Planning for growth around ION in Cambridge

First, what’s happening with ION approvals. More letters to the editor have been pouring in recently to support the extension of ION light rail to Cambridge, including from the owner of Monigram Coffee, former Cambridge MPP Bryan May, former regional councillor Tom Galloway, and former mayor and MPP Kathryn McGarry.

In under two weeks, Regional Council will be considering and voting on one of the options for how to pursue Stage 2 of ION. The EngageWR project page has relevant reports and recordings, as well as the survey — which closes today, October 24. The initial business case should be available by the end of the month as part of the agenda for the November 4 meeting of the Sustainability, Infrastructure, and Development Committee (see the meeting calendar here). Decisions made there will need to be affirmed at the Council meeting on November 19.

We encourage interested residents to plan to present on November 4 or on November 19 — in person or remotely — or to provide written submissions. Sending a direct message to Regional Council is another great way to indicate your support. Offer your own unique perspective about what this project means to you.

Land use and ION

The focus of today’s newsletter is land use along ION Stage 2. ION has always been as much about building sustainable communities as it has been about sustainable transportation, and to be successful in both regards it needs to build density that supports ridership. By enabling and encouraging transit-oriented development along the route, ION light rail reduces the demand for car-oriented sprawl. This helps to preserve our farmland and create more walkable and bikeable complete communities.

The province continues to require municipalities in Waterloo Region to plan for growth. We will get the most value out of ION if we leverage it to help direct more of that to grow up around transit, not out.

When ION Stage 1 was being planned, this was a main goal for the project by the Region of Waterloo, which made it a key part of its Regional Official Plan, that in turn needed to be implemented through the local area municipal plans. In line with that, the City of Waterloo adopted a set of Rapid Transit Station Area Plans several years ahead of the ION launch. Kitchener studied this first as Planning Around Rapid Transit Stations, then implemented in two steps - Growing Together West and Growing Together East. The latter includes the Sportsworld Major Transit Station Area (MTSA), which is now significantly updated and rezoned for transit-supportive changes and density.

As of this year, the Region of Waterloo no longer has planning authority, which the province has fully devolved to the lower-tier municipalities in our two-tier municipal government. The last Regional Official Plan is still in force until the cities update theirs and the townships create them. That last plan designates Downtown Galt as an urban growth centre, the entire ION route as a Regional Intensification Corridor, and indicates that all the Cambridge station areas should be treated as Major Transit Station Areas, with specified minimum residential + job density targets, reduced parking rates, mixed-use, and supportive of walking, biking, and transit.

What about the City of Cambridge?

The actual land use changes, plans for updated street connectivity, and new amenities need to be done at the local level. The City of Cambridge is starting from lower density along the corridor than Kitchener and Waterloo had, and it does not seem that the current city government is bringing the same enthusiasm to updating its land use plans for ION that Kitchener and Waterloo did.

Part of downtown Cambridge, or the Galt core, is designated as an urban growth centre targeted for increased density in the current Cambridge Official Plan. There’s been some development and increased height around central historic Galt, but also strong pushback on denser developments.

Currently in development is the Preston secondary plan, in which the city recently approved a general vision (more at the council agenda). It’s unclear how ambitious this plan will be in the proposed implementation. Earlier, city staff had recommended a growth freeze while this plan is being developed, though that was shelved. There is, however, clearly a lot of hesitation about growth around Preston as well.

The Hespeler Road stretch of the route is a major opportunity for intensification, and being full of parking lots and commercial plazas, it seems like it should have less opposition to change. Part of the reason for the ION stage 2 route to go down Hespeler Road is precisely the opportunity for redevelopment and city-building. In fact, City of Cambridge staff developed a Hespeler Road Secondary Plan to re-envision the corridor around light rail and brought it to city council in May 2023 — where the Mayor worried about lane reductions on Hespeler Road for ION and council sent the plan back to the drawing board to return later that year. On the city’s website, it is listed as “on hold” and it is unclear what is happening with the plan.

Meanwhile this year, there have been major leadership changes of staff through strong mayor powers, including the departure of Cambridge’s chief planner.

Moving forward with ION

We believe that ION Stage 2 should be built, and should be built as light rail all the way to downtown Cambridge. To get the most out of it, we will need substantial land use changes along the corridor. With the province requiring cities to plan for increased city building around major transit station areas and with high demand for locating near ION stations, there will certainly be more development coming to the ION Stage 2 corridor. Alongside the Region hopefully moving soon from ION approvals to ION funding asks, it’s the right time for the City of Cambridge to be proactive in these land use changes, to help ION succeed and to better shape how the city will grow around it.