Parking vs.

Heritage
in the Warehouse District
WHAT IS SITE “B”?
Heritage Value
Hide House
Boiler House
Water Softener Building
Bonded Warehouse
ADAPTIVE REUSE:
WYCHWOOD BARNS
Wychwood Barns – then...
“The Wychwood Barns — no-frills maintenance garages, really — were
built in the 1910s and ’20s to service Toronto’s growing fleet of streetcars.
By 1978, they had fallen into disuse and it soon became hard to imagine
them as anything more than dilapidated eyesores.
Wychwood Barns – now
“The restored brick walls and soaring ceilings conjure marketing campaigns for
pricey lofts. The ad copy writes itself: exposed beams and park views in a
heritage building just a stone’s throw from a reinvigorated St. Clair West.”
– Eye Weekly
WHO CARES ABOUT SITE “B”?
 We do!
• “ To destroy these buildings would not only be
tantamount to taking another step in destroying
the neighbourhood, but also gives in to car-
centric planning that dominates too much of the
city’s urban planning decisions.” –Tom Graham,
Waterloo
• “It would obviously be shameful to dismantle
heritage to solve a temporary problem, but in the
long term one would also question demolition of
this group of buildings.” –Lisa Harmey, Kitchener
 We do!
• “The Warehouse district is now evolving into a
checkerboard of isolated buildings and blocks of
surface parking, with all the sterility of life and
streetscape of a suburban business park.” –John
MacDonald, Kitchener
• “The idea that ‘parking supports intensification’
put forward by the developer of the Tannery,
Cadan, is patently ludicrous and flies in the face
of all the City of Kitchener has been trying to do
in revitalizing the downtown core. Kitchener
doesn’t need more surface parking lots; it needs
fewer.” –Kimberley Barber, Kitchener
A TOUR OF THE
“PARKING DISTRICT”...
Surface Parking in the Warehouse District
Blue – Lang Tannery Site “A”
Orange – Lang Tannery Site “B”
Red – Surface parking within a five-minute walk of Site “A”
Green – Bramm Street yard
SOLUTIONS?
 Short Term
• Bramm Street Yard
– Plenty of space; available soon
– No street frontage
• Other properties
• City lots
– Some may be underused
Joseph and Victoria?
Could We Use the Buildings for Parking?
 Long Term
• Use existing parking more efficiently
– Charge market rates
– Trim excess capacity
• Reduce downtown parking demand!
– Investment in transit
– More residents downtown
– Walkability and bikeability
• Less parking, not more!
Please do the right thing.
Thank You.