New industrial developments proposed next to Kitchener’s Huron Natural Area are receiving some local pushback, with an online petition hoping to put a stop to the slated projects.
The online petition, which already has close to 3,000 signatures, is pushing the City of Kitchener to roll back on the developments, asking the public to reach out to their local city councillors to voice their concerns.
“The proposed Industrial Business Park subdivision would contain 10 industrial blocks adjacent to the Huron Natural Area Trail, connecting to Strasburg Road,” reads the online petition. “The loss of habitat, increased noise pollution, and environmental degradation pose serious risks to the delicate balance of life in and around the area.”
It states that the developments will border both the Huron Natural Area as well as the Aster Meadow Natural Regeneration Area. The petition mentioned that, while the land in question currently remains empty, the local wildlife depend on the open, meadow spaces to survive.
One of the primary concerns raised involves the potential accumulation of road salt due to a proposed Stormwater Management Pond (SWM), which it stated collects the runoff from roads and developments.
“The main threat, as I see it, is to aquatic life,” said local researcher and analyst, Raymond Angod. “You have all that salt, all that runoff in the winter, and where does that go? It’s a threat to aquatic life. We’ve seen deer there. It’s also a turtle nesting area, I’m not sure if people are aware of that.”
Those various developments currently include high-density apartment towers, a commercial area, and medium-density residential spaces, along with the proposed industrial development zone.
“It’s important to note the actual scale and scope of this development that is happening is about 40 acres,” Angod stated. “If you can think about the scale of that, 40 acres of generating forest and meadow is going to be gone. It’s going to be replaced with parking lots and industrial buildings and lights, and noise right next to the Huron Natural Area.”
The petition mentions that the developments themselves are just one part of the problem, with more needed roads and increased traffic creating dangers for local wildlife.
Angod pointed to the overall lack of need for further industrial spaces across the city of Kitchener. He mentioned that the city’s current vacancy rate in that regard is much higher than other cities and municipalities.
“The vacancy rate in Kitchener for industrial is 7.3 per cent. To put that in the context, Brantford, Brant, it’s about 2 per cent, Woodstock about 2 per cent,” Angod stated. “Putting that in concrete terms, that’s 1.4 million square feet of vacant industrial lots across Kitchener.”
Petition proposing alternative locations for developments:
- 570 Manitou Dr., Kitchener
- 699 Wabanaki Dr., Kitchener
- A vacant lot at the corner of Wabanaki Dr. & Goodrich Dr., near 190 Goodrich Dr.
- The old Empire Theatre near Kitchener’s Costco, vacant for years
- The long-abandoned Target at Laurentian Plaza, sitting empty for at least seven years
The City of Kitchener has since responded, sending a statement to 570 NewsRadio. It stated the importance of protecting the Huron Natural Area for future generations, but also said that the proposals are outside of the space.
“These lands are not within the Core Environment features, the provincially and regionally significant woodland, or the Strasburg wetland complex, which is also provincially significant,” said Director of Development and Housing Approvals with the City of Kitchener, Gerett Stevenson. “The adjacent sites that are under development review currently are not part of the recognized features and have had development permissions in place since the early 1980s.”
The city said the current boundaries were put in place through a scientific study commissioned by the City of Kitchener in the 1990s, back when a majority of the area was privately owned, being zoned for future business park use.
It stated that, in order to implement those recommendations, the city acquired the lands, creating the publicly-owned park that is there today.
For those advocates vying for the cancellation of those new developments, this is exactly the same reasoning as to why they should be better protected.
“Huron Natural Area was once zoned for industrial use, but through strong advocacy, it was successfully re-zoned and preserved as the incredible natural space it is today,” reads the petition. “This proves that with enough community effort, we can protect these vital ecosystems.”
