One piece of the puzzle to revitalize downtown Barrie’s west end is up for review Tuesday evening.
A public meeting is on the horizon for new residential development plans on the former Barrie Central Collegiate property. HIP, or Barrie Central Developments, wants to rezone 34-50 Bradford St., to build 630 residential units on the seven-acre site. The HIP project is on the agenda for Tuesday's planning committee meeting, which starts at 7 p.m.
“The HIP proposal, along with the SmartCentres/Greenwin development almost across the street and the Debut Condos on Dunlop (Street West), have the potential to not only revitalize Barrie downtown’s somewhat struggling west end, but make it a thriving community,” said Acting Mayor Barry Ward.
“Wider sidewalks, a performing arts centre, a market in the current transit terminal – they all will help boost the area,” he said of future plans for the area. “Nothing, however, equals the benefits of having a larger resident population within walking distance and these three proposals will bring thousands of people over the next 10 years, people who will be looking for places to eat and things to buy. Just by adding to the number of people in the area and on the street, they will make everyone feel safer.”
This is a new and revised HIP concept for the former Barrie Central site that had received zoning approval on May 11, 2020.
The HIP project would include developing a two-tower residential apartment building with a shared five-storey podium. The podium would have 110 units, one 30-storey tower would have 284 units and the other tower of 26 storeys would have 236 units.
Special variances requested include an increase in building height and reduction in parking to 0.78 parking spaces per unit on the property, located on the west side of Bradford Street, south of Dunlop Street and east of the Eccles Street South and Perry Street intersection. The development would be built in phases, with what’s being proposed Tuesday as the first phase.
“Taken together with other projects either under construction, such as the Lakhouse (on Dunlop Street East), or under consideration, such as the 293 units across from the Lakhouse… it’s possible to feel more optimistic about the downtown’s future now than it has been for many years,” Ward said.
“Another important consideration is that the HIP proposal, along with the SmartCentres/Greenwin plan… will bring thousands of rental units to the city,” he added. “Most won’t be what is considered affordable housing, of course, but they will help increase the supply of rental units, which are desperately needed in all forms.”
City council has rezoned and redesignated property between Lakeshore Drive and Bradford Street, so towers of 41, 38, 35 and 25 storeys high could be built by SmartCentres with a total of about 1,900 residential units, hotel rooms and commercial space at 51-75 Bradford St., and 20 Checkley St.
Debut Condos is proposing two 32-storey residential towers at 39-67 Dunlop St. W. and 35-37 Mary St., the so-called theatre block, for 495 units in two phases, plus a six-storey podium, with ground-floor retail and commercial uses, along with parking on levels two to six.
Lakhouse Lakeside Residence is under construction at 185-265 Dunlop St. E., the former Lakeview Dairy site. The residential condo project by Aalto Developments is 10 storeys of 178 units and more than 1,700 square metres of ground-floor commercial use.
A virtual neighbourhood meeting on HIP’s plans for the former BCC was held Feb. 15, 2022, with approximately 49 people participating.
Residents provided comments about commercial uses, specifically a food store in the development, concern with the extension of Simcoe Street to Eccles Street, the potential for pedestrian connection from Perry Street/Eccles Street to Bradford Street, potential challenges with a reduced parking rate and on-street parking in the neighbourhood to the west of the site and discussion regarding affordable housing and the target market for units in this development.
Colleen Dearham, in a May 4 letter to the city, said she strongly disapproves of the rezoning,
“We don’t need any more apartment buildings in the downtown area,” she wrote. “In fact, I strongly disapprove of building there, destroying the view of the lakefront. However if the buildings do go up, we need parking spaces and we desperately need another supermarket in the downtown area.”
What is being presented Tuesday is just the latest plan for this property, which has changed a few times.
HIP president Scott Higgins said last summer the possible location of a supervised consumption site (SCS) at 11 Innisfil St., right around the corner from the HIP project, changed its plans — leaving no room for a new YMCA, which is now expected to be built in downtown Barrie. HIP buildings were reconfigured to front Bradford Street, where the Y was to be located.
The new YMCA facility is expected to be built at 50 Worsley St., known as the H-Block, once the Y and city work out an agreement of purchase and sale.
Higgins said the site plan needed to be reworked because of the potential location of the SCS, which still requires Health Canada and Ontario Health Ministry approval, and provincial funding.
An SCS provides a safe space and sterile equipment for individuals to use pre-obtained drugs under the supervision of health-care staff; consumption means taking opioids and other drugs by injection, smoking, snorting or orally. The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit and the Canadian Mental Health Association Simcoe County Branch are its proponents at 11 Innisfil St.
Despite the HIP development dating back at least four years, a public meeting is one of the first stages in Barrie’s planning process.
Once held, a staff report to planning committee is anticipated to be brought forward in late 2022 or early 2023 for consideration of the proposed rezoning. It is from Central Area Commercial with Special Provisions (C1-2)(SP-589)(H-147) to Central Area Commercial with Special Provisions (C1-2)(SP-XXX).
Should city council approve it, an application for site-plan control will be required.
