Plans continue to proceed for the large residential development proposed on the former Barrie Central Collegiate site.
City councillors, sitting as planning committee Tuesday night, approved a rezoning of 34, 36, 38, 40, 44 and 50 Bradford St., just more than seven acres, near the corner of Dunlop Street West and Bradford Street in downtown Barrie.
Proposed is a development consisting of two towers and a podium for 630 total residential apartment building units.
Coun. Craig Nixon, who represents this part of Barrie, said Wednesday that he doesn’t have any issues with the project at this point, and that HIP Barrie Central, also known as HIP Developments, has met all the requirements looked for by city staff.
“We need the additional living spaces and I think it will actually kind of revitalize that end of town, hopefully,” Nixon said of the project. “It’s certainly not (happening) as fast as everyone would like it, but that’s kind of the world we live in with these types of developments. They take a while.”
The first tower would be 30 storeys and 284 units, the second 26 storeys and 236 units, with a shared podium of five storeys and 110 units.
The Waterloo-based developer needs the rezoning, in part, as only 12 to 15 storeys are allowed under the current standard.
Through the rezoning, HIP Barrie Central is also asking for a reduction in parking to 0.80 from 1.0 spaces per unit and no landscape buffer requirement when three metres of continuous landscape is required for an apartment building. Also requested is less ground-floor commercial use than is required.
City planning staff say no designated affordable residential units are proposed for this development, and that this housing supply would be at market rates. But it is understood that a general increase in housing supply is needed in Barrie and this project has the potential to impact affordability by providing more supply.
The property is part of a larger parcel of land that was the former Barrie Central Collegiate, includes the former Red Storey Field and the former Prince of Wales elementary school. These old school sites have been largely demolished.
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 now as the first phase.
HIP’s plans for this property changed with the possible location of a supervised consumption site (SCS) right around the corner from the its development, at 11 Innisfil St. 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. So HIP moved its buildings to front onto Bradford Street.
The SCS has city council’s endorsement and approval from Health Canada, but still requires approval from the province, which would fund the facility.