Uptown LOO public washroom

We're installing a publicly available washroom facility in the uptown core!

Temporary Regina Street washroom

With all the events held in and around Waterloo public square throughout the year, people rely on publicly available washrooms. During certain hours, this includes washroom facilities at City Hall, but otherwise access is limited to those washrooms available in private businesses, such as the public washroom facilities in Waterloo Town Square. The need for a publicly available washroom in the uptown area, open to all uptown visitors, became even more apparent during the pandemic. The City of Waterloo installed a temporary public washroom facility in the Regina Street parking lot during the summer of 2021, and again in 2022. This facility, while helping to fill the gap, is not open year-round, and does not provide all the features we would like to see in an uptown public washroom.

In the interest of having a permanent public washroom location in uptown, we are installing a self-cleaning, fully autonomous public washroom facility (the Uptown LOO) at 148 King Street South (Heritage Green, at the corner of King and William streets). We needed to site this permanent unit where there is access to underground infrastructure for power, water and sanitary service. Construction at the Heritage Green location meant these services could be made available.

Location of Uptown Loo facility in Heritage Green

The proposed unit for the Uptown LOO is a clean, accessible, hygienic facility, protecting the health and safety of each visitor. Features may include:

• Automated cleaning, drying and sanitization after each user
• Touchless soap and towel paper dispenser and in-built trash can
• Barrier free, with additional accessibility features (examples: baby change table, accessible entrance ramp, automatic door)
• Drinking water fountain
• Anti-graffiti and anti-vandalism features
• Heating and cooling
• A panic button to summon assistance in an emergency
• Alarms that can be seen and heard in case of fire or other emergency

This first publicly accessible washroom is just a start. Our team will learn a lot from installing and operating this facility, and in the future we hope to add more publicly available LOO washroom facilities to the city. We'd like to hear from you, share your Comments with us, or take our short survey on publicly accessible washroom considerations (survey open through October 19).