'Student ghetto' pleas rejected by council

Posted with the permission of

The Waterloo Regional Record

‘Student ghetto’ pleas
rejected by council

By Liz Monteiro, Record staff
WATERLOO— One after the other, residents
pleaded with Waterloo council last night to
rescue what some called their “dysfunctional
neighbourhood.”
The residents of a student-dominated area
want the neighbourhood turned into a vibrant
area, balanced with families, students, young
urban couples and nearby tech workers.
Each of the nine presentations asked
council to diversify the zoning by changing the
current single-residential zoning to multi-residential.
Council voted instead to keep the area —
bordered by University Avenue, King, Columbia
and Lester streets — as single-residential,
which was recommended by staff.
A staff report suggested keeping the area as
is and building student apartment buildings
on the city’s main corridors such as Columbia
and King streets.
“We were proposing something more radical,’’
a disappointed Michael Carmody said
after the vote.
Carmody, a tech worker, and his wife moved
to Albert Street 10 years so he could walk to
work and walk home for lunch.
“We reduced our carbon footprint before it
was fashionable,’’ he said.
Now he wants to move.
Coun. Jan d’Ailly supported the staff report
and took heat from residents who didn’t
like what he had to say.
Coun. Mark Whaley,who voted against
keeping the area single-residential, said the
neighbourhood has “lost its family soul.”
“No amount of land-use planning will bring
that back.’’
Coun. Scott Witmer also voted against the
staff recommendation.
Residents told council the area has become
a “student ghetto,” where transient student
populations move in each year and have no
connection to the neighbourhood. One Power-
Point presentation showed dilapidated student
houses, and photographs showed holes in the
drywall inside a house and empty bottles of
liquor on a coffee table.
Carmody wanted the city to allow the area
to have upscale condo developments by
changing the zoning and healing “a completely
dysfunctional neighbourhood.’’
Waterloo, which is running out of land, desperately
needs intensification and this neighbourhood
is a prime location, Carmody said.
Terry Dorscht, who’s lived on Lester Street
for 40 years, said every house that sells on his
street becomes a rental property.
“This neighbourhood is on the brink of a
total breakdown,’’ said Dorscht, adding it
should be a desirable location for young urbanites
and seniors.
Miroslaw Zalewski of Lester Street who
works at RIM said the neighbourhood is a community
in crisis.
“We need a new vision.We need to reshape
the neighbourhood for the betterment of all,’’
he told council last night. “This neighbourhood
is in peril.’’
lmonteiro@therecord.com