KITCHENER - Playing a part in the transformation of an industrial wasteland into an invigorated live-work residential community earned the city first place in the residential development category of the 71st annual Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Conference and Municipal Expo and the CH2M Hill Sustainable Community Awards ceremony, held Saturday night in Qubec City, Que.

The city was honoured with this national award for the financial incentives and streamlined development process that was used to help bring The Intowns to life - a 128-unit townhouse community located on Woodside Avenue.

"On behalf of FCM, I want to congratulate Kitchener for winning a 2008 Sustainable Community Award residential development category," said Gord Steeves, president of the FCM. "Along with winners in other categories, Kitchener's project, The Intowns, is contributing creative and practical solutions to some of the critical issues of the environment and sustainable development that governments all over the world face today."

The development - which incorporates diverse housing styles and includes tree-filled and open greenspace at its centre - offers a new vision for how municipalities can manage redevelopment in their core.

"This project can be deemed a resounding success on so many levels," said Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr. "We were presented with an amazing opportunity to help give an old, run-down industrial site - which many people considered to be an eyesore in the middle of a lovely neighbourhood - new life through the development of a brand new community; and it couldn't have turned out any better."

"In supporting this project, we've once again shown our commitment to the local environment, the local economy, as well as to the betterment of our neighbourhoods," he added.

In 2002, the owner of the brownfield site proposed to open a soil recycling plant on the property - a plan that outraged the surrounding community.

However, discussions between three parties -- the developer Stirling Bridge Limited, the city and the neighbourhood's residents -- led to an agreement to prepare a more sustainable plan with the objective of cleaning up the property and redeveloping activity more in conformity with the historical character and scale of the community.

The parties collaborated to develop a new residential vision/design through a comprehensive community consultation process - an initiative that led to local residents fully supporting the redevelopment project.

"I can't say enough about the amazing results we achieved through this collaborative effort," said Zehr. "Residents have told me that they see this project as a dream-come-true for the neighbourhood, and I couldn't agree more."

"Never under-estimate the power of a neighbourhood group," he added.

By way of the Kitchener EDGE program, which provides financial incentives to assist with the successful reurbanization of the downtown, brownfields and valuable heritage resources, the city then applied a tax incremental financing (TIF) approach, made possible under Kitchener's Brownfield Remediation Program, to provide a grant to the developer to build on the site.

The city agreed to provide more than $1 million in tax incremental financing for to the developer to clean up the property and other incentives such as development charge credits, park dedication used towards adjacent parks and new amenity space.

The city expects to collect more than $100,000 in new tax revenue per year.

"Working with the city on this project was an absolute pleasure," said Jim McGorman, president of Stirling Bridge Limited. "Every single person we worked with was helpful, cooperative and enthusiastic about working toward the project's successful completion. The end result will successfully revitalize a critical area in Kitchener's downtown by turning a dangerous industrial site into a terrific, vibrant live-work community."

Since 2000, the FCM Green Municipal Fund (GMF) and CH2M Hill have been recognizing municipal governments across Canada with Sustainable Community Awards for leadership in environmental excellence and innovation in service delivery.