$23 million put in place to kickstart housing construction in northwest Waterloo

Thousands of homes are set to be built in a quiet corner of Waterloo, and millions of dollars have been put aside to help the project get underway.

City of Waterloo council approved funding for the start of the Beaver Creek Road and Conservation Drive Redevelopment Project on Monday. In total, a projected $23 million was put aside, $22 million from development charges and $1 million from capital reserves.

“We know there’s a lot still under negotiation because the overall infrastructure costs for this project are significant, but it’s good to get moving forward with the pieces that we can,” said Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe.

According to the city, the project has been in the works for years, and is the largest infrastructure project in the capital budget.

Beaver Creek Road will be redeveloped from Laurelwood Drive to Conservation Drive to make way for the construction of up-to 4,500 new homes in the Beaver Creek Meadows district and the Erbsville North area to the west.

Reconstruction and urbanization planned for a stretch of Beaver Creek Road which, in it’s current state, is very narrow and basic.

In the process of funding this first phase of the project, the city will go into a considerable amount of development charge debt, but Councillor Royce Bodaly noted that it’s worth the sacrifice, and that funding from the provincial level could help ease those concerns.

“We really need the province to also step up here if we’re going to build more housing in our community,” said Bodaly. “We need to find ways to pay for it, if the way to pay for it is not fully through development charges.”

Staff will now begin the tender process, with construction slated to begin this summer and take about three years to complete.

The City of Waterloo has plans to build 16,000 new homes by the year 2031.