[ZEBuilder]

This is an approved project in the Williamsburg/Rosenburg area of Kitchener. The surrounding area is mostly single family homes and strip malls, with this site being a farmers field. The area is surprisingly well served by public transit with the 22, 33, 12 and 201 within walking distance and peak frequencies of every 10 minutes. In terms of active transit it certainly isn't the best however there is a MUT along Fischer Hallman, when Bleams gets reconstructed in the next few years it will get MUTs and the neighbourhood that the project backs onto has a decent trail system. Once the Region completes a new pedestrian bridge over 7/8 it will be possible to bike from the site to downtown Kitchener primarily on MUTs and neighbourhood trails.

The project itself is divided into 2 phases, phase 1 will contain numerous townhomes that will back onto the existing single family home neighbourhood, Activa is planning on starting site servicing and grading of the site this coming spring for phase 1 with phase 2 starting a few years later. The site will contain 96 stacked townhome units, 42 standard townhome units, it will also contain 228 1bdrm units, 136 2bdrm units and 9 3bdrm units within the two towers on the site. Within the podium of the towers there will be 11690 sqft of commercial space fronting onto Fischer Hallman. In terms of parking there will be 306 spaces for residents, 28 spaces for the commercial space, and 30 total visitor spaces split between the townhomes and the towers. There will be bicycle spaces provided on site both Class A and B however the exact numbers are not mentioned in the urban design brief of on the plans.

The towers themselves will be 14 and 22 floors with a 4 floor podium. The 14 floor tower will be closest to the existing low rise neighbourhood. The property adjacent to this project at the corner of Bleams and Fischer Hallman has SPA for a 34 floor building so from the existing low rise there will be a gradual step up in height from 14 to 22 to 34 floors. The 34 floor building can be seen in the render as a shadow of sorts.

The city is really pushing for density along this part of Fischer Hallman through the Rosenburg Secondary Plan with most properties along Fischer Hallman having higher densities and heights. However when the plan was made the city had yet to introduce CRoZBy so it is still in the more restrictive 85-1 zoning bylaw. There are a few other projects at the Fischer Hallman and Bleams corner however they don't deserve a thread yet since so little is known about them but there is a 13 floor building on the south side of Bleams approved and currently getting permits, as well as 3 towers in the Food Basics plaza approved.

Site Plan:

Render:

Future Model:

 

[ZEBuilder]

Phase 1 of this project is well underway, the site grading and underground servicing throughout the site is completed, they are currently working on the road base throughout the site, the granular B has been put down already, they are waiting to put the Gran A down for hydro to complete all of their work on the site.

The grading work on the site took about a month to complete, there wasn't enough native material on site so a significant portion was trucked in, the highest amount that was trucked in in a single day was 250 loads with most days being in and around 150 loads.

The site has 3 retaining walls that have to be built, the first of which is completed as it was part of the site grading contract, the final picture is taken from the top of it, the next two retaining walls are along the adjacent 1200 Fischer Hallman Road Property and along the storm pond which have yet to be started, permits for the retaining wall along 1200 Fischer Hallman have been applied for, the road is effectively on top of the retaining wall so they can't complete the road until the wall is in place.

Grading from Fischer Hallman, the stockpiles on the left were used to cover the phase 2 portion of the site to keep the dust down as it wasn't adequate material to use for structural fill because it had substantial organics in it. The stockpiles on the right were used to cover the rear portion of the site as the last 150mm of fill.

Servicing from Fischer Hallman, this was in late June, at this point the crew was working on the sites sanitary sewer.

Final pipe going in on the site. This was taken August 12th, at this point the storm, water and sanitary were completed along with 3 infiltration galleries, the pipe they were putting in is part of the rainwater collection system (all the rain from the townhomes will feed into the infiltration galleries).