« My Waterloo
Filling in the land
At June’s city council meeting, councillors approved of the development proposed by INC Corp of a 1.1 million square foot mixed use commercial centre along Ira Needles Blvd at University Ave West. The development will house retail, office and industrial space.
A commercial hub is a growing demand in the south west corner of Waterloo, as currently residents have little option but to drive to other areas of the city to access any retail or entertainment facilities.
Although the new development will meet the needs of the area residents, the location and size of the centre is a cause for concern.
The first and most talked about issue focused on the impact the centre will have on traffic and transit. It is designed to host a bus stop in order to be accessible to the GRT. Furthermore, Ryan Mounsey, development planner for the City of Waterloo, assured the council and delegates that the centre will be pedestrian friendly and at most would require a roundabout to slow the speed of traffic.
The decision to not hold any drive-thru restaurants was also made in hopes of deterring traffic and promoting a pedestrian culture.
A collaboration between staff members from the City of Waterloo and Kitchener along with the developers had completed several studies of the traffic in the area. It was concluded that Ira Needles Blvd will not need to be expanded, although a great deal of traffic improvements in the area are dependent on the Region’s budget rather than either city.
However this was all opposed by community member Michael Druker who blatantly pointed out that the vast parking lot promoted nothing more than driving.
The distance to walk through the parking area, which he equated to the approximate size of WLU campus, is not logical in promoting alternative transportation especially in the winter months.
The debate on traffic concerns took up a considerable portion of the discussion between all parties. The councillors were finally left overall satisfied, although still displaying caution in demanding for further updates on any other transit studies.
The next two concerns received far less attention than the traffic issue, which I found rather disconcerting as they involved public health and safety.
The location of this development lies just over 500 m from the region’s landfill. Although this is considered an acceptable distance by health and environment standards, there is still a concern for odours to carry to the centre.
Anne Childs, another resident of the community, noted that odours can be an issue as far as 2 km from the landfill raising the issue of adverse health effects.
Odours could be harmful to pregnant women, those with repertory illnesses including asthma and young children. Although those groups could simply choose not to go to the centre, adults who work there, being transferred from their original offices, will not have much of an option.
Currently only one of the five cells in the landfill are in use. As Waterloo continues to grow in population and the landfill becomes more active, the possibility of adverse health effects may change for the worse.
Finally Louisette Lanteigne discussed what I felt to be the most important and worrisome issue: water.
The Region of Waterloo relies on 126 wells to produce 75 percent of its water, with the remaining 25 percent coming from the Grand River.
A growing concern in recent years is the fact that the amount of water available in the aquifers is unknown. As Waterloo continues to grow and the demand for water increases, it is uncertain how long the aquifers will continue to meet this need.
Where the centre comes in to play combines the issue of the existing landfill along with the implication any development project has.
The landfill has already been discovered to be leaching chemicals into the ground despite the fact it is located on an area primarily consisting of clay which was expected to prevent such an occurrence.
With a well existing not too far from the landfill, there is concern for contamination and related health effects.
A long-term solution to combat the issue if it arises would be to build a treatment facility on site. However, as Lanteigne pointed out, the location of the facility would be complicated by the existing retail centre.
Lanteigne received ten minutes to discuss her concern for the city’s water. The other delegates similarly received ten minutes to discuss their concerns, while Mounsey’s general presentation of the development was untimed.
The shortness of her presentation reflected the amount of concern the council seemed to have for the issue of water.
Mounsey did address her concern for the impact of salt run-off from the development noting that salt management is an issue the Region is working to address. Lanteigne’s other points did not receive further discussion.
It could be decades before issues of water quality and public health arise. Problems like this are never planned for. Like Walkerton and Simcoe County, these issues are sudden and can be devastating for the community.
If Lanteigne’s ten minutes is the only instance in which this specific concern is discussed, than I truly hope that it remains a simple concern. I do not want to turn on the news 50 years from today and see the city I once called home faced with a public health crisis.