Over 1,000 residential units were up for discussion at Waterloo city council Monday night, where councillors heard feedback from the public on three separate proposed developments.
The largest, at Weber Street and Bridgeport Road, would have 622 units split between three towers ranging in height from 22 to 25 storeys, along with a six-storey parking garage. In total the proposed development would have 785 bedrooms. The location is currently home to Snugglers Furniture.
"I think the intent here is to provide rental housing in a variety of unit sizes, so they are one and two bedroom units, but they are not all the same size," Trevor Hawkins of MHBC Planning told the meeting. "There will be a variety of unit sizes that will make rental housing available to people in an excellent area."
The next proposal, at the corner of Hickory and Hemlock streets, is a six-story building with 168 units and a total of 203 bedrooms.
Finally, on Erbsville Road near Conservation Drive, a developer is hoping to build a stacked townhouse development with 179 units.
Many in the community say they would be happy to see more housing built, but they’re not pleased with the prospect of years of construction – including the owner of a nearby print shop who recently moved out of downtown Kitchener to get away from the headaches.
"I don’t have a problem with high-rises, it would be more so the traffic that would be out front, this doesn't take two months this is a three, four, five-year project that I am going to have to deal with, traffic road closures, power outages things like that," Kitchener Screen Printing owner Matthew Lamarche told CTV News ahead of the meeting.
No decisions were made Monday night on the future of the three projects.
