An Ardagh Road property could be rezoned to create two homes in central Barrie.
A public meeting was held Tuesday evening for a rezoning application at 157 Ardagh Rd., located between Snowshoe Trail and Patterson Road, and almost a quarter-acre in size.
Data Tamer (Michael Lato) is asking to rezone the property from single residential (R2) to multiple residential (RM1) use to create two semi-detached residences, on two lots.
Michelle Banfield, Barrie’s director of development services, said a rezoning is needed because the R2 zone doesn’t permit semi-detached homes, so this is the only appropriate planning application process to make that switch in the built form of housing.
“So while it may not be a major zoning-bylaw amendment, it’s not a minor variance,” she said. “I know it does not seem like it’s significant necessarily, but there still is the need to review it, and this is the process to do that.”
Lorraine Moore, a senior who lives on Snowshoe Trail and who once lived at 157 Ardagh Rd., spoke against the rezoning at Tuesday’s public meeting.
“I just feel that… 24.4-metre frontages are just not a wise decision on an arterial road such as Ardagh Road,” she said.
Each lot at 157 Ardagh would have a 12.2-metre frontage, four parking spaces and be two storeys in height.
This property was previously severed from 159 Ardagh Rd., which is immediately to the west, and contains an asphalt parking area, a single-storey garage and several trees that form part of a woodlot.
Banfield said five members of the public attended a neighbourhood meeting about the rezoning application and there were questions about tree preservation and what the houses are going to look like.
The land is on a transit route and surrounded by a mix of low-rise residential uses, including single-detached houses, semi-detached dwellings and townhouses that are either existing, approved or under construction.
A public meeting is one of the first stages of Barrie’s planning process.
The rezoning application now goes to planning staff for a report, likely in the second quarter of 2022, then to planning committee and to city council for approval.
