Urban Strategies led a multidisciplinary team to complete two station area plans for the areas surrounding the Midtown and Rockway ION LRT stops in the City of Kitchener. The Plans represent an important step in the City’s ongoing shift towards reurbanization by advancing the policy framework around each of the station areas to respond and capitalize on the Region’s investment in rapid transit. The station area plans provide direction for future development and stability within the station areas while integrating considerations for new streets, mobility networks and natural systems through a consultative process. The station area plans were developed through a Municipal Class Environmental Assessment, which guides public consultation in each stage of the project and supports the integration of land use and infrastructure planning. Urban Strategies set up public information centres to develop a vision for each station area, and to engage the public and key stakeholders with a series of alternative scenarios and evaluation criteria. These alternatives were evaluated and refined to identify a hybrid preferred scenario that strategically combines the best of the alternative scenarios. These preferred scenarios provided a foundation for plan development in future phases of the project.
