Region approves ‘Goldilocks’ plan

Countryside line protection, 15-minute neighbourhoods part of long-term vision

Region of Waterloo councillors approved a 30-year growth plan that will see 15-minute neighbourhoods, higher-density housing and protection of the countryside line.

Regional Chair Karen Redman described the intensification plan that will dictate the region’s growth to 2051 as a “Goldilocks Official Plan with no winners and no losers.”

“This plan will meet the needs of the region,” she said at a committee meeting Thursday evening at which councillors voted in favour of the proposed plan.

“Competing interests have been heard and staff has given due consideration,” said Coun. Tom Galloway, who is chair of the planning and works committee. “On balance, we have a very good report.”

The region is planning for growth because it projects Waterloo Region to grow to just shy of a million people by 2051, a population jump of 306,000 people in 30 years.

The plan includes a varied housing mix, an intensification-first approach to housing and protection of the countryside line.

It designates 150 hectares of land for intensification, with about 60 per cent of new growth in built-up areas. The plan also includes 15minute neighbourhoods where residents can work, shop and get professional services within a 15minute radius of their homes.

The region wants to see more missing middle housing such as three- to four-storey walk-ups and stacked housing to address a provincewide housing crisis.

The growth plan will add an additional 121,000 housing units: more than half in high-density housing such as apartment buildings, 26 per cent in medium-density housing such as townhouses and stacked townhomes and 19 per cent in lowdensity housing such as single-family homes.

Throughout the region’s two-year consultation process, which included public meetings, online engagement and talks with provincial officials, staff and councillors heard from advocates of the growth plan who want to see farmland protected and climate action goals met. They described the growth plan as “bold and visionary.“

The region also received support from Six Nations of the Grand River. In a letter to the region, which was read out by Redman, the Six Nations leadership applauded the region for its intensification plan.

But developers and businesses looking to attract workers and their families to the region want additional lands earmarked to build more single-family homes in the region.

Rod Regier, the region’s commissioner of planning and development, told councillors there are currently 35,000 housing units either in draft plan, some approved and others pending approval. These do not include higher-intensity projects such as condos, he said.

Regier said there is 2,750 hectares of vacant land in the region to be developed. He said the new plan moves toward a change in housing stock but “this transition won’t eliminate low-density housing.”

Developers said a focus on higher intensity such as more condos and apartment highrises ignores what residents who are in the market want.

Higher density meets the needs of single people, couples and seniors, but not families, they say.

Coun. Michael Harris, who voted against the growth plan, said a diversity of housing stock is critical to attract families to the region. Intensification doesn’t provide twoor three-bedroom units, he said.

Harris said the region needs to retain its talent in the community and it can’t make people “drive until you can afford” to buy a house.

Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic said he heard from tech companies who want to bring workers to the region but the housing they want isn’t here.

“We don’t have a consensus on the land needs assessment,” he said.

Some delegations and others who wrote letters voiced concerns that the Official Plan could go before a provincial land tribunal and the provincial government could demand changes.

“We want a made-in-WaterlooRegion solution,” Vrbanovic said.

“It doesn’t sound like we are outside the boundaries of what the province expects of us,” said Cambridge Mayor Kathryn McGarry.

The plan must be approved at a council meeting next week. Delegations aren’t permitted to speak on the plan at that meeting but will accept written submissions.

‘‘ Competing interests have been heard and staff has given due consideration. On balance, we have a very good report.

COUN. TOM GALLOWAY