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 30^th.  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

Great Interest in Kitchener Centre by-election Housing Forum

Organizers of the Kitchener Centre by-election Housing Forum are  thrilled with the enthusiastic response to their Thursday November 23 meeting at 23 Water Street North, Kitchener, 6:30- 9 pm.

“Some 16 groups stepped forward to sponsor it, ranging from housing developers, organizations supporting people experiencing homelessness, advocates for green development standards, to Waterloo Region YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) andArchitectural Conservancy Ontario (ACO) North Waterloo Region Branch,” said Acer Bonaparte, president of the Waterloo Region ACORN chapter and one of the event organizers. “Lots of people in Kitchener Centre care about housing!”

Those unable to attend in person can register to attend virtually at
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mHXPeRmPSoGkiibELKu-XQ

In person visitors can browse sponsoring groups’ and candidates’ information tables between 6:30 and 7 pm.

Moderator Dawn Parker will start by posing pre-submitted questions to the three candidates who have confirmed their attendance, Green Party candidate Aislinn Clancy, Liberal Party candidate Kelly Steiss, and New Democratic Party candidate Debbie Chapman.  After that, questions collected from participants will be posed to the candidates.  The forum will end at 8:30 pm.

Event sponsors:  ACORN, Architectural Conservancy Ontario- North Waterloo Region Branch, Basic Income Waterloo Region, Beyond Housing, Cherry Park Neighbourhood Association, Council of Canadians KW Chapter, Grand River Unitarian Congregation, GreenWR, Groundup,  Momentum Developments, Mount Hope Breithaupt Park Neighbourhood Association, OldeBerlin Town Neighbourhood Association, Social Development Centre, Victoria Park Neighbourhood Association, Waterloo Region Yes In My Backyard

MHBPNA needs volunteers to function. We are planning on having an Annual General Meeting in January of 2024 to see who would like to be involved as we move forward past the pandemic. We will post a poll to decide which date works best.

In the meantime, here and on our Facebook Page, we are posting links to events we have organized and supported over the years. We have had a such a great time with our community and hope 2024 can be even more exciting.

In the past MHBPNA has done political lobbying which has directly change our neighbourhood for the better. For example:

Here is information about our meeting with Regional Staff over how the Weber Street Widening was going to affect our neighbourhood and that we needed a crosswalk with a signal:

https://mhbpna.org/2012/12/24/weber-wilhelm-and-our-meeting-with-regional-staff/

And here is the final (happy) outcome!

https://mhbpna.org/2013/01/29/planning-committee-approves-pedestrian-activated-light-at-wilhelm-and-weber/

On the other hand, we have also helped promote and pay for community organized events:

https://mhbpna.org/2015/01/03/lantern-walk-2014/

August 26th is “Worldwide Play Music on the Porch Day”!!

Don’t believe it? Check out this website.

At MHBPNA we do believe in performing music. Anywhere and everywhere, particularly on your porch. So for all musicians within the boundaries of MHBPNA, if you play music on Aug 26th and invite people, MHBPNA will reimburse you up to $30 for food (muffins, coffee, pizza etc.) with receipts.

If you email us at mhbpna@gmail.com and let us know what time you are playing, then we will post it on our website. Let’s get out there and play some music.

p.s. if you do not have a porch, you may still play music on your balcony, front steps, back parking lot etc.

Schedule so far

3 pm     Ted Parkinson (463 Duke St. West). Starting with some jazz, working into covers and original songs. 

Arnold, Guelph, Birch and surrounding areas

If you are concerned about tenant rights, consider attending this zoom meeting:

Thank you to the 30 or so folks who attended our Jane’s Walk: “Marvellous Mt. Hope – Breithaupt Park: from Industrial Past to Innovative Present”. It was a lot of fun to talk about our great neighbourhood and chat with so many of you.

Here are a few highlights. We look forward to leading another walk next year!

At the beginning of the walk everyone met the co-leaders: Ted Parkinson and Lane Burman.

We started the walk at the “Shoe Factory” at the corner of St. Leger and Breithaupt Street. This building has around 40 tenants in it, and has kept most of the historic look since it was the Greb shoe factory. Lane recounted many stories including one of a “ghost” that might still be there!

We talked about Krug Furniture, the Weber Street Widening, the impact of the railway being constructed in 1850 and the “industrial” roots of our neighbourhood.

Below Lane is discussing the area around the former Fire Hall at Duke and Breithaupt. Another topic of our walk was how most of the buildings in MHBP are examples of “vernacular” architecture,  this building has a fire hose tower that includes some Italianate features making it “polite”. The things you learn, right?

We ended the walk in the shadow of the Breithaupt Block which has been extensively renovated for Google and other tenants. One of the most exciting things about our area is how so many of the older buildings have been updated to still be used for so many “modern” commercial activities like developing software.

Each year, Canadian National Railway Company (CN) identifies the level crossings across its network, which require rehabilitation (major maintenance) to maintain crossings that are adequate for the road users and for continued safe railway operations. CN is planning on undertaking ‘full depth crossing rehab’ at several different crossings that are under the jurisdiction of the City of Waterloo. CN will require a full road closure (including sidewalks) to accommodate the proposed works. They are going to restrict/close off the MUP sidewalk that is adjacent to the tracks to accommodate this work and a safe work-zone. They will not be maintaining pedestrian traffic through their work zone. 

They have provided their updated schedule as follows;

Allan St -100 Allan St E, Waterloo, ON N2J 1V9 – May 1/23, 07:00hr – May 5/23, 19:00hr

John St – 66 John St E, Waterloo, ON N2J 1G1 – May 8/23, 07:00hr – May 12/23. 19:00hr

Union St – 95 Union St E, Waterloo, ON N2J 1G1 -May 15/23, 07:00hr – May 19/23, 19:00hr

Moore St -127 Moore Ave S, Waterloo, ON N2J 1X4 -May 23/23, 07:00hr – May 26/23, 19:00hr

Roger St – 150 Roger St, Waterloo, ON N2J 1X9 – May 29/23, 07:00hr – June 2/23, 19:00hr

After a few years hiatus, MHBPNA is sponsoring a Jane’s Walk this year. We encourage everyone to check out the Jane’s Walk Waterloo Region website to see all the walks in Cambridge, Waterloo and Kitchener. It will be an excellent weekend.

Our walk will be on Saturday, May 6 at 1 pm:

Marvelous Mt. Hope-Breithaupt Park: From Industrial Past to Innovative Present

Here is a short explanation of “What is a Jane’s walk” we wrote on this Blog back in 2012:

Spring must be here because it is time for another Jane’s Walk Weekend in the Kitchener/Waterloo area. The “Jane” in the walk is Jane Jacobs who was an urban activist in the United States and Canada. She wrote books on how to build urban environments that people enjoyed living in. The photo below shows her engaged in saving Penn Station from development and in her later years she was famous for helping stop the Spadina Expressway in Toronto. 

Of course there are many excellent places on the web to learn about Ms. Jacobs. The great thing about the Jane’s Walk events is that you do not need to know anything about her at all, except that she serves as an inspiration for neighbours to get together and discover the history of where they live. These walks are a great way to meet people from near and far.

Our website is being moved from one ‘host’ to another. As we work through this some glitches will appear, like the temporary loss of images. But all will be restored.

Immediate news is that MHBPNA will sponsor another Jane’s Walk this year. Stay tuned for details.