General Road and Highway Discussion

[westwardloo]

Highly anticipated road in Waterloo now open: https://www.kitchenertoday.com/local-new...en-3198721

Waterloo is taking a very different approach from Kitchener for commercial real estate development, building another suburban business park while Kitchener is focused on the development of its downtown.

With the new 126-acre business park set to launch in 2021, City of Waterloo Executive Director of Economic Development Justin McFadden adds that Platinum Drive will provide an efficient route through and to the future park, which is expected to bring thousands of new jobs, and provide opportunities for Waterloo to grow its employment base.

Just another reason we should be looking for amalgamation at least between our two cities. Kitchener takes one step forward and Waterloo takes too steps backwards when it comes to encouraging commercial real estate development in the core.  Waterloo for the past 2 decades has consistently encouraged development of suburban office parks (Black Berry, David Johnson Park, Platinum Drive, and to a certain extent Boardwalk) that encourages driving, strip malls, a poor built environment and drive large corporations away from our downtowns.  Not saying Kitchener is perfect with its zoning policies, but I think our cities would have a much more cohesive urban development strategy if we were speaking with one voice.