You should read this story from the K-W (Waterloo Region) Record:
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Homes in student neighbourhood fail to sell
WATERLOO — An auction has failed to sell 39 homes in a troubled student neighbourhood near the Wilfrid Laurier University campus.
Owners hoped to persuade a developer to buy all the homes for a campus-friendly, mixed-use redevelopment.
Last week, the deadline passed on a call for tenders to seven developers who had expressed interest in the two full city blocks.
“Nobody bid on them,” organizer Paul Ellingham said. “We didn’t get a lowball bid, for peanuts.”
Ellingham believes developers are unwilling to buy the homes in the Northdale neighbourhood until the area is rezoned to allow redevelopment.
“Without the zoning in place, it’s simply too big a risk” for developers to take, Ellingham told The Record Sunday night. “If it was in place, they would be dying for it.”
On Monday, he asked Waterloo council to rezone the properties but was told that this can’t be done as quickly as he wants. Rezoning is a lengthy, costly process that requires consultations and multiple studies before council makes a decision.
“We have to pursue it,” Ellingham said in an interview.
When Ellingham approached the city’s planning department last week, he was told a zone change application could cost more than $20,000 per property. “That’s not feasible,” he said on Sunday.
The homes are in blocks bounded by Hickory, Hazel, Hemlock and Balsam streets. Owners want to sell them because most properties are rented to students, families are no longer moving into the area, and they see complications in a new city bylaw that regulates landlords.
“The group just cannot fathom why anybody thinks this should be single-family residential,” Ellingham said Sunday. “Northdale, as a family place, is dead.”
Council has launched a study to reconsider land uses in the neighbourhood, but no action is expected until next year. “Our ducks aren’t completely in a row,” Coun. Mark Whaley said.
Whaley said he sympathizes with homeowners, but council can’t meet a demand to immediately rezone the neighbourhood.
“It’s improper,” he said. “It’s trying to put a gun to the head of this council.”
jouthit@therecord.com
With files from Brent Davis
Owners hoped to persuade a developer to buy all the homes for a campus-friendly, mixed-use redevelopment.
Last week, the deadline passed on a call for tenders to seven developers who had expressed interest in the two full city blocks.
“Nobody bid on them,” organizer Paul Ellingham said. “We didn’t get a lowball bid, for peanuts.”
Ellingham believes developers are unwilling to buy the homes in the Northdale neighbourhood until the area is rezoned to allow redevelopment.
“Without the zoning in place, it’s simply too big a risk” for developers to take, Ellingham told The Record Sunday night. “If it was in place, they would be dying for it.”
On Monday, he asked Waterloo council to rezone the properties but was told that this can’t be done as quickly as he wants. Rezoning is a lengthy, costly process that requires consultations and multiple studies before council makes a decision.
“We have to pursue it,” Ellingham said in an interview.
When Ellingham approached the city’s planning department last week, he was told a zone change application could cost more than $20,000 per property. “That’s not feasible,” he said on Sunday.
The homes are in blocks bounded by Hickory, Hazel, Hemlock and Balsam streets. Owners want to sell them because most properties are rented to students, families are no longer moving into the area, and they see complications in a new city bylaw that regulates landlords.
“The group just cannot fathom why anybody thinks this should be single-family residential,” Ellingham said Sunday. “Northdale, as a family place, is dead.”
Council has launched a study to reconsider land uses in the neighbourhood, but no action is expected until next year. “Our ducks aren’t completely in a row,” Coun. Mark Whaley said.
Whaley said he sympathizes with homeowners, but council can’t meet a demand to immediately rezone the neighbourhood.
“It’s improper,” he said. “It’s trying to put a gun to the head of this council.”
jouthit@therecord.com
With files from Brent Davis
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