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Growing Together West

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This project is now complete. On March 19, 2024 Kitchener City Council unanimously approved the Growing Together plan, a policy framework that builds on Kitchener’s role as a national leader in addressing the housing crisis. For more information, visit kitchener.ca.


Kitchener is growing, and a lot of that growth is around the ION LRT system.

Intensification around transit is a core fundamental principle of Ontario’s planning framework. It has been since the introduction of the Places to Grow and Greenbelt Acts in 2005. These areas have been identified as Major Transit Station Areas (MTSAs) by the Region of Waterloo. MTSAs have unique policies at both the provincial and regional level. Growing Together will carry out those policies by updating the City’s Official Plan and Zoning by-law.

Growing Together will create a planning framework for Kitchener’s MTSAs. This will enable and encourage responsible growth for many years to come.

Stay informed

If you would like to get email updates about this project, add your email to the Stay Informed section and click ‘Subscribe’.

An Award Winning Process

Growing Together has won four awards to date:

  • A Smart50 Award, an international award honouring the 50 most transformative smart projects of the year. Additionally, at the Smart Cities Connect conference in Denver in May 2023, Growing Together was announced as one of the top-3 projects overall.
  • A 2023 Excellence in Municipal Systems award by the Municipal Information Systems Association of Ontario.
  • Honorable mention at the 2023 International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Canada Core Values Awards
  • A finalist for the World Smart City Awards in the Infrastructure and Building project award category. Smart City Expo World Congress is the world’s biggest and most influential event on urban innovation.


Kitchener is growing, and a lot of that growth is around the ION LRT system.

Intensification around transit is a core fundamental principle of Ontario’s planning framework. It has been since the introduction of the Places to Grow and Greenbelt Acts in 2005. These areas have been identified as Major Transit Station Areas (MTSAs) by the Region of Waterloo. MTSAs have unique policies at both the provincial and regional level. Growing Together will carry out those policies by updating the City’s Official Plan and Zoning by-law.

Growing Together will create a planning framework for Kitchener’s MTSAs. This will enable and encourage responsible growth for many years to come.

Stay informed

If you would like to get email updates about this project, add your email to the Stay Informed section and click ‘Subscribe’.

An Award Winning Process

Growing Together has won four awards to date:

  • A Smart50 Award, an international award honouring the 50 most transformative smart projects of the year. Additionally, at the Smart Cities Connect conference in Denver in May 2023, Growing Together was announced as one of the top-3 projects overall.
  • A 2023 Excellence in Municipal Systems award by the Municipal Information Systems Association of Ontario.
  • Honorable mention at the 2023 International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Canada Core Values Awards
  • A finalist for the World Smart City Awards in the Infrastructure and Building project award category. Smart City Expo World Congress is the world’s biggest and most influential event on urban innovation.


This project is now complete. On March 19, 2024 Kitchener City Council unanimously approved the Growing Together plan, a policy framework that builds on Kitchener’s role as a national leader in addressing the housing crisis. For more information, visit kitchener.ca.


  • Join us to learn more about the growth around Kitchener's major transit station areas

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    The City of Kitchener is growing, and a lot of that growth is happening in the areas around the ION LRT system. The City has launched the Growing Together project that will update the planning framework for these major transit station areas, enabling and encouraging responsible growth for the future.

    We’re hosting a series of casual workshops that explore, in a hands-on way, how growth and change are happening in our community. During the workshops, we will be sharing information about the amount of growth we’ll need to accommodate within the next ten years.

    • March 25, 7 a.m. - 2 p.m. at Kitchener Market, 300 King St. E.

    • March 27, 2 p.m. - 8 p.m. at Stanley Park Community Centre, 505 Franklin St. N.

    • March 30, 2 p.m. - 8 p.m. at Kitchener Public Library - Forest Heights Library, 251 Fischer-Hallman Rd.

    Please feel free to drop-in any time during the above sessions and stay as briefly or as long as you like. For the March 27th and March 30th dates, staff will be giving brief presentations and leading guided workshops beginning at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively.

    Participating in this project will provide residents with a greater understanding of the factors that influence growth and change in our city, as well as the city's obligations to accommodate this growth.