Density limit set aside for community payment

WATERLOO — The City of Waterloo will be getting more than $1.5 million for various community projects as a result of a bonusing provision reached with a developer for a new apartment building in the Northdale neighbourhood.

The planned six-storey (21.4metre) building will take the place of six single detached dwellings at the southeast corner of Albert and Hickory Streets, located within walking distance of local post-secondary institutions.

The building will contain 185 residential units with 222 bedrooms (35 studio units, 113 onebedroom units, and 37 twobedroom units). A driveway off Hickory will provide access to 79 underground parking spaces and 56 bike spaces, city planner

John Vos told council Monday.

“The proposed building has been designed so that each of these ground floor units facing Albert Street could be converted for commercial use — for example, a small restaurant,” Vos said.

The building will also feature mezzanines and various indoor amenities, as well as private patios and balconies attached to some units.

Matt Rodrigues, a planner with WSP Canada who represented a numbered Ontario company at the formal public meeting Monday, said the building’s design has gone through several iterations and will incorporate various materials and glazing in keeping with the city’s urban design guidelines for the Northdale area.

He said a number of architectural changes have been to balance out the ends of the building that’s basically divided into three sections. There will be two main entrances to the apartments, with recessed entrances to ground floor units that compensate for setback reductions for the street.

Because the number of bedrooms exceed what is permitted for that area, the developer will provide $1.5 million in community benefits to the city, including:

> a $700,000 contribution to the city’s affordable housing grant program;

> $400,000 for the construction of a new pedestrian connection between Lester and Philip streets;

> $300,000 to the Northdale Streetscape Master Plan for streetscape enhancements on Larch Street (a new woonerf/ pedestrian street), and;

> $131,400 to community recreation services at Waterloo Memorial Recreation Centre and Albert McCormick Community Centre.