I recently attended an LRT/Ion seminar at the swish new Office-Lofts on 180 Northfield Drive W. Waterloo - which just happens to be adjacent to a future LRT stop! To say there is a lot of unknown and speculation swirling around the LRT, would certainly be an understatement.
They say approximately 25 percent of people are dead set against it and you cannot, nor will not, sway their opinion. 25 percent are totally on board (yes, pun intended) and agree this venture is not only great, but a necessity. The remaining 50 percent have not formed an opinion! Whether it is because they have little free time or there is a {perceived} lack of information, remains the question? It could quite be the former – take a quick peek at the recent voter turnout as an indicator of our general community involvement in these major decisions. (On lighter note, take a look how many people voted for Jane Brewer in Cambridge who dropped out of the race Sept 24 - granted there was early online voting) . Either way, there appears to be a vast amount of information that can be found via the google machine…
http://rapidtransit.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/projectinformation.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_rapid_transit
…to name just a few.
It seems we can see this project is a minimum of a decade in the making going back to 2004. There is 10 years worth of thought, assessment, investment, and decision making here
A quick scan of article comment sections has the ion pinned as a simple rail line that merely joins 2 malls; Fairview Mall and Conestoga Mall. Well, in Stage 1 it kind of is....but it also appears to be so much more than that. There are many other feeder routes coming from the surrounding neighborhoods to join this central line or the very heart of what will be the ultimate way to get around. A large image of the route map can be found here;
Route map larger image
The ion can not only protect farmland, minimize urban sprawl, save the environment, manage urban growth, and move people - it joins communities. It will shape this community for many many years to come!
This major endeavor which is so forward thinking, is hard for anyone to digest. Reading through everything makes me think of the age old saying “why is there never enough money to do it right the first time, but there is always enough to do it twice”. If we think about Ira Needles Blvd for a second, it would be fair to say this plan was doomed almost from the beginning. Tax payers saved approximately $4 million on simply 2 lanes, we now face an approximate $9 million (most likely more upon completion) tax bill to retrofit 4 lanes. Now all of this reminds me of another saying; "short-term gain for long-term pain". If we are talking about $5 million extra can you imagine what the bill will be to put LRT in 10, 20, 30 years from now?...if it would even be physically possible to do so? The amount of expropriated land required would be astronomical.
Building the ION certainly won't be a seamless and perfect transition but it is important to understand you cannot build something of this magnitude in one shot, it needs to be done in stages and as these stages progress we can learn and perfect the next.
Now I've simply scratched the surface of this topic so I encourage you to read and digest all of the information for yourself - I feel it's very important to do so.
Drilling down - one final and likely most important comment.…To say ion is affecting real estate is a severe understatement. It already has, and will continue to alter Real Estate values in all facets of residential, commercial, industrial and retail alike. Our intensification isn’t just about building “up” towers (something that can be easily witnessed with a quick drive down King St.) or retro-fitting old warehouse buildings, consideration of exhisting residential homes should be duly noted. Fro example; Home values in 1 Uptown Waterloo section have increased dramatically in the past year with the average home sale price at 405,000.00, up 125% from September last year. The value increases in store for this area (and many others) will be sizeable in the coming years. We are not making any more land, and the prices can only go one place from here - UP! If we consider this one step further, once all of the tower infill happens and the younger professionals who will want a house but will not want to leave the core - will only drive these prices higher! The long and short of it is this; the LRT is happening and it’s up to you whether you can benefit.
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For more info: Lee Payne | [email protected] | 226-972-6551