HomeMy WebLinkAboutEDAC - 2016-09-28 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES September 28, 2016 City of Kitchener The Economic Development Advisory Committee met on this date, chaired by Councillor Paul Singh with the following members present: Johanna Classon-Romero, Bil Ioannidis, Glenn Koehler, Jeff Hoekeman, Thusenth Dhavaloganathan, Ashely Reid and Shantal Myers. Staff in attendance: Silvia Di Donato, Rod Regier, Chris Farrell and Tracey Murray Guest in attendance: Michelle Drake Business Items 1. Motion to accept the minutes of August 24th was carried. Information Items/Unfinished Business 2. Natalie Goss provided a follow-up discussion / presentation regarding the overview of the zoning by-laws and an explanation of the bonus regulation and that process. The following feedback was provided:  Variety of potential options for particular bonus – how do you ensure a quality of bonusing – the guideline will spell out specifics on what we mean and what want that detail is not included in the bylaw itself but in a supplemental document  What is defined as affordable – this is based on what the region has done and this too is outlined in the larger document not the bylaw  The scoring system appears to have equal weighting – we don’t want just one community benefit provided it is designed to have a min of 3 items in order to get the bonusing. We tried not to think aobut the developer cost factor and more the benefit to the community – in years from now we may be able to reevaluated if there are areas that have too much of one thing  The more certainty you can have over the site the better it is for the developer – but are we proposing low thresholds in certain cases a lot of developers will go low cost but f the city is happy with the ‘good’ things it still gives then that is good. LEED bronze is a low benchmark and should you be aiming higher  The zoning bylaw is reviewed annually and a comprehensive review is done every 5 to 10 years so we will see if there are too much of one thing and we can adjust as we go.  This approach has been designed to automate a good amount of the process – we have a good reputation now and in comparison to other municipalities we don’t – the word bonusing does give some folks apprehension but we will work through that. This is a win win for the community to have additional leverage over developers that vary in the quality of the work they provide.  Certain criteria still needs to be met and some of the FSR’s may not be appropriate on some sites.  Parking regulation changes presented – parking study was done a couple years ago and work was done on the parking situation in the city and how many spaces were actually being used. The recommendations noted we can reduce the parking min and the max across the board. The new zoning bylaw includes allowance for bike parking stalls as well.  By reducing the number of required spaces, the goal is to trickle effect it – no parking at home means no car means LRT to work means less spaces required at office etc.,  How do you balance not having parking requirement with potential future needs – its easier to remove spots then create spots – we allowed for a greater number  The concept that we have too much parking and it being a city wide study – having the idea of too much parking in the downtown is not true therefore making it difficult in the downtown we can optimize the space we have – disagree that there is too much downtown there is always a struggle – be careful of the max because we would move out of the downtown pay attention to the downtown. The trend in office is now higher density  Further refinement for areas needs to be done. Having the infrastructure in place to ensure that parking is available is important 3. Kim Feere provided a high level overview of the Kitchener Market Strategy. Committee members provided the following feedback:  Showcase the weekday attendance and success stories  Include yield management – mins and maxs of capacity and costs for direction on space ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES September 28, 2016 City of Kitchener 4. Craig Dyer and Shane Fedy, Region of Waterloo, provided an overview presentation and discussion on the Regional Development Charges. The committee provided the following:  Waste mgmt. change not so much in the downtown. Transit is different the region has made a huge investment in the downtown core through iON and we are attempting to direct growth in these areas and the argument is the regions investment is already made and the development that will benefit the most by having this transit is the ones that should pay for the DCs the downtown should not be exempt.  The other concern is what notice have the development community been given – and has regional council studied the projects underway – the region has a list of interested parties that have been kept up to date on this process since it started earlier this year, through the background study we have attempted to keep people up to date through mail outs and council meetings. Implementation is always an issue we don’t know the rates until the background study is done and out and council has always struggled with how to decided when to implement. They region has decided to slow down the process and regional council has heard that looked to extend a little. It is always an issue for projects in process, we have not seen a bylaw for grandfathering projects in process that is why we have to go to council with ideas for implementation and then the phasing in and costing etc., we will be looking at different options to ease the burden on current projects  There is an assumption on where this is going to be paid from – we can’t collect DCs on incomplete projects and we lose tax dollars on projects that doesn’t get built. On motion, the meeting adjourned at 1 p.m. Tracey Murray Committee Administrator