The Region of Waterloo…

The Region of Waterloo Official Plan is said to be based upon an approach of intensification. However, in Waterloo ROP 6, the lands at 388 Phillip and 413 Albert in Waterloo are kept as Employment Area, despite being in the Research and Technology Major Transit Station Area, and beside the University of Waterloo, where the need for new housing is acute. The owners Prica have a twenty year record of delivering new residential buildings in Waterloo - much of it providing student housing. The conversion of these lands will allow them to be planned in a comprehensive, fine grain, mixed use. complete community way that delivers housing for young professionals essential to the area's knowledge based employers, as well as locations for dynamic creative industry businesses. Retaining the lands as employment will simply delay the evolution and transformation of the neighbourhood, while blocking the delivery of urgently needed new housing. more than 3000 units of housing are anticipated to be delivered if this conversion proceeds. The subject lands should be converted to permit their evolution into a dynamic mixed use community.