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A councillor from Cambridge says she’s puzzled why city staff want to put a hold on building permits and development in the Preston neighbourhood for a whole year, especially since growing the city is the goal.
Coun. Corey Kimpson, who looks after Ward 3 including Preston, told CBC K-W’s The Morning Edition that council was supposed to talk about an interim control bylaw last Tuesday. This bylaw would pause development so staff could have time to work on analyzing what changes might be needed for the area.
Kimpson said she only found out about it when she checked the agenda once it went public.
“Staff felt that invoking an interim control bylaw would make sense to allow time to get a secondary plan complete, which would help to guide development and growth,” she said.
This bylaw was meant to go along with the Preston Secondary Plan, which studies land use and plans for future growth. The agenda report from Tuesday notes that Cambridge’s population is expected to hit 215,000 by 2051. Preston was called out as a “core area, regeneration area and major transit station area.”
Kimpson’s issue is that she doesn’t think this was talked over properly. She mentioned residents in Preston have shared worries about what pausing development could mean.
“Given our need for housing in our community, given our need for development in the community, people want to see our downtown cores flourish,” she said. “An interim control bylaw, it goes against the housing pledge that we as a council committed to. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Just last year, Cambridge managed to secure over $4 million from a provincial housing initiative after proving they were keeping up with building requirements tied to that funding.
If this proposed bylaw had passed, it would have covered all of Preston. Some exceptions were planned for residential units and interior commercial renovations but Kimpson said those wouldn’t really help local business owners wanting to grow their operations.
“I did hear from a number of developers and they felt it was not a wise move because it also sends a message out that Cambridge doesn’t want development and Cambridge isn’t hungry to work with people,” she said.
Instead, Kimpson suggests handling development applications individually – if an application makes sense on its own merits, then let it go through with permits issued accordingly.
That being said, Kimpson supports finishing the secondary plan since it’ll help define what Preston really needs as a community; she just wants residents involved while things are still in progress.
A public meeting – described as “the first of many” – will be held May 22 at the old RBC building located at 637 King St.
“I would certainly encourage residents of the community to follow along with what’s happening,” she said.
