[All] Region of Waterloo Announces LRT Corridor Strategy and Open Houses

[Kevin Thomason]

Good evening,

The Region of Waterloo has released the Central Transit Corridor Draft Community Building Strategy.  It is a detailed document which has been broken down into 7 sections downloadable from the internet:

http://centraltransitcorridor.ca/?cat=5

The document is very colourful with lots of photos, graphs, maps and charts.  It makes for interesting reading with tons of facts and statistics about our community.

As well, three open houses have been announced as follows;

	Wed, Feb 20th - Knox Church, 50 Erb St W., Waterloo
	Thurs, Feb 21st - The Tannery Event Center, 151 Charles St. W., Kitchener
	Mon, Feb 25th - Cambridge City Hall Lobby, 50 Dickson Street, Cambridge

Hopefully there will be strong attendance, dialog, and community engagement on how we can help ensure that the LRT will build our community in addition to moving people.

Cheers,
Kevin.

P.S. Paige Desmond at The Record has written the following article on the strategy development and upcoming open houses.

http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/877975--region-cities-develop-strategy-for-lrt-corridor-development

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Paige Desmond, Record staffWed Jan 30 2013 08:30:00
0Recommend
Region, cities develop strategy for LRT corridor development
WATERLOO REGION — The region plans to spend $650,000 on a strategy for development along the rapid transit route, but the heavy lifting will lie in the hands of local cities.

The strategy, released Tuesday by the Region of Waterloo, speaks to how cities can best capitalize on rapid transit to guide intensification in their cores and shape neighbourhoods.

An accompanying report said moving the plan forward may require public-private partnerships and notes that money for many of the improvements suggested in the strategy isn’t in cities’ budgets.

Waterloo Mayor Brenda Halloran said she isn’t worried about the costs.

“It’s in our best interest,” she said. “The redevelopment that’s going to happen along the corridor really is going to benefit the city.”

The region has authority to implement the rapid transit plan, but cities will decide on development along the route from Conestoga Mall in Waterloo to Fairview Park mall in Kitchener.

Coun. Jim Wideman, chair of the rapid transit working group, said it’s entirely up to local cities to fund buildup of the corridor, other than station construction. “That’s their responsibility. We need to be very careful not to step on that.”

The strategy was prepared in consultation with the three local cities and community representatives, including businesspeople and transit advocates.

According to the draft document, the vision for the strategy is a corridor that’s lively, well-connected and inviting. It divides the 23 proposed station areas into 13 market corridors. Each considers the current character of the area, development assets and future development potential.

It also lays out key community building opportunities, including:

 • fostering investment;

 • creating high quality urban places;

 • strengthening employment opportunities;

 • greening the corridor and creating a great place to visit.

The draft strategy can be found at http://centraltransitcorridor.ca/

pdesmond at therecord.com

Public consultation

Three public consultation centres have been scheduled to hear feedback on the development draft strategy.

 • Feb. 20, Knox Presbyterian Church, 50 Erb St. W., Waterloo, 4 to 7 p.m.

 • Feb. 21, The Tannery Event Centre, 151 Charles St. W., Kitchener, 4 to 7 p.m.

Feb. 25, Cambridge city hall atrium, 50 Dickson St., Cambridge, 4 to 7 p.m.


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Kevin Thomason

1115 Cedar Grove Road
Waterloo, Ontario Canada  N2J 3Z4

Phone: (519) 888-0519
Mobile Phone: (519) 240-1648
Twitter: @kthomason
E-mail: kevinthomason at mac.com

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