Building Better Futures: 1388 Highland Road West, Kitchener

This project supports the Region of Waterloo's strategic focus area(s)

Building Better Futures: 2,500 homes in 5 years

Welcome to 1388 Highland Road West, Kitchener

In 2021, the Region of Waterloo established the Building Better Futures Initiative, which sets a clear target for the Region to work alongside provincial, federal, non-profit and private sector partners toward the creation of 2,500 new affordable homes across the Region in five (5) years.

This strategy includes identifying vacant Regional lands for the purpose of developing affordable housing. To support this initiative, the Region of Waterloo will be seeking proposals for the acquisition of 1388 Highland Road West in Kitchener to develop mixed-income housing units.

What: The Region will be seeking proposals for a mixed-income housing development to support the creation of affordable homes at 1388 Highland Road West, Kitchener.

When: A Request for Proposal (RFP) was issued February 7, 2024 seeking proposals from companies and/or non-profits interested in developing the property. A timeline on construction will be established in consultation with a development partner.

Current Information Sessions

No upcoming information sessions scheduled at this time.

Past Information Sessions

Virtual Information Session: Tuesday, July 18, 2023, 7:00PM - 8:00PM

In-person Information Session (drop-in): Tuesday, July 11, 2023, 5:30PM - 7:30PM at Forest Heights Community Library, 251 Fischer-Hallman Road, Kitchener, Ontario

Virtual Committee of Adjustment Meeting: Tuesday, November 15, 2022, 10:00AM - Committee review and approval of Minor Variance application A 2023-131

In-person Information Session (drop-in): Wednesday, October 5, 2022, 6:00PM - 8:30PM at Forest Heights Community Centre, 1700 Queen's Boulevard, Kitchener, Ontario

Virtual Information Session: Tuesday, September 27, 2022, 7:00PM - 8:00PM

Planning Act Applications for the Site

Minor Variance application A2022-131 - a variance to Zoning By-law 85-1 to permit 0.68 parking spaces per dwelling unit, inclusive of visitor parking, rather than the minimum required 1.5 parking spaces per dwelling unit with a minimum of 20% of the required parking allocated for visitor parking; and, a variance to Zoning By-law 2019-051 to permit 0.68 parking spaces per dwelling unit, inclusive of visitor parking, rather than the minimum required 1 parking spaces per dwelling units with 0.1 parking spaces per dwelling unit allocated for visitor parking, to facilitate the construction of a multiple residential building.

About the Site

This 1.13 Acre (0.459 Hectare) property is located on the north side of Highland Road West in the City of Kitchener, approximately 425 meters east of Ira Needles Boulevard.

Our fact sheet contains up to date information about this property.

About The RFP Process

A public Request for Proposal (RFP) for the development of affordable housing units is open to private and non-profit developers. A selection committee comprised of Regional staff from Planning, Development, and Legislative Services, Housing, Facilities, Children's Services and Procurement will evaluate the submissions based on an established evaluation framework, which will include weighted measures, focused on but not limited to:

• Regional Guidelines: Submission of specific deliverables that address things like built form, context-sensitivity, open space, amenity provisions, and leading-edge innovation in social and environmental sustainability;
• Number of Affordable Units: Percentage of affordable housing units above a minimum of 30% and depth of affordability (affordable is defined as rents at or below 80% of Median Market Rent);
• Duration of Affordability: Target a minimum 40-year duration of affordability;
• Child Care: Consideration for the inclusion of child care space on-site;
• Public Art: Consideration of the inclusion of public art in the building façade;
• Fit: Integration into the community (e.g. through design excellence and use of high-quality materials);
• Accessibility: Accessibility features above minimum building code requirements, achieve VisAbility or universal design standards;
• Sustainability: Promote net-zero operational carbon targets;
• Community Benefit: Consider a community space and/or community service where specified through the RFP;
• Commit to providing a smoke-free building;
• Consider community benefit agreement through a commitment to providing training of skilled labour to apprentices and/or un/underemployed individuals, and/or to incorporate youth employment opportunities during construction; and,
• Other Criteria as established.

Background

• On May 11, 2021, the Affordable Housing Framework outlined the development of an innovative strategy to accelerate the development of affordable homes across Waterloo Region over the next five (5) years (Report CSD-HOU-21-05/PDL-ECD-21-05). The strategy, Building Better Futures, encompasses strategic funding investments by the Region and a leveraging of federal and provincial grant programs to supplement these efforts in the creation of up to 2,500 new affordable homes along with our partners. The strategy also includes the use of lands surplus to the needs of the Region for the purposes of developing affordable housing, furthering efforts to achieve affordability for all.
• The RFP and disposition process presents an opportunity to target specific housing needs in Waterloo Region, and to incorporate the learnings from the Beechwood affordable housing project initiated in 2020. The Region is developing community profiles for each site to ensure projects are responsive to neighbourhood needs.

Questions? Feedback?

The Region of Waterloo recently held public information sessions for the community to ask questions about the property, the development process and how this work will support housing affordability in our community.

Did you miss the public information sessions? Not to worry, a recording of the virtual session is available on this page as is a link to the presentation slide show. Also, further public consultation regarding this project will be held once the successful developer has been selected.

If you have any questions or feedback, please reach out to Ashley Graham, Senior Development Planner at ashgraham@regionofwaterloo.ca.

Input gathered from the community will be included in the RFPs to help inform submissions for development.

More Information and Past Reports

Past Reports:

1. CSD-HOU-21-05/PDL-ECD-21-05
2. PDL-LEG-21-39/CSD-HOU-21-17
3. CSD-HOU-23-019