Downtown Kitchener Fire Station | 19 fl | Proposed

[BormanConstruction]

The rendering looks great and a new downtown fire station is desperately needed.

[tomh009]

Too bad the whole site wasn't reserved for an urban park.  Missed opportunity, istm.  That said, it's not a bad looking project.

Need to put the fire station and the affordable housing somewhere, too.

[ZEBuilder]

Too bad the whole site wasn't reserved for an urban park.  Missed opportunity, istm.  That said, it's not a bad looking project.

The city has acres of land purchased along Schneiders creek for the creek restoration, a large portion of the lands they have purchased are not required for the restoration and will likely be kept as parkland, so there is parkland coming to the area just a slightly different location.

[Silie]

This looks like a really nice addition to downtown.

General question, not specific to this project: is there any sort of rule in place that requires developers to "reserve" a parking space for a service like Communauto if they're forgoing any other parking? I'm happy to see buildings like this exclude parking to keep the housing costs down, but I think it would still be nice to have space for a carshare.

The only way the cities could require that is if they made it a requirement of the zoning bylaw where they basically state one parking space shall be reserved for carshare for every X units. 

However where this gets complicated is within MTSAs, the province made the minimum parking requirement within MTSAs zero spaces (Kitchener already had this stipulation), as such requiring a singular car share spot as a requirement would go against the province and that is bound to cause problems.

One could definitely get around that by writing something in terms of parking spaces, for example, for every X parking spaces one must include a car share space. However that could easily be circumvented by a developer by having less than X spaces provided since they legally require zero. The other glaring problem I could see developing is with access to such a spot especially when it's in a private parking structure, so I could see developers trying to get out of it and really fighting it.

Communauto has a three-vehicle station at Cameron and King, literally metres away. They could probably put another three in at that location, and between that and the Kitchener Market Ion stop (to say nothing of being less than a ten-minute walk from nearly everything an urban resident could want or need), parking is almost a moot point

[the_conestoga_guy]

The only way the cities could require that is if they made it a requirement of the zoning bylaw where they basically state one parking space shall be reserved for carshare for every X units. 

However where this gets complicated is within MTSAs, the province made the minimum parking requirement within MTSAs zero spaces (Kitchener already had this stipulation), as such requiring a singular car share spot as a requirement would go against the province and that is bound to cause problems.

One could definitely get around that by writing something in terms of parking spaces, for example, for every X parking spaces one must include a car share space. However that could easily be circumvented by a developer by having less than X spaces provided since they legally require zero. The other glaring problem I could see developing is with access to such a spot especially when it's in a private parking structure, so I could see developers trying to get out of it and really fighting it.

Communauto has a three-vehicle station at Cameron and King, literally metres away. They could probably put another three in at that location, and between that and the Kitchener Market Ion stop (to say nothing of being less than a ten-minute walk from nearly everything an urban resident could want or need), parking is almost a moot point

You're totally right, that's why I included my disclaimer that my question wasn't related to this project. I was just piggybacking off of the discussion because the topic of "parking free residences" was relevant. 

Like, theoretically in 100 years if all buildings in MTSAs have been replaced and have zero parking, where would the car-shares go? Just a dumb thought experiment rather than a serious question!

[ijmorlan]

Like, theoretically in 100 years if all buildings in MTSAs have been replaced and have zero parking, where would the car-shares go? Just a dumb thought experiment rather than a serious question!

And yet, it actually has an answer, which is that it (zero parking) wouldn’t happen unless there was no demand for parking.

It’s a bit like asking what will happen theoretically in 100 years if all the buggy whip makers close. Remember, we’re starting from a situation in which a massive excess of parking is legally required to be provided by property developers. So as we get rid of that market distortion, the amount of parking can be expected to revert to some approximation of how much it actually makes economic sense to have; much less than now, but not zero unless transportation changes in as fundamental way as the replacement of horses by motorized transport.

[Bjays93]

This is a great looking project I must say. More of this please!

[Gubs]

What are the odds that with 285 units, noooobody will have a car?  I’m guessing that there will be at least 50. With ZERO parking, that means that those cars will be parking on nearby surface streets that have a 3 hour maximum daytime limit (but 1 hour on Cameron, and 2 on Duke). Sure, they can park overnight but the residents will spend an inordinate amount of time jockeying their cars.

