Highrise plans make good sense

The plan to build four, soaring residential towers on vacant land in south Kitchener is big, bold and should proceed.

Yes, it would change forever the area surrounding the sprawling site at the corner of Courtland Avenue and Block Line Road.

And yes, it would change life for the people already in that part of the city as it brought in more residents and more traffic.

But these four highrise towers with as many as 1,300 units that could accommodate thousands of new residents are exactly what Kitchener and Waterloo Region need and have been planning for.

They also fit in perfectly with a major infrastructure project that regional taxpayers are funding.

By design and not coincidence, these towers of up to 38 storeys would be built beside the Block Line station of the light rail transit system that should be running sometime in 2018.

The purpose of light rail is not only to provide people with transit that’s more comfortable and reliable than buses. Light rail is being brought here with $818 million in federal, provincial and local tax dollars to intensify development in the region’s cities and to prevent them from sprawling into the countryside and devouring Ontario’s finite supply of farmland. In-fill, not overflow, is the order of the day, and rightly so. Nor is urban intensification just a priority for local municipal politicians.

It has been mandated for this part of Ontario by provincial law.

A high percentage of all new residential development must be apartments, condos or semis as opposed to single, detached homes.

All things considered, then, Viridis Development’s proposal to proceed with these four towers delivers everything in a residential project that the province, region and city are looking for.

Does that mean the development company should get everything it wants? It’s too early to answer that question. But it’s a given that the people already living in this area should help shape this project.

Some residents are understandably worried that the new traffic from the development would make local roads too crowded.

The current plan includes parking for 1,500 vehicles and, of course, that would make that part of Kitchener busier.

But presumably, many of the people who would live in these towers would do so because of the easy access to light rail and choose public transit over cars at least some of the time.

In addition, some current residents fear the proposed buildings would be too high for the neighbourhood.

Details such as these must be thrashed out in the coming months and after more public meetings.

That said, the residents already living in the area should be open to the project’s benefits.

By including a public pedestrian plaza with shops, eateries, offices and perhaps a grocery store, this development would make the entire neighbourhood more vibrant as well as more pedestrian friendly. This is how Kitchener is supposed to grow. Its citizens — as well as the politicians who will eventually vote on this project — should keep this in mind.