Help REDUCE the Development of Preston Springs Hotel Site

We've raised $20,000 so far but need your help to raise the remaining $30,000 needed to help reduce the size of this development! Every contribution helps!

Hi, my name is Glen Nyhus and I am representing a neighborhood group of about 200 homes around a proposed development of what was the 90 room Preston Springs hotel. Haastown Development, the owner, now has plans to build a 3 tower, 630 condo unit complex in its place. As neighbours and Cambridge residents we welcome development on this site but we have 4 main concerns:

Traffic - traffic is already a big problem in the intersection of King and Fountain - it has been the 2nd most dangerous intersection in Waterloo region. It will get much worse with the addition of over 1200 units between the 630 units from Preston Springs and the already approved 600 units across the street at 255 King St. All of Preston as well as other parts of Cambridge will be affected by this, not just the immediate neighbours of the development. An Urban Planner we have consulted believes the city/region and developer need to cooperate and provide land along the front of the property so there can be another lane for traffic flow.

Overdevelopment - the plan to build 630 units is over 2x the density allowed in "high density" properties and over 2x the recently approved but still unbuilt development of 600 units across the street at 255 King St (as that development is on a significantly larger property). We want the Preston Springs site to be no more than 300 units so it is consistent with zoning.

Compatibility with surrounding neighbourhood - the site is surrounded on 3 sides by an existing neighbourhood of single family homes. The developer's current design is for a 6 storey podium that comes right up to the sides of the property, and the north and south towers on top of the podium are only 11 meters from the property line. We believe there needs to be more transition. Rather than solid walls of the podium and tower, there needs to be a terraced step up design or the podium and towers need to be further back from the property lines.

Access onto Abraham St - the region is wanting the development to have access onto Abraham St (behind the development) rather than onto Fountain St. That makes sense in usual situations so traffic can be dispersed over a wider area. However, Abraham St is a dead end street and part of a neighbourhood that only has in/out access by 2 streets - both of which only exit onto Fountain St. So access onto Abraham St will not solve anything but actually make things worse for flow along Fountain St for everyone because there will now be 800 households trying to get in/out instead of the current 200.

We have met numerous times with the city, with city councillors individually, and with the developer and unfortunately the only real change from the developer has been a minor decrease in the number of units from 754 to the current 630 and city council changing the design from 3 tall thin towers to 2 shorter but larger towers with the same floor space. This does little to address the 4 concerns we have. Thus, we have appealed the developer's plans and are raising funds to pay for an Urban Planner, a Traffic Consultant, and a Heritage Consultant to be our Expert Witnesses at the Ontario Land Tribunal Hearing set for Oct 6-31, 2025 as well as a lawyer to represent us. Although the hearing is not until October, we need to list our Expert Witnesses by April 14. We are not wanting to hire anyone until we are sure we will have the money to pay them. That is why the April 14 deadline is so important.

As a neighbourhood we have currently raised $20,000 towards our budget of $50,000 but we need your help to raise the remaining $30,000 we need to make our case so the development is reduced in size to fit into the neighbourhood and not cause huge traffic problems for all of Preston.

Thank you for considering supporting this! Some people have told me they can only give $5 or $10 so "what's the point?" but even small contributions all add up!

Glen