Housing or Heritage? Kitchener struggles with tough questions
Much of the six-hour Kitchener City council meeting on January 29, focused on delegates’ opposition to the City’s proposed Growing Together Plan.
One of the objectives of the plan is to increase affordable housing stock close to the ION stations and major transit areas.
Most of the delegates to Council were in various ways associated with property development and opposed the recommendations in the report.
There were others, not related in a financial capacity to issues of rezoning, who also disagreed with the recommendations.
Some of the objections raised were about the challenges of preserving the integrity of heritage neighbourhoods during a housing crisis in which the city wants intensification.
Gail Pool of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario North Waterloo Region branch was one of the people who presented opposition to the Report’s recommendations for the Victoria Park Heritage District.