December 2024

What did City Council do?

2025 University Avenue

Council approved staff to negotiate the final land disposition for 2025 University Avenue to a consortium of developers, led by Habitat for Humanity.  This land disposition will ensure that a nearly 10 hectare parcel of land will provide affordable and attainable housing to residents of the City of Waterloo in perpetuity.  Of the three proposals received, the Habitat for Humanity proposal exceeded all requirements.  The site will provide 1,010 units of housing across 23 residential (and multi-use) buildings that are up to 9 storeys in height.  There will also be more than 5,000 square meters of commercial space and over 10,000 square meters of outdoor amenity space.  The site will be comprised of 30% rental units and 70% owner units; 62% defined as affordable (affordable rental is less than 80% of average market rate or $951/mos for a 1 bedroom, $1,505/mos for a 2 bedroom or $1,641/mos for a 3 bedroom; affordable ownership is $390,000) and 38% defined as attainable (under $490,000 for a 2-4 bedroom).  The City is recovering our initial investment in this land by utilizing the Housing Accelerator Fund money provided by the Federal government.  This is a unique and exciting plan that shows the City of Waterloo’s commitment to tackling the affordable housing crisis using all the tools available to us in the toolbox.

Budget Confirmation

Council received a number of financial reports, including our Asset Management Report Cards, Reserve Funds Update and more.  These documents help us underscore the financial needs of the city and guide the budgeting process.  Our 2024 Asset Management Report Cards show that the City is responsible for approximately $4.6 Billion in assets, across a variety of asset classes.  Currently 33% of those assets are in poor or very poor condition.  While Council has been working to narrow the infrastructure deficit on these assets, we are currently facing a $39M annual gap in tax based assets ($20M in enterprise based assets).  The primary infrastructure gap is in ‘Transportation’, where we own $1.2 Billion in assets, currently fund $9.3M per year and need to fund $24.2M more annually to keep those assets in good stead.  The funding gap in other asset classes such as ‘Facilities’, ‘Storm Water’, ‘Parks’ and more are smaller amounts but in total add up to an additional $14.8M.  Staff will continue to monitor our assets and it is up to Council to continue to tackle this issue through modest above inflation tax increases to slowly bring that number down over time.

Council also confirmed our 2025 budget.  For a more thorough review of the three-year budget (from 2024-2026) you can check out my newsletter from earlier this year – https://www.roycebodaly.ca/february-2024-budget/.  There were some challenges this year associated with some unbudgeted increases in expenses by approximately $1.5M, however staff were able to offset this increase by making some policy changes in light of actual dollar figures on items such as investment income and assessment growth.  Ultimately Council affirmed the multi-year budget, setting the tax increase for 2025 at 6.34%.

Eby Farmstead

Council made the decision to conclude the live animal display in Waterloo Park.  We will be re-homing the animals that remain and dismantling the enclosures in 2025.  With the animals nearing end of life due to their age, and knowing that the Waterloo Park Master Plan is due to be updated, it was important for Council to make this decision now.  In reviewing the public engagement, the overwhelming response was that the condition of animals needs to be improved should the animals stay.  This left Council with the question of whether we should invest the significant amount of money to improve these conditions (improving shade, greater shelter, more grazing areas, restricting access to the public at certain times, etc) and keep the live animal display or to reimagine this space for residents.  While I have a nostalgic feeling for Eby Farm from taking my children to see the animals, wandering through the park before staying Uptown to grab dinner or ice cream.  Ultimately I believe that nostalgia is not necessarily for the animals themselves, but for the time spent with our families, enjoying a beautiful summer day, seeing our children happy, and the sense of community that comes from interacting with friends and neighbours.  At the end of the day, the Eby Farm area does not live up to the standards of the rest of the park as it currently exists.  With the Waterloo Park Master Plan coming forward this is a great opportunity for us to reimagine the area and we’ve already seen a ton of recommended potential alternatives from the community that could revitalize the space and continue contributing to making Waterloo Park ‘The Jewel of the City’.

Official Plan, Phase 1 Approval

Council approved Phase 1 of our Official Plan review.  In addition to confirming and approving the changes that were highlighted in my June newsletter (https://www.roycebodaly.ca/june-2024/), other changes included permitting small scale commercial uses in neighbourhoods, deferring a number of site specific locations to Phase 2 and an acknowledgment that we will look to increasing height permissions in certain areas of the city above 30 storeys.  Phase 2 of the Official Plan will come in 2025, as well as a Zoning Bylaw Update to align with the Official Plan built form changes that were approved.

