BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in reference to 'Chime in: City hosting public meeting on new zoning bylaw,' published Oct. 30, and 'Lights out! Public meeting on proposed city-wide zoning bylaw goes dark,' published Oct. 1.
I am a long-standing resident and business owner in the City of Barrie. I grew up here and lived mostly in the older areas, in or near the east end, before locating to my present home 25 years ago on Blake Street. It was in rough condition, but I liked the trees and large lot, so I compromised by fixing up the house while tolerating a busier street.
One expects a growing city like Barrie to change with the times. One also expects growth planning decisions to be thoughtful, future thinking and made with a clear understanding of the impact of those decisions over time.
On many levels, recent governments seem to be making decisions that “shoot from the hip” to quell an immediate issue, only to realize sooner or later, the unintended and often damaging consequences of those decisions. Remember the Ford government decision to open land for development within the Greenbelt? Fortunately, wiser minds prevailed and this was back-pedalled.
I know that the housing shortage is an immediate issue. The proposed zoning bylaw is mandated to remove barriers to housing construction. The current draft of the bylaw gives automatic approval for the construction of up to four-storey, residential units, in all the residential zones in Barrie.
If something were to happen to any house along Blake Street, or along any arterial roads like St. Vincent, Cundles, etc., the new zoning also will not allow detached, single-family-only houses to be rebuilt in their place. This seems to be a “shoot-from-the-hip” decision (and or decisions) that will have, perhaps unintended, but very real, damaging consequences for our city.
This is an ill-fated effort to simply force the construction of more multi-unit housing that did not exist before. But here is the thing, once you fast-track the development approval process, no matter the outcome, the damage is done.
Keeping the interesting and established parts of Barrie intact maintains the vibrancy of our entire community. The east end and other older neighbourhoods have modest homes, two storeys or less, not all identical, and have some green space.
As shown in the depiction, to have a city-wide zoning policy that allows automatic approval to build up to four-storey apartments beside any of the existing 40,000 homes in residential zones will erode and fracture these established areas. It threatens the stable ecosystem as well as the sense of community that thrives and adds to the diversity this locale has to offer to all who live here or visit Barrie.
This residential zoning provision will cause an irreversible loss and still not necessarily offer affordable housing.
In new areas of development, planning consistency makes sense. But dropping up to four-storey multi-unit developments into established single-family neighbourhoods cannot have a good outcome for current or newer hopeful residents.
Giving automatic approval to each development, plus already being denied any right of appeal to the province, is a slap to all who support the well-being and future success of this city. Barrie will be far worse off if some aspects of this zoning bylaw are passed as drafted.
Lisa McKee
Barrie
