High-rise condo development in Kitchener denied by council

Plans to build a trio of colossal towers on King Street in Kitchener are halted by city council, but it may not be the end of the line.

At a City of Kitchener council meeting on Monday, the proposal for a high-rise development at 4611 King St. E., near Highway 401, was brought before council for a third time.

The developers made a number of significant changes to their proposal since it was first brought before the Planning and Strategic Initiatives Committee on Jan. 27. The original design included three towers, the tallest standing 33-storeys high, with 726 units and just 0.57 parking spaces per unit, despite of the location’s limited access to public transit.

The new proposal reduced the height of the tallest tower to 26-storeys, with 545 total units and increased parking, but those amendments were not enough to sway council’s decision.

“Not every piece of land that we have available in the city is right for development,” said Councillor Jason Denault.

The towers faced a long list of criticisms from councillors and residents throughout the process, including concerns of how it would affect traffic in the area, a lack of affordable units, and the stature of the towers in an otherwise-moderate neighbourhood.

The neighbourhood around the proposed development is situated between Highway 401 and Highway 8, and unfortunately, that means many people travelling through the area are commuting at a high rate of speed between the two highways. Residents are concerned for how adding hundreds of additional vehicles could further worsen those issues.

The area has limited sidewalk space, and many of the developments would-be neighbours are hooked up to privately dug wells and septic systems for their water and wastewater needs, services that have already been disrupted due to recent construction on Highway 8 according to residents who emailed 570 NewsRadio.

Residents living on Limerick Road, directly behind the proposed towers, would also have to deal with potentially hundreds of windows looking directly into their backyards and private spaces.

“You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” said Rollie Galbraith, a resident who delegated at Monday’s council meeting, about the proposed development.

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Some councillors, including Councillor Paul Singh, were wary of denying the application because of the implications of where that denial could lead.

Brandon Flewwelling of GSP Group, representing the developers at the council meeting on Monday, didn’t rule out the possibility of appealing to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) if the development was turned down at the council level.

The OLT is an agency that hears appeals related to land disputes, and could potentially change the outcome of council’s decision.

Relevant statistics show that 96 per cent of appeals to the OLT go the way of the developer, and if the proposal was brought before the tribunal, it would be considered in it’s original form not including the amendments made at the request of Kitchener council.

“If we do not take the chance, we have a 100 per cent chance of losing,” said Galbraith. “Just imagine if you had a loved one with a 4 per cent chance of survival. We love our community.”

“I understand our residents here in this chamber are comfortable with us turning this down and taking a risk, seeing what the OLT does, but the evidence is before us, seeing past applications,” said Singh. “I don’t need to wonder what’s going to happen, I know what’s going to happen.”

Council ultimately voted 11-3 in favour of denying the application.