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206 Duke St E | 8 fl | Proposed
#16
"Hellenic Community of KW" is the Site Owner of 560 Greenfield Avenue. They are a non-profit according to that listing, and they show up in lots of affordable housing related results but nothing I can see indicates whether or not they have a religious focus.
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#17
(08-18-2022, 02:20 PM)ac3r Wrote:
(08-18-2022, 11:07 AM)Coke6pk Wrote: How do you know its wrong?

I'm aware of at least one Spanish conquistador who would disagree with you.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hern%C3%A1n_Cort%C3%A9s 

Coke

The lead architect at JLC's first name is Jorge (Jorge A. Cortes) which is a common name in Spanish and Portuguese speaking regions of the world. If he's indeed Spanish or Portugese then perhaps the É is intentional.

OK, sounds like a likely enough story that it should actually be Cortés as weird as that looks to me!
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#18
(08-19-2022, 10:40 PM)plam Wrote:
(08-18-2022, 02:20 PM)ac3r Wrote: The lead architect at JLC's first name is Jorge (Jorge A. Cortes) which is a common name in Spanish and Portuguese speaking regions of the world. If he's indeed Spanish or Portugese then perhaps the É is intentional.

OK, sounds like a likely enough story that it should actually be Cortés as weird as that looks to me!

Your Cortès is the francization of the Spanish Cortés or Cortez.
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#19
This rendering I posted on Twitter back in August makes the building look a lot nicer. It's still not good, though. Here's hoping it doesn't turn out too bad, but TBH I don't really care as it's affordable housing.

[Image: xa3XWIL.jpg]
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#20
Neighbourhood Meeting - Proposed Development (206-210 Duke St. E. & 46-50 Madison Ave. N.)

Thursday, September 22, 2022 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

The City of Kitchener has received applications proposing Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendments to facilitate the development of a multiple residential building, ranging in height from 6-8 storeys, having 100 affordable rental housing units and 55 underground and surface parking spaces.

Amendments to the existing policies and regulations are proposed to increase the maximum Floor Space Ratio (FSR) from 2.0 to 3.6; reduce the rear yard setback from 7.5 to 4.5 metres; reduce the number of required parking spaces from 110 to 55 parking spaces; and, allow for the proposed location of the building balconies and canopies.

This meeting is your opportunity to:

Learn more about the proposed application and how the process works
Let City staff know your thoughts on the proposal
Ask questions of City staff and the applicant
For more information, please visit kitchener.ca/PlanningApplications.

To connect to the virtual meeting, go to www.zoom.us/join and enter meeting ID# 814 9290 3692.  To participate by telephone, please dial 1.647.558.0588 and enter meeting ID# 814 9290 3692 when prompted.
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#21
I listened to the neighbourhood meeting for this project last night. Most of what was shared was info available in the documents the city has posted. Since the developer is a not for profit organization which will be getting funding from RoW is is a truly affordable housing building and it appears the rent will be geared to income (they weren't completely clear on that since it's doesn't involve the city).

The accessible units are going to be designed with wheelchairs in mind, so lower counters, walk in showers, lower light switches etc.

No obvious opposing voices. Just concerns about the unit breakdowns (71 one bedroom or one bedroom plus den, 29 two bedroom, no three bedroom). The other concern is that it currently has no planned visitors parking. The city planner said they have already raised this concern and it will be brought up at the site planning stage and should likely change. I think that it's a good idea to have visitors parking. Yes, there is the garage at the market but no one will use it when they can park on Madison for free.

Dec 5th the bylaw change will go to council for approval and they are hoping to start construction in the spring.
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#22
I listened last night too. Im moving back to KW area for work soon so thanks to whoever shared the zoom link!  I thought staff did a good job explaining what the existing zoning allows and the intended vision for the nieghbourhood... plus it is in downtown! and we need to build around the LRT and not for cars so that was well emphasized by staff. There were questions about construction dust and noise, traffic and 3 bedroom units from...most likely empty nesters who live in 3 bedroom + houses. Some suggested combining the 1 and 2 bedroom units to 3 bedroom units however i would think 100, 1 and 2 bedroom affordable units is better than say 50 , 3 bedroom units. Overall was happy that there were not the typical nimbys at the meeting and hopefully the Region will see more purpose built affordable housing projects like this one.
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#23
(09-23-2022, 08:28 AM)kevinchoi519 Wrote: I listened last night too. Im moving back to KW area for work soon so thanks to whoever shared the zoom link!  I thought staff did a good job explaining what the existing zoning allows and the intended vision for the nieghbourhood... plus it is in downtown! and we need to build around the LRT and not for cars so that was well emphasized by staff. There were questions about construction dust and noise, traffic and 3 bedroom units from...most likely empty nesters who live in 3 bedroom + houses. Some suggested combining the 1 and 2 bedroom units to 3 bedroom units however i would think 100, 1 and 2 bedroom affordable units is better than say 50 , 3 bedroom units. Overall was happy that there were not the typical nimbys at the meeting and hopefully the Region will see more purpose built affordable housing projects like this one.

I think asking about construction noise is fair. I live across from this development and I'm not looking forward to even more construction and chaos while this is getting built. The building of Market Flats did cause a lot of disruption in the area, Drewlo caused a flood, not to mention that we had 3 summers of Weber St being redone and currently the closure of King and Cedar is resulting in even more people ignoring Duke being one way. 

But, I know this is a much needed development and I will deal with the temporary inconvenience because I support the project fully. I'd also like to point out that most of the properties on Madison and the two on either side of this building are rentals, not homeowners.
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#24
(09-23-2022, 08:03 AM)BruceAshe Wrote: No obvious opposing voices. Just concerns about the unit breakdowns (71 one bedroom or one bedroom plus den, 29 two bedroom, no three bedroom). The other concern is that it currently has no planned visitors parking. The city planner said they have already raised this concern and it will be brought up at the site planning stage and should likely change. I think that it's a good idea to have visitors parking. Yes, there is the garage at the market but no one will use it when they can park on Madison for free.

Without strongly disagreeing with the notion of providing some visitors’ parking, I do have to point out that the logic implied by what you said is questionable. You say “there is the garage at the market but no one will use it when they can park on Madison for free”. OK, but why do they need visitor parking if they can park on Madison? And if they can’t park on Madison (presumably because it’s full), what’s wrong with paying for parking in the garage at the market?

My concern with the garage at the market (and many other places) is inappropriate pricing policies. In the evening when hardly anybody wants to park, they still charge. On the other hand, some street parking is still free in the middle of the day when everybody wants to use it. As a result, it’s unavailable for people who need to stop briefly.

What we need is demand-responsive pricing, similar to SFpark.
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#25
I was finally able to watch the Planning Committee meeting from a few days ago and there has been a change to this proposal. It is now no longer all affordable housing units. 40 of the 100 units will be affordable and the remaining 60 will be market rent.
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#26
Well that's a shame.
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#27
That is a shame. Lets hope the silver lining is that it looks more like the Render you shared on twitter in August Ac3r and not that pink EIFS mess that started this tread.
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#28
A little more detail on the affordable units.

Quote:The not-for-profit owner, Knossos Housing Corporation of Waterloo Region, originally intended for all of the rental apartments to be deeply affordable units, a city report said.

But Knossos informed staff late last month that, based on construction costing, a revised plan will see 40 deeply affordable units and 60 at market rate. If more funding can be secured from other sources, the number of affordable units could rise.


Source = https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...hener.html
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#29
At least this leaves the door open for more affordable rent in the future.
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#30
I believe council will be voting on this today.
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