A large swath of south-end land has taken another step forward toward beginning construction of hundreds of homes along McKay Road West at Veterans Drive.
Michelle Banfield, the city's director of planning and building, says the planning department has issued conditions of draft-plan approval for H&H Capital Group before it can move forward with the first phase of development at 124, 180 and and 228 McKay Rd. W.
"This will allow for the construction of 327 single-detached residential units, 359 townhouse units, one elementary school, one neighbourhood park, and one mixed-use block that includes 100 high-density residential units which will be home to approximately 2,152 future Barrie residents," Banfield says in a memo to council.
The area currently includes agricultural land and a building which formerly housed the Barrie Equine Clinic.
This 86-acre parcel of land, which is located at the northwest corner of the intersection of McKay Road West and Veterans Drive, was formerly part of Innisfil before it was turned over to Barrie by the province in 2010.
Through the technical review process, Banfield says "several items of importance" were identified as conditions of draft-plan approval. Those include provisions for affordable housing through the requirement for second-suite packages to be offered in some of the units within the development, as well as traffic-calming measures that meet the city's approval.
Banfield says the applicant is working toward satisfying the draft-plan conditions, which will then allow for registration of the subdivision and building permits to be issued.
Servicing of the subdivision is expected to begin in 2020, with the registration of subdivision and subsequent construction to commence in 2021, Banfield said.
