Certain Waterloo Region officials were trying to sell me their “vision” of a bunch of high rises along Hespeler Road.

The whole thing reminded me of a song my parents listened to, Concrete Sea by Terry Jacks: “no one was meant to be living here in this concrete sea; everyone including me wishes that we could be set free”.

Hespeler Road is a regional responsibility and many regional officials have privately told me they are using the Hespeler Road redevelopment as a way to mould Cambridge’s character into Kitchener’s. I believe that while the region can give input, the city should have its own vision on what Hespeler Road should look like. So in response to the region’s ideas for Hespeler Road, I have decided to create a plan of my own.

All of the commercial plazas would be concentrated at the street intersections like Bishop Street and Pinebush Road. These will be known as “stacked plazas”.

The first floor would contain smaller stores and restaurants. The second floor would have larger stores such as Winners or a grocery store. The entrance to that store would be on the first level and there would be stairs, as well as a ramp that would gradually go up to the second level. There could even be a small elevator. Shopping patrons would park in an outdoor parking lot and transit would also be nearby.

Some of the parking on Hespeler Road isn’t needed. At the present, people drive from one store to another. If we group the plazas, they can park once and walk to the different stores.

Drive-thrus and gas stations would still exist but would be done more tastefully.

The land between the plazas would be for residential uses. It would be mainly cluster townhouses, with some mid-rise apartments and the odd highrise.

All residential buildings would be pushed back from Hespeler Road and there would be lush greenery in front – similar to Highway 24 in the south end of Simcoe. The landscaping would be more dense around residential sections than plazas, as residents want less exposure to Hespeler Road – whereas the plazas want the exposure and clear visibility at the intersections.
Even though land uses would be separated, they would still be in close proximity to each other, still providing some of the benefits of mixed use.

We could also consider a potential grand boulevard with trees down the middle of Hespeler Road and trees on the boulevards along either side of the road.

This would eventually create a tree canopy over Hespeler Road. However, all this can be very costly. We need to explore opportunities with the private sector, plus consider various financing methods like tax increment financing.

Hespeler Road shouldn’t look too urban and should be more suburban than downtowns. At one time, we made a mistake having the downtowns imitate the suburbs and now some cities are having the suburbs emulate downtowns. I believe we should have contrast.

Industrial land between Hespeler Road and Preston should eventually be cleaned up and redeveloped as residential. Those existing industries should move to the outskirts of the city. However, we should still allow for enough land on the outskirts to attract new businesses as well.

If the region is bent on intensification for Hespeler Road, this is the way we should go rather than some “Concrete Sea”.

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