Zoning, development guidelines get approval

thebarrieexaminer.com
By Bob Bruton
May 16, 2017

The best laid plans...for south-Barrie are here.

City councillors gave initial approval Monday to a zoning bylaw framework, along with urban design and sustainable development guidelines, for the Salem and Hewitt's secondary plans.

“I think we're pushing to a type of development that we haven't particularly seen at any point in Barrie's history,” Mayor Jeff Lehman said.

“We've been saying all the way along, these neighbourhoods are going to try and learn from some previous mistakes, and evoke the best of our older, more classic neighbourhoods.”

“I love the way it looks, the urban design, the built form,” Coun. Doug Shipley said. “It looks like a place people are going to want to live.”

These zoning bylaws and development framework are intended to allow for a range of housing, employment and a mix of other land uses so that residents can live, work and play in their community.

This land will be developed based on an interconnected natural heritage system, an open space network and transportation system designed to seamlessly incorporate these areas into the existing Barrie community, encourage active transportation (walking, cycling) and public transit.

Richard Forward, the city's general manager of infrastructure and growth management, said 30% of the former Innisfil land will be a natural heritage system, with large, adjacent buffer areas.

Stormwater management will be looked at in new ways, there's a traffic management plan, with permanent traffic calming features, and a transportation master plan looking at traffic volumes there in the next 20 years, along with the proposed road network.

Councillors did raise a few concerns Monday, however.

Coun. Barry Ward asked about snow storage, laneway maintenance and that the mixed-use zoning allows one-storey buildings.

“I often think when I drive around the city and see all these commercial plazas, throughout the city, every neighbourhood has seven or eight-store plazas,” he said. “They're empty on the second floor and I think if we'd insisted that residential be put on the second floor we'd go a long way toward solving our affordable housing problem.

“So why would we even think about allowing one-storey buildings.”

Coun. Mike McCann, also asked about housing types.

“Are we moving away from large homes in this area?” he said

“Generally the intent is to have more dense, more compact development,” said Kathy Brislin, the city's senior planner. “I think the intention is to reduce the size of the lots.”

Shipley asked if there are other communities which have the same blueprint for development, and was told by staff that Markham has, and that Vaughan is looking to build this way.

“I wouldn't want to be the test market...glad to know we can take some of the lessons learned in other communities and go forward,” Shipley said.

Lehman asked if zoning standards in this area are going to support the construction of more affordable forms of housing, without the need for developers to come back for rezonings - pointing to recent opposition to townhouse projects.

“That is the intent of the proposed zoning framework, to provide for a variety of mix and sizes...that might provide for more affordable forms of housing,” Brislin said.

“I'm interested in making sure we're not setting ourselves up for future councils to go through decades of the same sort of thing, with these lands,” Lehman said.

The Barrie-Innisfil Boundary Adjustment Act of 2009 transferred 5,770 acres from Innisfil to Barrie on Jan. 1, 2010. Development plans for this huge area have been formulated slowly by the last two city councils in Barrie.

The Hewitt's and Salem secondary plans are where 41,000 people are to live by 2031. About 5,700 units would be built in the Salem plan, 10,000 units in the Hewitt's plan.

These areas will hold 60% of Barrie's population growth to 2031; the remaining 40% will be within the city's old borders.

The Salem Secondary Plan and the Hewitt's Secondary Plan were both approved by Barrie city council in June 2014.

Final approval of a zoning bylaw framework, along with urban design and sustainable development guidelines, could be considered at the June 5 council meeting.