www.engagewr.ca/growing together
Growing Together is Kitchener’s response to the Province’s mandate to increase density near transit stations.
If you live in Mt. Hope/Breithaupt and are within 800 metres of a Major Transit Station Area – the ION stop at Grand River Hospital or the Central Stop at Victoria and King – the zoning of your property will be changing. Generally this means that all areas roughly within Union/Weber/Victoria/King will be re-zoned to a new Zoning category known as Strategic Growth Area 1 (see the actual map for Strategic Area 1 on the Growing Together website).
City staff are open to any and all comments on the new plan/re-zoning up until November 30th. Feedback on the plan will be incorporated into recommendations to Council. The document which best summarizes the changes to all areas within MTSAs is the Draft Official Plan Amendment – its an easy overview and about 18 pages long.
Here are some things in the Official Plan Amendment which you might be interested in
- Future plans for downtown Kitchener
- How the Bramm Yards will be re-developed (between Victoria and the rail lines)
- How new builds are expected to add to the “streetscape” through building design, public spaces, tree canopy
- New guidelines for “tall buildings” and how they are integrated into existing neighbourhoods/properties
- Outlining ways to re-use existing buildings through more adaptive uses
- The future of properties currently zoned “industrial”
NB MTSAs are identified along all ION stops so these changes will apply in Mill/Courtland/Downtown Kitchener/Block Line etc. Officially the name of the area of Mt. Hope impacted by these zoning changes is KW Hospital/Midtown
You might want to take a few minutes to look over the new DRAFT OFFICIAL PLAN.
Catherine Owens