Planning In Barrie
Towards Intensification

NRU
Oct. 28, 2018
Dominik Matusik

While most of Barrie’s new development is happening in two greenfield secondary plan areas,
planners are trying to direct long-term growth to the city’s intensification areas.

Barrie planning and building services director Andrea Bourrie told NRU that development in the city is primarily concentrated in two areas: greenfield lands in the south and Barrie’s designated intensification areas.

“There are greenfield lands in south Barrie, which are the Salem and Hewitt secondary plans,” she says. “[They’re] certainly the subject of a lot of attention right now because there are zoning bylaw amendments and plans of subdivision being processed for the phase one lands within those secondary plan areas, which are coming for approval now. And, some of the big GTA developers are landowners there and they are bringing things forward.”

The Hewitt and Salem lands were originally annexed from the Town of Innisfil in 2010 and represent the majority of Barrie’s developable greenfield land. However, Bourrie says that after these areas are developed, the majority of growth will be directed to built-up areas.

“We have intensification happening within the existing boundary, what we would call traditional Barrie. In reality, over the long term, the majority of new development, as per the province’s Growth Plan, will happen in an intensification context. So the existing built-up area is where we will be seeing long-term development,” she says.

Bourrie says that there are currently no plans for Barrie to annex more greenfield land.

“We have projections out to 2041 and [we] certainly have enough land area to accommodate that,” she says. “And we’ve done some broader projections out to 2071. And given the province’s focus on intensification... we have the land area that we need to accommodate the growth that has been allocated to Barrie. But there is a recognition that it needs to look somewhat different than it may have looked traditionally in the Barrie context...

“You think of Barrie as ground-based. If [people are] coming north it’s because they want to still have that singledetached unit. But the reality, in terms of housing costs and all the associated elements, is that there needs to be intensification in places like Barrie too. We are a city, we are an urban municipality, and if we want to have wide use of resources, land assets, servicing infrastructure, transportation infrastructure, and meet provincial policy with respect to growth and development, it needs to look maybe less ground-related in certain areas.”

Intensification in Barrie is focused in the downtown urban growth centre as well as in nodes associated with major intersections and transportation infrastructure like GO Train stations.

Bourrie, whose professional experience until now has been strictly private sector, says that Barrie has a strong foundation to build on and its single-tier structure is conducive to the city “chart[ing its] own destiny.”

“One of the reasons I chose to come here is it’s a community that has incredible potential. That has great bones, and great infrastructure that they’ve been working to upgrade and get in place in anticipation of growth. And there is a real opportunity to refresh the land-use planning vision, the broader community vision, which is something that excites me. And not necessarily something that every municipality in the province embraces.”

Starting next year, staff will be reviewing Barrie’s zoning by-law, which offers an excellent opportunity to refresh its vision. While there has been resistance to intensification in the city, Bourrie says it is a debate that the city must have.

“I really think there is the need to change the conversation about what growth and development and community-building really looks like in this community,” Bourrie says. “That’s often a very difficult conversation for communities to have and there is resistance. Certainly in Barrie we see some of that resistance when it comes to intensification. So I’m super excited about having an opportunity to shape that conversation and showcase what an urban municipality can look like... And I think this community is ready for that conversation.”