Can downtown Kitchener handle 5,000 more people?
KITCHENER — Construction cranes are a common sight in downtown Kitchener as the core undergoes a historic building boom.
But while many residents are happy to see more people living, working and spending downtown, some wonder if the core can handle the sudden influx of thousands more residents in just a few years.
Coun. Frank Etherington is concerned that intense development can place pressure on existing neighbourhoods — tall towers throw shadows on existing homes and add traffic, noise, and parking problems to streets.
The building boom raises other questions about whether downtown can handle more than 5,000 new residents arriving in the space of a few years.
Given that the core has been relatively underpopulated, the extra people will certainly change the downtown but not strain it beyond capacity, says Cory Bluhm, Kitchener’s executive director of economic development.
Downtown Kitchener is probably blessed with more amenities than any other part of the city, he says: Victoria Park and Civic Park, the Kitchener market, the central branch of the library, the downtown community centre and the Centre in the Square.
“We may have to keep a mindful eye: do we have the right amenity mix, and how are existing amenities standing up?” he says.
Downtown roads have plenty of room to handle an influx of 5,200 new residents in the next five years, as well as hundreds of office workers, says Barry Cronkite, Kitchener’s manager of transportation planning.
“We’re confident the development will have a negligible impact,” he said. The city carried out a traffic study as part of a study on intensification around the LRT, and found “we do have quite a significant amount of capacity in our downtown streets,” Cronkite said.
“It would be busier, but it won’t be Toronto busy,” he said. Drivers might see minor delays, waiting 10 seconds more at a traffic light, but most drivers already expect the downtown to be a slow drive because streets are narrow and are clogged with buses and unloading trucks.
Even if the percentage of people who walk, cycle or take transit to work doesn’t change, there’s enough room on city streets to absorb the extra cars, Cronkite said. And city planners are assuming that more people will move away from cars, which should mean there’s plenty of capacity on downtown streets, he said. A twolane roadway, for example, can handle about 15,000 cars a day and, in downtown, streets currently see about half that, he said.
New guidelines require much less parking for downtown developments, which planners hope will encourage at least more residents to live car-free.
The people who are buying and renting downtown do seem to be less car-oriented, and there’s no sign they’re put off by the reduced parking requirements in the core, said Tim Bolton, a sales representative with Condo Culture. “People have no trouble finding a buyer or renter for their unit without parking. It’s not that people don’t drive. It’s that people don’t own cars.” When they need a car, they rent or use carshare.
Downtown has key retail shops such as a drugstore, liquor store and beer store, Bluhm notes. While downtown residents talk wistfully of the desire for a grocery store, that’s not likely until the population in the core hits 10,000 or so, he said.
But downtown is getting livelier, with a mix of eateries, bars, patios and entertainment. Bolton says he’s had customers move from Waterloo to downtown Kitchener because they feel there’s more nightlife in Kitchener, especially in the summer festival and patio season.
“It is the exciting place to be, that’s the perception.”