On 2024-04-15 City Council voted to approve development at 264 Victoria Street North
Grand River Rocks still has at least until 2028 at this location (but they will continue regardless of location)
For all updates re: Grand River Rocks see their website.
This site was made independetly (by Em/Ellie) and will morph into something specific to the development at 264Victoria.com
The developer can buy it for $20,000 donated to a local charity.
Below here is old as of 2024-04-15
SAVE OUR CLIMBING GYM
Kitchener City Council is deciding whether another commuter condo should replace our city's climbing gym.
New towers should replace vacant lots not thriving communities.
Attend a city council meeting on April 8
(Bonus points to be one of the dozens who will speak there for up to 5 minutes)
Encourage city council to protect this important piece of KW.
Kitchener-Waterloo needs a climbing gym and event space. People stay fit, make friends, and fall in love at climbing gyms. Event spaces bring us all together. Thousands of kids and adults make use of the local climbing gym. A thriving community of people are brought together by climbing and the events they hold.
And KW needs affordable housing. Corporate landlords and developers that don't live in our community make decisions to maximise profit, not the welfare of community members. Kitchener has less need for overpriced commuter condos, another 916 parking spots, and barren for-profit rental spaces.
The city should add housing, but it shouldn't bulldoze something beautiful
New towers can be built in more appropriate locations closer to transit & other amenities.
For-profit developers will tell you that what the development is replacing is irrelevant. This is not true. It is very relevant to the thousands of kids and adults that see the climbing gym as an imporant pillar in their community.
City Council exists to represent the best interests of constituents. This tower will damage a long-standing successful local business and create expensive housing that isn't close to transit or ammenities.
Problems with the developer's proposal
See the proposal here
There has not been enough consultation with the community
Not close to the future site of the Go Train / ION or any parks
Way too many parking spots (916). This will just end up being a commuter condo
No guarantees of affordable housing (market rent is inaccessible for many)
Way too little bike parking (with 1000 units, you need at least 500 spaces)
No bike lanes on Victoria Street
No community accessible gathering/greenspace is added (developers pretend that landscaping is "greenspace")
Why living at 236-264 Victoria Street would be a bad idea...
Not close to planned major transit hubs
Very noisy train tacks
Unsafe for pedestrians, bikers, and dogs
Profits from the exorbanent rent go to corporate landlords that don't care about KW
Lots of traffic
Lonely little boxes that aren't close to commnity recreational facilities
Literally across the street from a waste management facility
Very little greenspace and community space nearby
Can the developer be trusted?
Land banking: "the practice of buying land as an investment, holding it for future use and making no specific plans for its development."
This developer does not seem to have ever built anything. Falco Group owns 44 properties for "land banking".
They're based in Brampton. They have no track record in town (or any town...).
Their motives are profit.
If their strategy is land banking, we could be losing a community asset for empty land to sit vacant.
Wait...I thought Grand River Rocks is at 50 Borden Ave?
Grand River Rocks is being forced to leave its location at 50 Borden Ave so that developers can build a 57 floor tower. In the summer, they announced they'd be moving to the old LA Fitness building at 264 Victoria Street N. Now another proposed tower is once again threatening KW's climbing community at its new location.
It's not all doom and gloom.
Grand River Rocks & Go Bananas won't be evicted from their new space immediately and may be able to secure another space in KW eventually (though that's a difficult thing to do). They have a 5-10 year lease at this new location so that is good. But really, our city deserves a thriving climbing community for decades to come. And Kitchener City Council needs to consider the nuanced needs of commnuity members.