07-13-2015, 12:10 PM
(06-24-2015, 11:56 AM)Markster Wrote:(06-24-2015, 01:47 AM)Square Wrote: Does anyone know the reasons that Kitchener doesn't have buildings higher than 19 stories?(06-24-2015, 11:13 AM)Spokes Wrote: Demand I'd guess? It's certainly not a zoning issue as far as I know.
Well, I don't think that the zoning currently allows you to build very high. Taking a look at some of them that are prevalent in the downtown core, I see things like maximum floor space ratios of 2.0. You would need a huge plot of land, and a very skinny building to get 20 storeys out of that.
Of course, zoning is pretty much designed to make sure that any development that changes anything has to be reviewed and approved. (See King St N for what happens when you upzone without attention to detail)
More realistically, the reason we don't see it is because developers haven't been interested in building it. Building that tall is expensive, and you need people willing to pay for it.
For the longest time (and I'm thinking back at least...10 or 12 years) we had a by-law that wouldn't let anything really go above 12 floors in the core although I think there were one or two exceptions at the time, namely apartments built in the 1980s or so. Even just a decade or so ago, we were a fairly small city in Canadian terms. There was really no demand for anything so big. It was a mix of zoning laws and NIMBY's who just didn't want height; think of those mammoth, horribly dated pair of white apartment blocks just near the central library. When those went up, a lot of people in the surrounding areas were not pleased because it is a heritage area and when you own a 100+ year old home next to one of those things, it's not a nice sight to look out at. I also believe a lot of the council members weren't big on large projects either, but a lot of them have gone.
Now we're in 2015 and things have changed immensely so developers are much more free to propose larger designs. However as mentioned there isn't much demand for anything above 19 floors yet with some exceptions. The amount of retail downtown does not match the level of residential units yet and the same goes for office space. But once the current projects are finished - condos, the transit hub and certain businesses like the new Google building - you will definitely see a boom in building heights and density as the economy grows and diversifies. I would say...over the next decade or so you'll see plenty of buildings in the 21-25 floor range downtown. Uptown will probably be slower to develop because there isn't as much available land compared to Kitchener, where some of the lots being developed have been sitting underused or essentially vacant for well over a decade.