Dismal development

Re: Breithaupt tower moves ahead, despite objections — June 27

Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic predicted at Monday’s council meeting that the building is likely to win an award. The only awards I can imagine are the ‘tainted decision award’ or the ‘win-lose’ award.

The decision was profoundly tainted by a paltry response to well-articulated community input, plans and drawings that repeatedly masked or misrepresented significant deficiencies (e.g. deep shadowing; a parking garage that will look like a walled prison), a planning vision that dismissed out-of-hand policies already long endorsed by council and well articulated in at least four reports to ensure complementary land use, suitable gradual transition, and a commitment to not impose on existing neighbourhoods. Not to mention, the astounding hypocrisy of approving a 600-car garage that will be a stone’s throw from the rapid transit system that is supposed to get vehicles out of our cities and off of our roads.

The decision is a ‘win-lose’ because the developer won just about everything. There have been no compromises — only accommodation to the developer’s wishes for a huge building. The Mount Hope-Breithaupt Park neighbourhood, in contrast, has lost at every turn. It’s hard to imagine a worse precedent. Our citizens deserve more than lip service to the key planning principles that lead to genuinely thoughtful and careful growth.

John Ryrie

Kitchener