City of Waterloo council summary, June 13, 2022

** The council summary provides a snapshot of the major items presented at today's council meeting. Please refer to the minutes for an official record of the meeting.

City lowers speed limits to enhance neighbourhood safety

Council is committed to enhancing community safety, and in support is lowering the speed limits in residential areas.

Following public consultation, Council has approved the gradual lowering of speed limits to 30 km/hour on residential streets unless there is a local neighborhood-driven need for a street to be 40 km/hour.

More than 1000 people responded to a city survey which listed different options.

The changes will be phased in beginning this year with completion in 2025. Additional budget is required to facilitate the transition and will be considered in the draft 2023 city budget.

Council approves affordable rental housing grant program

Council has unanimously approved an affordable rental housing grant program.

Increasing the supply of affordable housing in the community is a key priority objective of Council and is included in its 2019-2022 Strategic Plan. The program will guide the allocation of available affordable housing funds to support not-for-profit organizations that create and/or retain affordable housing units in the city. The program will help not-for-profits offset some of the costs, including fees/charges, of creating and/or retaining affordable housing units through a grant.

Staff have been directed to work on the implementation materials for the program with a goal of issuing a call for applications under the program in Fall 2022.

The program fund currently has a balance of more than $808,000.

Alexandra Park to get major landscaping improvements

The long anticipated upgrades to the expanded Alexandra Park will begin in July, after council awarded a $1.3 million contract to allow the work to go ahead. Barring unexpected circumstances, such as supply chain issues, the city anticipates the works to be substantially complete by the end of this year.

The city first purchased additional property to expand the park in 2017. Environmental assessment and public consultation has been completed and the expanded park will provide additional recreational space and associated amenities to service the growth in the neighbourhood.

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Media contact:
Tony Iavarone
Director, Corporate Communications
tony.iavarone@waterloo.ca