Barrie residents feeling pain of intensified development
Lots of intensification happening in city, builder says

Simcoe.com
June 2, 2016
Jenni Dunning

As one Barrie neighbourhood fights a high-density housing development under construction, Mayor Jeff Lehman says there is only so much the city can do to ease the pains of intensification.

More than 130 residents living just west of Essa Road near Ferndale Drive South have signed a petition against what they call an “over-intensification” of an Innovative Planning Solutions development at 401 Essa Rd.

But there is a fine line all municipalities must walk when approving housing developments because their intensification plans for growth are provincially mandated, Lehman said.

“If the development meets the city’s policies, then the city should be supportive of it, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t push the developer … to respect the design of the neighbourhood,” he said.

“We’re seeing so many intensification projects in (the Essa Road) area. We’re going to have to look at whether the road infrastructure can take much more. These projects can add a lot of traffic.”

Traditionally, medium-and high-density projects have been centred in the downtown core, but more are popping up in other areas, such as Bayfield Street and Cundles Road or Dunlop and Anne streets.

“People don’t mind (tall buildings) when they’re next to a mall. They mind them when they’re in their backyard, and I don’t blame them,” he said.

Lehman would like to see developers consider all projects in an area when completing traffic studies to understand the full impact on that neighbourhood.

The issue goes back to 2009, when city staff completed an intensification study and Barrie council approved the following roads to encourage intensification: Essa, Bayfield, Dunlop, Duckworth and Yonge.

As well, the city’s 2013 urban design guidelines for intensification are meant to help developers “respectfully link to the existing fabric” and “result in a thoughtful and attractive design.”

Aesthetics is one of the other complaints from Essa Road neighbours about the Innovative Planning Solution development, particular its use of black brick.

The province recently gave municipalities the power to regulate the types and colour of materials used.

“Barrie has generally not gone down that path,” Lehman said.

Just a few Ontario communities have “design codes,” such as Kleinburg, west of Vaughan, where homes are similar in colour and layout.

“You have to balance how much council’s going to say to the developer, ‘We’re going to pick the colour of your brick.’ That’s a bit interventionist,” Lehman said. “If something is very, very different from the surrounding character, that’s a concern, (but) you don’t want to stifle innovation.”

He points to the MacLaren Art Centre – historic building with modern architecture – as a prime example of mixing two different styles well.

“Good design makes all the difference,” he said. “Badly designed intensification sticks out like a sore thumb.”

Graeme Montgomery, a Cityview Circle resident who opposes the 401 Essa Rd. development, said most of his neighbours have a problem with the black brick aesthetic.

Their main concern, however, is the size of the development and how fast it is being built.

“We understand Essa Road is an intensification corridor (but) there’s supposed to be a gradual intensification, not all of a sudden that mass that you can see,” he said. “We’re not saying no to the development. We’re saying no to the over-intensification of an intensification area.”

The first phase of construction has already started at the one-hectare site, just north of Ferndale Drive South, and developer Sean Mason has applied to the City of Barrie for nine amendments to the zoning bylaw.

These include changing the maximum density from 40 units per hectare to 58 units per hectare, moving the minimum front-yard setback from seven metres to 1.8 m, and lowering the driveway length from six metres to 1.5 m, according to an application presented at a public meeting in May.

“We’re hoping that the planning department follow what the bylaw says,” Montgomery said. “(The development is being) dropped into what’s always been a suburban neighbourhood. Now that you’re backing into our quality of life, there’s concerns.”

Mason said he has been “overly available” to residents to hear their concerns and even cut one unit out of his plans – there are now 45 – in order to keep several trees, as requested by neighbours.

Twelve-metre spruce trees will obscure “the vast majority” of the development from the homes, Mason said.

The townhouses Mason is planning to build will have a range of prices, including seven below $260,000, and are on land “appropriate” for medium-and high-density development, according to the developer’s presentation at a public meeting.

“It’s new and different to Barrie. It’s not new and different elsewhere,” Mason said. “There are a lot other intensification projects going on around the city. Why is this one so obtuse?”