Livable Park and Victoria is a residents group advocating for thoughtful and livable development at the corner of Park Street and Victoria Street South in Kitchener, Ontario. 

 To find out more about the proposed development, check out the website here.

Livable Park and Victoria Core Values

Compatible Intensification

We are advocating for intensification at the corner of Park Street and Victoria Street South that sensitively transitions to the surrounding urban context.

As stated in the Kitchener’s Tall Building Urban Design Guidelines, we believe that tall buildings should “Complement the adjacent built form through compatible height, scale, massing, and materials”.

An Enjoyable Pedestrian Streetscape

We support a wide pedestrian right of way and are advocating for Park Street to remain treelined and for Victoria Street to become a green streetscape.

In addition to street trees, we would like to see the integration of soft landscaping on the street level to mitigate the effects of wind and noise on pedestrians and surrounding buildings.

Green Neighbourhoods

With so much new housing added in the downtown core, there are many new residents, but not new green spaces. Each new development should be contributing to the creation of new green space either as “cash in lieu”, the integration of public green spaces in their developments or a combination of both.

Housing for Everyone

We support building housing that can accommodate the needs of residents of various household compositions at a price they can actually afford.

Predictable Development

By “predictable development” we mean that development proposals should reflect the intention of the City of Kitchener’s official plan, follow the City’s urban design guidelines, and only modestly deviate from zoning By-laws.

There should be no shock to residents when new development proposal are presented, as these should be enacting the City’s plan such that they will be compatible and complementary to the surrounding urban context.

We believe that predictability in development planning is a reasonable expectation of all stakeholders, and is critical to maintaining the trust of residents in the development planning process.