Kitchener council approves 100 Victoria condo development

Kitchener city council has approved a large condo development in the city's downtown, located near the intersection of King Street W. and Victoria Street South and while the development has approval from city hall -- not everyone is happy. 

The project, called 100 Victoria, includes two residential towers with ground floor offices and shops, one 14 storeys high, the other 18 storeys.

Owen Allerton owns several properties next door on Arthur Place, and he's concerned the proximity of the new condo development to his property would quash his plans to build a future residential tower. 

"So if you look at it from a residential use perspective, it's insane. Who would ever want to have a 15 storey tower that close?" said Allerton. "But even now, I mean if I ran out and assembled properties and wanted to do a tower, by their logic I could do the same thing on my side of the fence which would result in balconies that I could almost jump from one to the other." 

He says the towers would be only 6 metres from the property line. 

"So it's really just about affording enough room between towers when you're planning those towers. So I'm not opposed to the development, I'm not really opposed to their tower, but if they're telling me there should be a tower on my property, then reasonably they should be making the proper accommodation for that," he said. 

The building would be located in ward 9, represented by councillor Frank Etherington. He says he supports the project going ahead as planned.

"It's a development that we cannot ignore. We need it. We need it from a taxation point of view, we need it from an employment point of view, so that's why I've finally supported it," said Etherington.

Allerton says he plans to appeal the city's decision with the Ontario Municipal Board.