If you live within 120m of the Sixo Midtown proposed development, you would have received this letter in the mail about the upcoming Neighbourhood Meeting. If you attended the neighbourhood meeting that was hosted in late June 2017 & put yourself on the notification list, you might have received an email notification on Friday September 15. While this is short notice for many, here’s hoping you can fit this in to your schedule.
When: Thursday, September 21, 2017
6:45 pm – 8:30 pm
(Staff Presentation begins promptly at 7:00 pm)
Where: Conestoga Room, City Hall (behind Rotunda)
200 King Street West
What: Official Plan Amendment OP 17/002/K/JVW and Zone Change Application ZC17/009/K/JVW
for 607-641 King Street West (Sixo Midtown development)
by 607 General Partnership
The City has received development concepts for the development of these lands as a high intensity mixed used development including residential, commercial, retail and offices uses.
To discuss the revisions to the Official Plan amendment and Zone Change applications, and to view the concept plans, this Neighbourhood Information Meeting is your opportunity to:
- Become informed on the details of the proposed Official Plan amendment and Zone Change applications,
- Review development concepts,
- Ask questions to Staff regarding the proposal,
- Provide comments related to the proposal, and
- To obtain a Comment Sheet to respond with your ideas, concerns, and/or suggestions.
The Applicant (consultant staff & developer) will also be available to answer specific questions regarding the proposed development.
Please note that no decisions will be made at this meeting.
If you can’t make it to the meeting, there will be additional opportunities for you to provide your comments on this application at, and following, the Neighbourhood Information Meeting.
Lastly, the developer provided a copy of their Powerpoint presentation from June 27 for your review. Click here, or on the image below to open the presentation (it’s a big file so it may take a few seconds to load).
Your Midtown KW Neighbourhood 
Thanks for sharing this. I was concerned when I saw the retaining wall go up at King and Moore, but now that I see the sketches and drawings of the proposed buildings, I wonder if we need to have a bake sale to hire this developer an urban designer! That would probably be equivalent to what they have spent to date. This plan does not present a pleasant, walkable urban environment.
I hope to come Thursday and find out more. I am also interested in knowing:
-what amenities and services the city plans to add to this part of the city (e.g. parks, trails, swimming pools, recreation and community centres, libraries, art, etc. This increased population will surpass the capacity of our current services.
-what plans are for on-site power generation (solar, district energy, others)
-what the developer is offering for Section 37 (of the Planning Act, also called “community benefits agreements”) to the City in return for impacts on the area.
Density, yes. Ugly, imposing architecture and design to maximize profits? NO THANKS! We must have better than this!
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Indeed, the LRT/underpass retaining walls on King Street left them a brutal site to work with, almost entirely cut off from the street. Walkable, human scale will be a huge challenge on this site! Glad you will be there Kathy!
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This guideline was mentioned briefly at the presentation:
Kitchener has a “Tall Buildings Statement of Expectations” for buildings 9 storeys or taller. (located here: http://www.kitchener.ca/en/businessinkitchener/resources/PLAN_Tall_Buildings_Statement_of_Expectations.pdf)
The City’s “Tall Building Urban Design Guidelines” will be posted on the website this month
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Residents asked a lot of good questions at the meeting. Few concrete answers were given. However, the planner does have all of the following data, from the applications submitted by the developer. Let’s get better data and analysis next time we meet with City staff, PLEASE.
I requested the public documents that contain this info following the meeting (from the City). The reports contain a lot more data than what follows. I can share these files. You can also ask the city to provide them to you!
Note 1 – Phase 1 unit breakdown (417 units in total)
2 3-Bedroom units
10 2-Bedroom+Den units
171 2-Bedroom units
149 1-Bedroom units
Note 2 – Parking:
In total, 1757 spaces are normally required, but the developer is requesting 986 fewer than required. Current bylaw permits 307 fewer if measures are put into place such as mixed use development, bike parking or ride share parking, among others. It is not proven that the residents of the new development will adopt all of the car reduction behaviours. If all options to reduce car use are put into place, only 889 spaces are needed using the bylaw – lower than the developers propose.
Breakdown:
-Phase 1 requires 1235 parking spaces using current parking requirements, the developer proposes building 768, (444 fewer than required).
-Phase 2 requires 367 additional parking spaces, the developer is proposing an additional 53 (314 fewer than required)
-Phase 3 requires 343 additional parking spaces, the developer is proposing an additional 115 (228 fewer than required
Note 3 – Transportation
-Report notes that King St traffic data was based on counts done in 2012 and 2013. King was closed during the study period due to construction
-Analysis of traffic patterns was done based on OLD intersections, not new, restricted intersections.
-Study recommends reviewing King St traffic when it re-opens, and when LRT service begins
-even using old data, the level of service, a measure of how well the traffic flows, ranges from A (good mobility) to F (Flow is forced; every vehicle moves in lockstep with the vehicle in front of it, with frequent drops in speed to nearly zero mph. A road for which the travel time cannot be predicted.)
-the report estimates additional 470 trips in morning, 470 at night, and about 500 on Saturdays during peak time from the site into the surrounding neighbourhood, as well as general traffic increases due to overall density increases in the downtown core.
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