It’s all about the timing for a mixed-use development at 667-675 Yonge St., in south Barrie.
Rezoned by city council just more than a year ago, it’s to be 11 storeys and 249 residential units — including 25 affordable — and ground-floor commercial use on 1.36 acres fronting both Yonge Street and Montgomery Drive.
“(It’s) well-designed and the kind of built form we need on Yonge Street, a provincial highway,” said Coun. Sergio Morales, who represents this part of Barrie.
He also noted the 11 storeys zoned for 669 Yonge have been pushed up toward Yonge Street and away from the adjacent neighbourhood.
The city’s development page says site-plan control is proposed, pending an application submission from the developer.
Vincent Tran told BarrieToday the delay relates to future residents there.
“We are using a cement building and we wanted to make sure for the residents that we would finish in a timely manner for when we start,” he said.
The property was rezoned by council Aug. 16, 2023, from residential single-detached dwelling, first density to mixed-use corridor, with special provisions.
That includes a building height of 36.5 metres where 25.5 metres is allowed, decreasing the minimum setback to an underground parking structure and changes to maximum side-yard setbacks, minimum exterior side yard setbacks and rear facade step-backs.
Morales successfully amended the 2023 rezoning motion so that a minimum of 50 per cent of the ground-floor building frontages in the development, abutting public streets, will consist of commercial or institutional uses.
In Barrie’s Official Plan (2023), this property is designated medium density and is located along the Yonge Street intensification corridor within a strategic growth area. In this designation, building heights should be a minimum of six storeys and a maximum of 12 storeys, and densities shall be in the range of 125 to 300 units per hectare. If the minimum density target can be met, building heights of less than six storeys are permitted.
Tran said his understanding of affordable housing is in line with the city’s definition.
Affordable housing is a range of housing types allowing families and individuals, of all income levels, to find suitable places to live without spending a disproportionate percentage of their income on housing.
Affordable housing can include ownership, rental or subsidized housing.
The city defines affordable rental housing as a unit for which the rent doesn’t exceed 30 per cent of the gross annual household income for low- to moderate-income households. That income is based upon the most recent Canada Census statistics for Barrie, which is updated every five years.
