WATERLOO — At a Council meeting on November 6, 2023, the development proposal for 180 King Street South received approval from city staff.
The developer and owner of the property is AXIA Geocapital Inc. AXIA plans to redevelop the existing commercial office building known as ‘Allen Square’ into a mixed-use residential and commercial building while keeping the existing building; this is known as an ‘Adaptive reuse proposal.’
The existing building sits at seven storeys, and the property is within an MTSA, which includes the Willis Way and Allen Station ION transit stops.
The subject lands are also in Waterloo’s Urban Growth Centre, an area focused on developing and using underutilized spaces.
The unique development proposal presented to city staff involves adding three additional storeys to the existing 7-storeys, putting the building at approximately 39m in height.
At the Council meeting, the proposal suggested keeping approximately 1,580 square metres of existing commercial and office space on the main floor.
The development plan consisted of 132 new residential condo units ranging from 1-3 bedrooms per unit, totalling 202 bedrooms.
In the presentation to the Council, 149 parking spaces were proposed, along with 106 bicycle spaces. The requirement for residential parking is 0.7 spaces per dwelling unit.
The Official Plan and Zoning By-Law permit different densities and building heights for the property. Therefore, the development plan conforms to the Official Plan, which permits up to 40m for building height equivalent to 12 storeys and a maximum density of 600 bedrooms per hectare.
The Zoning permits 525 bedrooms per hectare and 30m in height, equivalent to 9 storeys— because of this, AXIA required approval for a zoning amendment.
The Zoning and Official Plan regulations differentiate because transitioning efficiently between highrise mixed-use buildings to low-rise residential neighbourhoods in the area is required.
The application requested a zone change from ‘uptown mixed-use (U2-30)’ to site-specific ‘uptown mixed-use (U2-40)’ to permit the development, which the Council approved.
The property was also subject to several minor variances in the past that the city approved for oce use of the building.
AXIA received approval for multiple setbacks, increased building height for the zoning by-law, added a one-storey podium as required for new development, and reduced parking space requirements.
One example of the many setback requests was altering the distance of the underground parking structure from George Street by 6.22m, Allen Street by 0.53m, and King Street South by 0.55m.
A second example of an approved setback was to reduce the street distance between the above-ground parking structure from King Street South and George Street by less than two metres for each street.
Additionally, an approved setback to reduce the size of the sidewalks for street line setbacks allows the construction of an extra storey for the construction of a podium, which is a requirement, and the building to be balcony-inclusive, providing private amenity areas for units.
The 180 King Street South development project is another step closer to providing much-needed housing in Waterloo.
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