Developers uncertain about impact of water capacity issue in Region of Waterloo

Waterloo Region is working on a plan for increasing water capacity and developers have been left in limbo. CTV’s Colton Wiens reports.

A day after the Region of Waterloo released details about its water capacity issues, housing developers are trying to figure out what this means going forward.

The water issue was raised in December after a review was done of the region’s supply strategy.

On Tuesday, the region said it can’t support new developments in the Mannheim Service Area until new water capacity is found. The Mannheim Service Area supplies water to most of Kitchener and Waterloo, as well as parts of Cambridge, and the townships of Woolwich and Wilmot.

“We’re all very confused by this. You know, this is one of these things that we would have thought that the region was on top of. So, very disappointing,” Stephen Litt, Chief Development Officer at Vive Development said.

Litt said the development community wishes there were a clear timeline of when this would resolve.

“It feels like a bit of a broken system, to be honest. It’s deeply concerning when something like that becomes apparent that our government was not tracking, following modeling properly,” Litt added.

The region doesn’t have the authority to approve housing developments in its cities but instead provides comments on those projects.

On Monday, a City of Kitchener committee deferred a decision around Zehr Groups plans to build three high-rise residential towers along Courtland Avenue East, after the region provided comment that it couldn’t support the development at this time.

“It would be really premature to say, what the go forward plan is, you know, I’m pleased that council took, staff’s recommendation to hold off, this past Monday,” Berry Vrbanovic, Mayor, City of Kitchener, said.

“Zehr Group is reviewing the information released by the Region of Waterloo on Tuesday regarding water capacity and we are working with our Regional and area Municipal government partners in Kitchener and elsewhere to better understand the implications for the 808–836 Courtland property, as well as other projects currently in the planning and development process. At this time, it would be premature to comment further,” Jim Dodd, President and COO of Zehr Group, said in an email to CTV News.

Vrbanovic said collaboration will be key going forward with both the region and developers to figure out the staging of their projects and when things will be coming online.

“This really did come as a surprise to, all of us, including members of regional council, but also, area municipalities. Our obligation is, as a local area council, is really to ensure that the planning applications coming before us, are considered in a timely manner, that they can move forward. And we will now look to see how, in light of the region’s news, we can continue doing the work that we’re obligated to do, in a way that respects the concerns that they’ve raised,” Vrbanovic said.

Litt said more should be done.

“We need collaboration. We need, entrepreneurial push. We need the red tape removed, sort of to solve this as a community,” Litt said.

Litt said Vive has several projects underway in Kitchener already. Contingencies are in place and they pulled some permits when they heard the news. But Litt said this kind of uncertainty can be difficult or devastating when planning projects could take years to build.

“If I have to be blunt, like when I heard about this there was uncertainty. So, we have to protect us. We have to protect our investors. So we sort of put a full stop on all activity in the region, except for anything that was literally in construction or about to start. Fortunate to have projects in Milton, Guelph, Saint Catherines and a few other communities that also desperately need rental stock. So, we’ll focus our attention there until the region can get its act together,” Litt said.

The region will discuss its water capacity issue at its next meeting on Tuesday, while Kitchener is set to discuss the Courtland Ave. project at council on Monday.