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Drewlo Waterloo (née Waterloo Motor Inn) | 8x 16-28 fl | proposed
#61
(03-04-2024, 02:14 PM)westwardloo Wrote: They have just allowed developers to plan competing poorly thought-out sites that will be disconnected from the surrounding community. Its like they are building an urban suburb.

Last time I talked to City of Waterloo planners about this (which admittedly was a few years ago) they said this was intentional. The argument was that Waterloo can only support a finite amount of urban-ness, so if they allowed anything outside of uptown to be urban then it would draw businesses and customers away from uptown and threaten the success of uptown.
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#62
(03-04-2024, 05:28 PM)taylortbb Wrote:
(03-04-2024, 02:14 PM)westwardloo Wrote: They have just allowed developers to plan competing poorly thought-out sites that will be disconnected from the surrounding community. Its like they are building an urban suburb.

Last time I talked to City of Waterloo planners about this (which admittedly was a few years ago) they said this was intentional. The argument was that Waterloo can only support a finite amount of urban-ness, so if they allowed anything outside of uptown to be urban then it would draw businesses and customers away from uptown and threaten the success of uptown.

I knew our planners weren’t very good, but this takes the cake. Any planner who thinks that should be unemployable.

There is a reason why downtown areas are expensive: lack of supply! It’s not even legal to build good urban form in most places, so it’s no surprise there isn’t enough of it and what is there is very expensive.
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#63
(03-04-2024, 05:28 PM)taylortbb Wrote:
(03-04-2024, 02:14 PM)westwardloo Wrote: They have just allowed developers to plan competing poorly thought-out sites that will be disconnected from the surrounding community. Its like they are building an urban suburb.

Last time I talked to City of Waterloo planners about this (which admittedly was a few years ago) they said this was intentional. The argument was that Waterloo can only support a finite amount of urban-ness, so if they allowed anything outside of uptown to be urban then it would draw businesses and customers away from uptown and threaten the success of uptown.

I like the idea of planners deciding the best plan was to discourage financially-productive construction that's so funny
local cambridge weirdo
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#64
(03-04-2024, 02:14 PM)westwardloo Wrote: I would prefer nothing gets built over what is currently planned.

Some other people might prefer to have an apartment they can rent, though.
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#65
(03-04-2024, 05:28 PM)taylortbb Wrote:
(03-04-2024, 02:14 PM)westwardloo Wrote: They have just allowed developers to plan competing poorly thought-out sites that will be disconnected from the surrounding community. Its like they are building an urban suburb.

Last time I talked to City of Waterloo planners about this (which admittedly was a few years ago) they said this was intentional. The argument was that Waterloo can only support a finite amount of urban-ness, so if they allowed anything outside of uptown to be urban then it would draw businesses and customers away from uptown and threaten the success of uptown.

This is truly the dumbest thing I have heard it a while, but coming from City of Waterloo planners it doesn't surprise me. I have no faith in planners at our cities. They have consistently fucked up this city for the past half a century + Look at the vista hills/ columbia forest subdivisions.  City planners had no problem letting BB build a huge suburban office complex on the edge of town while the Region planned a billion dollar transit system. Image how many customers Uptown would have if the offices were built near uptown? They also had no problem building office and medical spaces on the edge of town (Boardwalk) drawing even more customers and businesses away from uptown. 

The people that live in these towers aren't all of a sudden going to go downtown because we designed a poorly thought out (Or lack of any) street system with surface parking that can only be accessed through  a single access point.
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#66
(03-04-2024, 10:38 PM)tomh009 Wrote:
(03-04-2024, 02:14 PM)westwardloo Wrote: I would prefer nothing gets built over what is currently planned.

Some other people might prefer to have an apartment they can rent, though.

This project was initially proposed in 2015. The city could have easily completed a neighborhood plan with a predetermined zoning and street system by now. DREWLO would still be able build their shitty stucco rental towers in 2035. But under the guidelines of an a actual planned community.
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#67
Will this development happen?

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/conestoga-c...-1.6795568
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#68
(03-06-2024, 03:59 AM)Square Wrote: Will this development happen?

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/conestoga-c...-1.6795568

It's only a lease on the current Inn so in all likelihood Drewlo will still build on the property when is anyones guess. Based on the phasing diagram in the posted documents the way Drewlo is phasing it means they won't touch the Inn until phase 4. So in all likelihood Conestoga could have the Inn leased for the next decade before Drewlo needs it.
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#69
A decade? It's been roughly half a decade and they haven't managed to get half of their downtown project done haha. I doubt they'll even break ground on this for a few years and then it will take probably 10-15 to get anywhere close to completion.
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#70
(03-06-2024, 07:43 PM)ac3r Wrote: A decade? It's been roughly half a decade and they haven't managed to get half of their downtown project done haha. I doubt they'll even break ground on this for a few years and then it will take probably 10-15 to get anywhere close to completion.

And they will build the same buildings in 2035 that they proposed in 2015.
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