It’s possible that many will end up subletting spots across the street, but not sure how long Drewlo will put up with that.

Bottom line, chaos is coming!

[tomh009]

(Almost) nobody will do all-day street parking if it requires moving the car 3-4 times. It's simply not practicable for most people.

Fortunately people desperately needing on-property parking will have many other apartment rental options to choose from.

[the_conestoga_guy]

What are the odds that with 285 units, noooobody will have a car?  I’m guessing that there will be at least 50. With ZERO parking, that means that those cars will be parking on nearby surface streets that have a 3 hour maximum daytime limit (but 1 hour on Cameron, and 2 on Duke). Sure, they can park overnight but the residents will spend an inordinate amount of time jockeying their cars.

It’s possible that many will end up subletting spots across the street, but not sure how long Drewlo will put up with that.

Bottom line, chaos is coming!

I've been in a similar situation living downtown at one point. I needed a car for a new job but my place didn't have parking. I just rented a space from the city in one of their downtown garages. It was only a block away from my apartment, so it was pretty convenient and met my needs at the time. I have since moved, and my new place has parking.

I'd expect that if people knew they needed a car, they just wouldn't rent at this particular building. It's really nice to see that the market is providing different options to meet different people's needs.

[KevinL]

The landlord just makes it clear up front, 'no parking available'. This restricts renters to the car-free, but given the walkability and transit access of the area, that shouldn't be a detriment.

[panamaniac]

The landlord just makes it clear up front, 'no parking available'. This restricts renters to the car-free, but given the walkability and transit access of the area, that shouldn't be a detriment.

And to renters open to renting parking off-site.

[ijmorlan]

What are the odds that with 285 units, noooobody will have a car?  I’m guessing that there will be at least 50. With ZERO parking, that means that those cars will be parking on nearby surface streets that have a 3 hour maximum daytime limit (but 1 hour on Cameron, and 2 on Duke). Sure, they can park overnight but the residents will spend an inordinate amount of time jockeying their cars.

It’s possible that many will end up subletting spots across the street, but not sure how long Drewlo will put up with that.

Bottom line, chaos is coming!

Others have pointed out that there are already multiple parking options, but I’ll add that it’s weird to assume that no entrepreneur will step forward to supply something valuable like parking. Assuming it actually is economical, meaning it can be provided for less than the price people are willing to pay for it, there should be businesses setting up parking garages and renting space in them.

[bravado]

What are the odds that with 285 units, noooobody will have a car?  I’m guessing that there will be at least 50. With ZERO parking, that means that those cars will be parking on nearby surface streets that have a 3 hour maximum daytime limit (but 1 hour on Cameron, and 2 on Duke). Sure, they can park overnight but the residents will spend an inordinate amount of time jockeying their cars.

It’s possible that many will end up subletting spots across the street, but not sure how long Drewlo will put up with that.

Bottom line, chaos is coming!

1. If someone wants to put up their own money and build something on their land without parking and they think they can sell it to customers, they should be able to do it without the weird peanut gallery chiming in

2. If there is parking chaos on the streets across the city, the problem comes from giving away public street space for free parking all the time by default, not the property owners who choose not to build enough private parking

[panamaniac]

What are the odds that with 285 units, noooobody will have a car?  I’m guessing that there will be at least 50. With ZERO parking, that means that those cars will be parking on nearby surface streets that have a 3 hour maximum daytime limit (but 1 hour on Cameron, and 2 on Duke). Sure, they can park overnight but the residents will spend an inordinate amount of time jockeying their cars.

It’s possible that many will end up subletting spots across the street, but not sure how long Drewlo will put up with that.

Bottom line, chaos is coming!

Others have pointed out that there are already multiple parking options, but I’ll add that it’s weird to assume that no entrepreneur will step forward to supply something valuable like parking. Assuming it actually is economical, meaning it can be provided for less than the price people are willing to pay for it, there should be businesses setting up parking garages and renting space in them.

In that general area, the Crowne Plaza garage has monthly parking available.