Committee Night

Committee night is an opportunity for all of Council to hear about the great work that our Advisory Committees to Council are undertaking.  These committees are an opportunity for residents of the City of Waterloo to learn more about what is happening at the City and to contribute their time and expertise as volunteers.  Personally, I am the Council Liaison to the Sustainability, Active Transportation and Waterloo Park Advisory Committees.  The Sustainability Committee informed council about the work our Green Buildings subcommittee is doing on City policies and High Performance Development Standards, while the Waterloo Park Committee advised on preparatory work in anticipation of the forthcoming Waterloo Park Master Plan.  Other committees such as our Age Friendly Committee talked about the work they are doing related to the Age Friendly Action Plan; the Municipal Heritage Committee spoke to the 40 properties that are being considered for heritage designation in the City; our Economic Development Committee talked about the Economic Development Strategy Update; Creative Sectors spoke to the development of a new creative summit; Town & Gown spoke about a new Food Security Working Group; while the Accessibility Committee spoke about Facility work.  This is only a small example of the scope of work each of these committee’s tackled.  If you are looking at a way to get more connected into the City and to volunteer your time, energy and expertise, reach out to me and I can let you know more about what is involved.

Road Safety Implementation Plan

As a result of our Enhanced Traffic Calming Policy (https://www.roycebodaly.ca/march-2024/), we are now able to collect data every three seconds from cars driving everywhere on City streets.  This data has been used to inform an updated road safety implementation plan.  This is a data driven, science based plan towards achieving our vision zero goals.  This report highlighted the top 10 locations to consider implementing road safety measures based on: collision screening, pedestrian screening, cyclist screening and high speed screening.  In all this identified a number of areas along Albert, Columbia, Phillip, Regina, Laurelwood and more where traffic calming interventions will be implemented.  Some of the interventions are relatively small (paint, intersection improvements, sightline improvements), while others are larger in scope.  This plan is in addition to ongoing traffic safety work with Student Transportation Services of Waterloo Region and through our Pedestrian Crossover program and more.  Over the 5 year window from 2017-2023 (ignoring COVID impacts in 2020 and 2021), there were 2,837 collisions on City owned streets (ignoring Regional Roads), 66 involving pedestrians, 53 involving cyclists and 1 fatality.  This underscores the importance of this work and the necessity for the City’s commitment to vision zero.

Four-Units and Four-Storeys City-wide

Council approved a zoning bylaw amendment to permit up to four units and four storeys in all residential neighbourhoods across the entire city.  This amendment is based on staff work performed as part of our Housing Accelerator Fund money provided by the Federal government and in response to the Affordable Housing Commitment Motion that Council approved last year (https://www.roycebodaly.ca/september-october-2023/).  In addition to permitting secondary suites and third units, property owners across the City of Waterloo will be allowed to add a fourth unit to their property.  When secondary suites were permitted some time ago there was some uptake across the city, however there has been minimal uptake on third units.  Council heard that triplexes were not considered to be very financially feasible for property owners, however fourplexes (particularly with four storey permissions) get closer to being feasible.  In addition to allowing four storeys, we have amended (or removed) certain regulations that impede additional residential units, such as maximum unit sizes and floor area maximum percentages.  While I do not anticipate that there will be a rush of development of this type across the community, I think this is a strong incremental step towards enabling gentle density in low rise neighbourhoods.

Other Council Business

In other Council business, we approved the terms of reference for the Erbsville North Master Environmental Services Plan / District Plan.  This developer initiated plan will help guide land use planning for the area North of Conservation Drive and West of Beaver Creek Road (through Erbsville Road).  We also received an update on our forthcoming Sanitary Master Plan, an update on our Digital Services Strategy implementation and a progress report on our Strategic Plan for 2024.  We approved our Get READI (Reconciliation, Equity Accessibility, Diversity and Inclusion – https://www.roycebodaly.ca/october-2024/) plan, received a very interesting study on the Urban Heat Island effect and supported two additional Housing Accelerator Fund initiatives with a Draft Community Planning Permit System to streamline development applications along the Erb Street Corridor and in the Uptown Urban Growth Center as well the creation of a new Station Area Mixed Use zone for the areas around the R & T Park and Northfield ION Stations.  If you’d like to discuss any of these items in more detail, don’t hesitate to reach out.

In The Community

Outside of the City of Waterloo Council chambers, I had the pleasure of attending an all-council meeting, where elected officials from across the Region learn about initiatives that impact all of us.  At this meeting we learned about the Reconciliation Action Partnership, impacts of Bill 23 Planning Transition (starting on January 1st, the Region will no longer have any authority over local planning), an update to our Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan and finally an update on High Performance Development Standards (HPDS).

In community events I learned more about the HPDS at Waterloo Region Community Energy’s 2024 Progress Report event, I also had the opportunity to learn about the Waterloo Economic Development Corporation’s impact in 2024 at a similar event.  I attended a Public Information Center held at Creekside Church to gather public engagement about the development plans for Erbsville North.  It was an honour to help lay a wreath at the Waterloo Cenotaph as part of Remembrance Day commemorations and it was also a pleasure to attend Christmas Tree lighting’s hosted at the Fire Station by the Laurelwood Neighbourhood Association and also at Waterloo Town Square.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and a wonderful holiday season for all.

Take care