Heard but not heeded
Planners recommend keeping 75-metre housing restriction
In 10 days we will find out what the City of Waterloo plans to do about density. That plan on height and density affects population density, it affects the availability of housing and hence student housing. We don't, however, have to wait those 10 days to have an indication of where they are coming from because the report from the city planner came out this past Wednesday. They are recommending that the 75 metre restriction continue but allow for studying other options.
Last June the city's planning department produced a discussion paper and in October it produced a response paper. This process was all part of a consultation process to develop a final policy. On February 24, Waterloo city council will consider a final policy on height and density.
In the October meeting about 24 students out of 89 residents showed up at the council meeting where Chris Edey, Rob Ewaschuk and Mike Kerrigan spoke to council about the need for policies that allow for enough student housing. One main concern was the 75 metre spacing restriction in the lodging house licensing bylaw.
The result of this decision will be the end of a few years of uncertainty for students. Since 1999, when UW had a record large first-year class and Imprint first reported on the 75 metre restriction, larger and larger classes have come to UW, enlarging enrolment as we approach the double cohort.
The concern is that as enrolment increases, the demand for student housing also rises and a spacing restriction forces students further from where they want to live, close to the university.
In order to address student housing demand, city staff are recommending that the 75 metre restriction continue and that higher density housing be encouraged near the university. Additionally, the report recommends performing a "neighbourhood enhancement study" which would consider how the area east of UW could change. This area, between Phillip Street and King Street and north of University Avenue, could be developed, if allowed, as a student neighbourhood.
The report acknowledges that the spacing restriction is not fulfilling its intended purpose and other options should be found and considered: "The existing regulatory system of Lodging Houses and the Minimum Distance Separation is not preventing the replacement of families with students in these neighbourhoods. Staff believe that, in the long term, either something must be done to protect and enhance the neighbourhoods near the universities or recognize that this is a student neighbourhood and take measures to improve them."
The report says that the areas east of UW has enough housing for only one or two years of enrolment growth.
The main policy that council heard in October was a "nodes and corridors" model that suggested taller buildings and higher density along major streets at the edge of neighbourhoods and nodes of retail and other services at points where these corridors cross. This "nodes and corridors" idea is furthered in this study.
The report states that there should be enough capacity for students in this nodes and corridors model. "Staff suggest that the neighbourhood enhancement study start as soon as possible. However, there is no need to enact change immediately in this neighbourhood to accommodate predicted increases in university student enrolment. There is sufficient capacity for student accommodation in the proposed nodes and corridors and plenty of capacity for more lodging houses within a two kilometre radius of the universities."
So what can we take from all this? We as students were heard but not heeded. These policy recommendations target our needs and acknowledge our concerns, but do not give students what they said they wanted, a removal of the 75 metre restriction.
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