad because they were able to put everything from electric street cars, expressways, arterial roads and light rail rapid transit through the city without having to confine their routes to a grid pattern. This is one huge reason why European cities are able to be so dense and have bus, tram, subway and train lines going all over the place. Their cities - like ours here - developed pretty "organically" and the infrastructure adapted to that, rather than the city adapting to the infrastructure. You can see how quickly Kitchener, for example, abandoned that grid philosophy (which you basically only see downtown and near Kingsdale-Vanier) pretty quickly.

I could have instead done my PhD on how screwed up this region is, TBH! But I'm glad it's finally turning around. I just hope Waterloo will play along and Cambridge makes the right decisions going forward...because the ball is in their court over the next few years in regards to how they want to evolve. However I think they have some sensible people in government. Hopefully the residents of the city itself don't become too resistant to things and - so far - it seems most of them are pretty fine with anything that has been proposed. If they can maintain the architectural and natural heritage of what they own and is a definite prize, they could become an even more beautiful city than they are. I love the place and want to see it grow in a good way. No more huge roads and giant big box stores...focus on good transit, density and appreciating + preserving the historic stone buildings and nature they have, whilst also allowing beautiful new contemporary architecture to stand next to it.

What's sad is that all of us could recreate this region 100% in SimCity or City Skylines. Make the same shitty roads, expressways, bus routes, slow ass LRT. Then use a trainer or a cheat code to get infinite money and make some amazing investments in zoning, recreation, education, rapid public transit and then the region would be incredible. We elect the wrong morons into office and listen to all the wrong NIMBYs, radio hosts and upset "community advocates" and get stuck with the shit we now live in. We are to blame, in a way, because if a NIMBY group like the one who opposed the densified and affordable housing proposal on Mill Street can complain about a development they don't even live nearby (there was...what...2 dozen or so people, max at those meetings?) get it cancelled, then it's on the rest of us apathetic citizens who don't say: no, build this, stop listening to these morons.

[jamincan]

I don't think your fix would do all that much. Hespeler is busy because of all the traffic the businesses north of Can-Amera Pkwy generate and far less due to it connecting Hespeler and Galt. Can-Amera Pkwy is already perfectly functional as a connector, but the reality is that most people simply aren't trying to get into Galt. Part of the problem is that King Street is a very poor access for Preston, so Hespeler serves both as the primary access for that community and as the primary access for Cambridge's commercial centre. Hespeler and Galt have more viable alternatives.

One thing that could potentially help the situation would be a new interchange on Speedsville Rd. I can't really imagine the MTO allowing it, though, unless it were limited solely to an exit directly to/from Hwy 8.

[jeffster]

Legally, do they even have a say? Not their city.

Lol...checkmate, NIMBYs.

And in a sense, it is checkmate. Out of the tri-cities, we're the ones "winning". Kitchener is happily, rapidly densifying and modernizing by permitting everything from 44 floor skyscrapers in its core to having beautiful 16 floor condo developments proposed basically next to farm fields like 1593 Highland Road West, in addition to all of the other infrastructure, green and social improvements we're doing for everything from cyclists to homeless people. Heck, you can have a campfire in your backyard in Kitchener.

Meanwhile, Waterloo has achieved next to nothing uptown (if you ignore the student ghetto of buildings, which really don't count). There's The Barrelyards - which has taken over a decade and is still not done - and a couple other ugly, forgettable condo towers a few blocks south...but that's it. What happened to Isabella Residences? The two towers next to Sun Life? 87 Regina? Strata? Oh yeah, they went nowhere and now no developer is willing to waste their time trying to get anything built there now. Even the Westmount Place project is still stuck trying to negotiate with NIMBYs (they agreed to reduce the tower heights) yet that project still hasn't had full approval. I'll be surprised if that actually gets off the ground.

At this rate, Cambridge is going to do better than Waterloo because there is a lot of interest, new projects and plenty of new proposals all around the city and the LRT hasn't even been extended there yet. Wait until that's finished...Cambridge will enter a renaissance period and become one of the most unique cities in all of Ontario: two beautiful rivers running through it and tons of nature, 3 distinct "downtowns", beautiful historic architecture, a strong and highly visible industrious background (which really helped Kitchener have its renaissance moment), light rail rapid transit, direct access to the 401. The company I work for right now expects Cambridge to become a very, very, very desirable place and we're currently working on a few research projects regarding it as well as letting designers and interns play around with designing theoretical projects/towers.

