Concerns growing over industrial projects near Huron Natural Area
Posted Oct 17, 2025 10:00:06 AM.
Last Updated Oct 17, 2025 11:11:24 AM.
Voices are continuing to raise issues with a list of industrial, commercial, and residential projects slated to be developed near Kitchener’s Huron Natural Area.
Those concerns stem from an online petition created earlier this year, detailing local pushback against that list of city projects. That online petition has now garnered over 3,500 signatures.
The main focus of the petition is to urge the City of Kitchener to roll back on those listed developments, urging members of the public and the local community to voice their concerns to city councillors.
“We cannot destroy this treasure of Huron Natural Area by abutting industrial development, which is going to create runoff, it’s going to create noise pollution, which is going to change the topography in that area,” said former Kitchener city councillor, Yvonne Fernandes, speaking on The Mike Farwell Show.
The current list of developments slated to be installed around the Huron Natural Area includes high-density apartment towers, a commercial area, medium-density residential spaces, along a proposed industrial development zone.
While issues have continued to be raised through the summer, Fernandes said current city councillors have stated that these projects have been on the books for years. She added, though, that they were never brought forward or mentioned while she was in office.
“This was never raised at council during the time I was on council, and the whole idea that ‘Because it’s been on the books for many, many years, it means that it’s okay, we’ve checked the boxes’ always irks me.”
Previously, the City of Kitchener released a statement to 570 NewsRadio, noting that it would continue to push for the protection of the area, but also stated that the proposals it’s been developing are outside the space of the Huron Natural Area.
She says, even though councillors are saying these projects have been in development for years, it shouldn’t change the fact that the natural area, research, and the local impact have continued to change over the years.
“They’re changing all the time, our knowledge about wetlands, our knowledge about the environment,” Fernandes stated. “We should, as a city and as a community at large, be pivoting to understand how those changes affect the decisions we may have made 20, 30, 40 years ago.”
The petition does go into detail on possible changes that could be made, and other avenues where these listed projects could be moved to, reducing the impact on the Huron Natural Area.
Those include vacant lots, empty buildings, and other open areas across the rest of the city.
Those advocates say the best thing that the general public and the local community can do is to reach out to city councillors across the City of Kitchener, raising concerns and raising awareness on what they think should be done with the area moving forward.
