The battle for Barrie’s southern shore continues.
While there will be no multi-use sports field, city councillors have decided, plans are afoot for a passive park east of General John Hayter Southshore Centre to include a minimum of two acres of grass-cut area, to allow for overflow parking for annual events that will occur on the property, such as Kempenfest, along with having accessible walkways through naturalized areas.
Arnie Ivsins, a member of the Southshore Nature Park task force, says this is too large, and that just more than a half-acre should be plenty for parking. He will make a deputation to city council to that effect at its Oct. 23 meeting.
“The current mow cut is 11 metres from the road (Lakeshore Drive),” he said. “A two-acre cut would go well into the meadow.
"An 11-metre cut, just over a half acre, is acceptable and plenty of room for Kempenfest parking. Two acres ‘minimum’ … takes you into the meadow and is overkill," Ivsins added. “(I'm) curious how they came up with that number.”
Deputy Mayor Robert Thomson, who introduced the Oct. 9 motion that included changes to the passive park, could not be reached for comment by BarrieToday.
Allandale resident Barbara Mackie said there are alternatives to more parking spaces.
“Use public transportation, get some shuttle buses going,” she said. “Keep in mind, (Thomson) said a minimum of two acres.”
The motion comes from a recommendation in The Southshore, Barrie Sports and a Revitalized Downtown, authored by Marshall Green, a retired lawyer with a specialty in municipal law and land-use planning.
Green recommended "that the city develop the current wooded area and meadow on the south shore as a passive park that protects existing wildlife and with trail systems that are accessible; that the park also include an educational component; that citizens groups and service clubs in the city be engaged with the city’s parks department to develop the park; and that the lands ultimately designed for this part of the park be zoned environmental protection (EP)."
Ivsins said his group will be submitting a discussion paper before Oct. 23 relating to its plans on protecting and developing Allandale Station Park with walking paths, environmental protection, native species supportive plantings and aspects of education and tourism.
“We also wish rezoning to EP with provisions to protect it so others don't have to go through this and no buildings are ever built on the land,” he said, noting Allandale Station Park is zoned EP.
The passive park motion is part of a larger series of actions which could see final approval Oct. 23.
Foremost are plans for a new multi-use sports field at the old Barrie Central Collegiate site, at the former Fisher Auditorium site on Dunlop Street West, instead of close to Lakeshore Drive on a portion of Allandale Station Park.
City staff would hire a consultant to do all of this, at an estimated cost of $250,000, with 30 per cent funding from development charges, 20 per cent from the tax capital reserve and the other half from the cash-in-lieu of parkland reserve. That’s to ensure the field meets the minimum size requirements to accommodate a sports field of this nature and minimize impacts to the surrounding area and report back to councillors.
A new performing arts centre is proposed at the Sea Cadets' site, once the young sailors are relocated.
Hariri Pontarini Architects (HPA) would be retained to complete a schematic design for a new performing arts centre at the current Sea Cadets site at an estimated cost of $200,000, to be funded from the theatre reserve fund.
Its design would be prepared for an approximately 45,000-square-foot facility that includes both 600-seat and 250-seat performance spaces. The maximum total would be $65 million in hard and soft construction costs for the building itself, including fit-out of all seating and audio visual components.
City staff would also determine the feasibility of using the current Sea Cadets site, near the Spirit Catcher on Lakeshore Drive, and any required surrounding city land for a new performing arts centre, with the cost of such investigations to a maximum of $375,000 and be funded from the city’s theatre reserve.
A full-time capital project manager would be hired by the city to co-ordinate the site investigations and schematic design work, and the position would be funded from the performing arts centre redevelopment capital project theatre reserve.
Also, the Sea Cadets' parade ground would be removed as one of the uses for the proposed multi-use sports field and staff would provide a concept plan, including costs for locating a drill square with hard surface to the west of Southshore Centre as an extension to the parking lot, and again report back to councillors.
Ivsins said the Southshore Nature Park task force, an offshoot of Nature Barrie and Living Green, also includes members of Pollinate Barrie, Bird City Barrie, First Nations representatives, planners, a scientist and a terrestrial ecologist who deals with ecological restoration.
It came together after Green’s report was released Aug. 14 and has held three in-person meetings to this point.
