City staff oppose 10-storey building
‘The applicant is circumventing the process,’ report says
KITCHENER — Kitchener’s planning staff is recommending that a development proposal for a 10-storey, 32-metre high building at the corner of King Street East and Borden Avenue not go ahead as planned.
The developer, Vive Development, is proposing a residential building at 926-936 King St. E. on the parcel of land between Borden Avenue and Dane Street.
City planning staff plans to recommend the committee, made up of mostly volunteers and city staff, deny the application at a committee of adjustment meeting set for Tuesday.
“We agree 100 per cent there will be density there,” said city planner Craig Dumart. “We anticipate development there.”
The developer is asking for a minor variance application. Planning staff believe erecting a 10-storey, 32-metre high building should be a zoning bylaw amendment.
As it stands now, the building height allowed is 19.5 metres.
“The requested variance to increase the building height through a minor variance application is not the appropriate avenue to evaluate the building height increase,” reads a planning report, which will come before Tuesday’s committee of adjustment meeting.
Dumart said staff had recommended to the applicant that the proposal be a zoning bylaw amendment.
Amending the zoning bylaw is a more rigorous process that involves neighbourhood meetings, community engagement and can take up to three months. It also requires council’s approval.
A minor variance application can be approved quicker.
“The applicant is circumventing the process,” Dumart said. “It comes down to process and lack of public engagement.”
The developer, 936 King Developments Inc., and the planner representing the developer
could not be reached for comment.
Vive Development owns various properties bounded by King Street East, Borden Avenue, and Ottawa and Charles streets. The developer has also renovated abandoned houses, and converted former retirement homes and churches into much-needed housing.
Vive is a local developer with several projects in the works in and around downtown Kitchener, including a luxury building called Otis facing Victoria Park, rental apartment buildings on Margaret Avenue, Queen Street and Spadina Road, as well as a couple of smaller residential projects close to the Kitchener Market.
Last summer, a fire erupted on the property at 926 King St.,
where Yilmaz Auto Sales and Service was located. A fire that started in a lithium-ion battery and spread to a car and tires at the car shop burned for up to seven hours last August. The fire started in a battery used to power e-bikes.
The fire was ruled accidental. Damage was estimated at $400,000. No one was hurt in the blaze.