KITCHENER—On October 30, 2023, at a Planning and Strategic Initiatives committee meeting for a proposed development at 2934 King Street East, city staff approved the Official Plan and zoning by-law amendment applications with a holding provision and a site-specific provision.
The developer and owner of the property is Petrogold, a real estate development company.
The subject lands have an existing commercial plaza with 585 square metres of space, which would be demolished to allow for the redevelopment proposal, providing more than double the existing commercial space.
The proposal is a mixed-use 11-storey residential and commercial-use building with an area of 0.34 hectares, a two-storey podium, 77 residential condo units, and three large ground-floor commercial units.
The subject lands are outside of an MTSA but are still in an active transportation area close to the regional intersection of King Street and Fairway Road.
The three units for commercial space contain 1217 square metres of space. The developer proposes the residential units as 41 one-bedroom units, 18 two-bedroom units, and 18 three-bedroom units.
Parking offers 157 spaces and 100 bicycle spots, both of which exceed the city’s requirements. Of the 157 parking spaces, the developer will provide 17 spaces in a surface lot at the rear of the building and 140 spaces in a two-level underground parking structure.
The parking spaces are recommended as 101 for residents, 15 for visitors, and 41 for commercial use.
The subject lands are zoned General Commercial Zone (COM-2) as stated in the zoning By-law 2019-051 and situated within an ‘Urban Corridor,’ an area intended for development intensification.
To facilitate the development, a Site Plan Control application, rezoning the subject lands to add a site-specific provision (382) and changing the land use designation from ‘Commercial Use’ to ‘Mixed-Use’ are all requirements.
The zoning amendment to add the site-specific provision (382) contains eight special regulations.
A few examples of the special regulations for the application include a request for an increase in floor space ratio (FSR) of 2.6 from the permitted 0.6, an increase in required parking spaces to 1.65 spaces per dwelling unit, and reduced yard setbacks requested to 3.5m for the rear and 2.5m for the side from the required 7.5m and 3m.
Also, a recommendation was made for a Holding Provision (55H) from the planning staff to ensure the development meets all the requirements of a noise, transportation and stationary study, which the committee approved.
The current plaza allows vehicular access to three different streets, and the new development proposes the removal of two of them, with only the Morgan Avenue access remaining.
The proposal includes covering the front of the property in landscaping and recommends having an outdoor garden pavilion for residents.
In the application, the building sits at the far south end of the property, comparable to the hotel’s height on the other side of Morgan Avenue.
Proposed indoor and outdoor amenity areas have a total residential area of 1.027.00 square metres, equivalent to 13.33 square metres per dwelling unit.
Although the committee approved the application, a holding provision is in place to ensure that the developer meets the requirements.
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