Apart from the University of Waterloo...Waterloo - as a city - sucks. Their only contribution has been Kik and Blackberry ... :^)

Well, as for the Barrelyards, this is Auburn -- how long did it take them to finish off the Arrow building? (tho NIMBY's had an effect here too).

Waterloo used to be much more progressive, and I am not entirely sure what changed.

As for the LRT and Cambridge, I am hoping that the provincial and federal governments pay for most of it, like they're going to do for Hamilton.

[cherrypark]

Purely conjecture, but I would say its more that Kitchener leaped ahead than Waterloo fell that far behind. Kitchener just seems to have been more aggressive about approving and enabling development (while also having a lot of lands ready for it, to be fair). At the same time I wouldn't discount the abysmal Northdale/University area developments as probably being extra fodder for Waterloo neighbourhoods getting out in force against the supposition that all development = that kind of development (right or wrong).

[tomh009]

Meanwhile, Waterloo has achieved next to nothing uptown (if you ignore the student ghetto of buildings, which really don't count). There's The Barrelyards - which has taken over a decade and is still not done - and a couple other ugly, forgettable condo towers a few blocks south...but that's it. What happened to Isabella Residences? The two towers next to Sun Life? 87 Regina? Strata? Oh yeah, they went nowhere and now no developer is willing to waste their time trying to get anything built there now. Even the Westmount Place project is still stuck trying to negotiate with NIMBYs (they agreed to reduce the tower heights) yet that project still hasn't had full approval. I'll be surprised if that actually gets off the ground.

You're forgetting the condo conversion project at former St Louis School. 17 condo units, under construction since 2014 ... I think they are trying to make the Barrel Yards look good!

[gomesjustin]

I don't think your fix would do all that much. Hespeler is busy because of all the traffic the businesses north of Can-Amera Pkwy generate and far less due to it connecting Hespeler and Galt. Can-Amera Pkwy is already perfectly functional as a connector, but the reality is that most people simply aren't trying to get into Galt. Part of the problem is that King Street is a very poor access for Preston, so Hespeler serves both as the primary access for that community and as the primary access for Cambridge's commercial centre. Hespeler and Galt have more viable alternatives.

One thing that could potentially help the situation would be a new interchange on Speedsville Rd. I can't really imagine the MTO allowing it, though, unless it were limited solely to an exit directly to/from Hwy 8.

I do remember reading the MTO studied an interchange at Speedsville when restructuring the Sportsworld/Maple Grove exit; but it was deemed not suitable, due to the high grade of going Hwy 401 WB for trucks. They wouldn’t make it up that hill in the winter lol

[Lebronj23]

Kitchener residents say 25-storey tower is ‘sacrificing their neighbourhood’


https://outline.com/Cu8TWP

[panamaniac]

No surprise there, although I wonder how much happier they’d be if it were 10 storeys going up behind there homes?

[Bjays93]

I really don't understand the "they make a choice to live near downtown" argument at the end of the article. It makes no sense. 

Yes you make a choice to live near downtown knowing that high rise buildings getting built is a part of that, not the other way around. What lunacy.

[catarctica]

I looked up 890 King St W on Google Maps and it’s a freaking parking lot lmao. It’s not like they’re gonna bulldoze a farmers market to build this apartment.

[nms]

So maybe a better question would be: why isn't the developer satisfied with the zoning that already exists there? If the developer overspent on the property speculating that they could convince Council to bend over and go well above the existing zoning, that's not the City's problem.

Perhaps as a compromise, the developer could be restricted to what they want to build inside the existing zoning. Any additional floors would only be allowed for affordable housing. Keep this policy in place for all new developments until the affordable housing backlog is eliminated in the the Region. The developer would still get the same size building, and the community would be better for it.

One can dream...

[jeffster]

Kitchener residents say 25-storey tower is ‘sacrificing their neighbourhood’


https://outline.com/Cu8TWP

Not sure I understand -- after reading the article. This build isn't exactly close to the those homes -- maybe 1 or 2 homes *might* be effected. Either way, this build needs to be done, that is why we spent billions on the LRT -- not to have low density housing or vacant lands close by. The fact they want to work with the hospital for hotel units is great.