'Dramatically different blueprint for growth': New Official Plan headed to province for approval

Looking 30 years down the road at Barrie’s future is now in sight. 

The city’s next Official Plan (OP) has been approved by council. Members of council gave final approval Monday night for a vision between now and 2051 to take the city to 298,000 people and 150,000 jobs, while at the same time defining land use.

“This is a dramatically different blueprint for growth in our city,” said Mayor Jeff Lehman. “It is the first really comprehensive overhaul of our Official Plan in decades and it is quite a different kind of plan than we’ve had in the past. 

“It’s really setting the city up for a period of sustained growth, much different, much smarter growth, much more intensification, much more focus on things like public spaces," the mayor added. 

“We are trying to create a community where new development fits into the existing neighbourhoods,” said Coun. Clare Riepma.

Coun. Keenan Aylwin’s motion had previously amended the OP so that all new residential development and redevelopment in medium- and high-density land-use designations shall provide 15 per cent of those housing units as affordable, a change from the status quo of 10 per cent. The city will also require the provision of a minimum of 15 per cent of all new housing units each year to be affordable.

This caught the attention of Jennifer van Gennip from the Barrie chapter of the Simcoe County Alliance to End Homelessness. 

“Good city planning includes housing on the full income spectrum of the people who call that city home as we work to build a more resilient city where everyone has a safe and affordable place to call home," she told council last night. 

Coun. Mike McCann questioned the affordable housing target, although he did not vote against it.

“It’s not that I don’t want more affordable housing, I just have an issue with the model,” he said. “If we can’t attract builders to our city, we can’t build any (housing) units.”

The Ward 10 councillor said that, for example, in a 100-unit apartment building, if 15 were affordable, the cost of providing them could be passed onto the other 85 units, making them more expensive.

The new OP includes height limitation and ranges. In neighbourhood areas fronting local streets, homes can be built as high as three storeys. But on those fronting collectors and arterial roads, it’s up to four storeys — although in historic neighbourhoods, it must be no more than two storeys higher than adjacent buildings.

On vacant neighbourhood area land that is comprehensively planned — new development only, not redevelopment — heights can be up to six storeys.

On neighbourhood area land fronting an intensification corridor, however, it’s up to eight storeys allowed with limitations based on the heights of adjacent buildings and development can be no more than 50 per cent higher than those adjacent buildings. Otherwise it’s as high as six storeys.

In medium-density land-use designation areas, there’s a 12-storey maximum.

But on high-density land, the limit is 20 storeys outside Barrie’s urban growth centre, mostly in the downtown, and major transit station areas. Heights on this land of more than 25 storeys may only be permitted if justified.

Allandale resident Cathy Colebatch called the new OP “a beast” during her deputation Monday night.

“I think it speaks volumes that there are not many people doing deputations, whether it’s in support of or in opposition of something (in the OP),” she said.

Last month, council approved a motion to support its housing affordability task force’s recommendations in principle. They include allowing housing as a right on large, well-located commercially zoned properties, eliminating parking standards entirely for affordable, rental, supportive and social housing, offering public land to non-profit and charitable housing providers and builders, looking at tiny homes, pursuing hotel, motel conversions to create supportive housing communities, have one city planner dedicated to oversee and ensure the delivery of Barrie’s affordable housing strategy and taking $5 million from the city’s community benefit reserve for a new supportive housing capital fund.

Last week, a provincial task force released its recommendations to increase the supply of market housing, to address the housing supply crisis, including five main areas to increase the supply of this housing, to meet a goal of adding 1.5 million homes during the next decade.

The recommendations are to make changes to planning policies and zoning to allow for greater density and increase the variety of housing, reduce and streamline urban design rules to lower development costs, depoliticize the approvals process to address NIMBYism and cut red tape to speed up housing, prevent abuse of the appeal process and address the Ontario Land Tribunal backlog by prioritizing cases that increase housing and align efforts between all levels of government to 'incentivize' more housing.

The task force goes beyond those five main areas to increase the supply of this housing. It makes other recommendations to increase housing supply during the long term, including digitizing and modernizing the approvals and planning process, growing the skilled labour workforce and encouraging new pathways to home ownership.

A recent Scotiabank housing report found that Ontario is last in the country in the supply of homes per capita, and Canada has the lowest amount of housing per capita of any G7 country.

But in 2021, two years after the province implemented its More Homes, More Choice plan, Ontario had the highest level of housing starts since 1987, and the highest level of rental starts in 30 years.

Barrie did its part, doubling its housing starts last year.

Ontario’s Planning Act states: "An Official Plan shall contain… the goals, objectives and policies established primarily to manage and direct physical change and effects on the social, economic, built and natural environment of the municipality…"

The OP document sets out the vision for a municipality’s approach to land-use planning up to 2051.

With council approval of Barrie’s new OP, it will be sent for review and approval to the province, which is the approval authority for the city’s OP, and the province may make modifications to the City of Barrie Official Plan 2051 before granting its approval.

Once approval is granted, city staff are then able to implement the new plan. Until the new Official Plan is implemented, the current OP remains in effect

According to provincial guidelines, Barrie’s OP must be updated every five years, and a new official plan must be completed every 10 years. Therefore, while the City of Barrie Official Plan 2051 sets out the vision for Barrie’s growth during the next 30 years, it will not be the only official plan between now and 2051.