Attention south-Barrie shoppers!
More retail shopping, including a grocery supermarket, could be headed your way.
City councillors, sitting in general committee tonight, will consider approving a rezoning at 315 and 323 Mapleview Dr. W., near Essa Road, that would allow a retail store, a personal service store, food store, supermarket and a stand-alone restaurant.
Noreen Berridge, who lives on nearby Redfern Avenue, said she's of two minds about a food store/supermarket just down the street on Mapleview West.
“I sort of like the quietness of this neighbourhood, but I could see the benefit,” she said. “It would be helpful to have some retail. Right now, we just have the Shoppers (Drug Mart at Essa Road and Mapleview).
“But it would also make it busier. Mapleview is changing. I guess I have mixed emotions,” Berridge added.
Sarah Davis, also a Redfern resident, is a residential real-estate agent by profession who says she shops at Costco, so the proposed development wouldn’t make much difference to her that way.
She is concerned, however, about how this project could affect her neighbourhood.
“It’s sad, because right now it’s a little haven,” said Davis, who lives near Redfern Park, mentioning high school kids already cut through the city greenspace.
“But we are starting to see (commercial development),” she said.
Coun. Gary Harvey, who represents this part of Barrie, said development plans for the area are not yet cast in stone.
“The southwest corner of Barrie currently has four grocery stores, so an additional brand of grocery is welcomed if in fact a grocery store moves in as their anchor tenant,” he said. “More choice and competition to the area is always good and may have a positive impact on lowering prices with additional sale items.
“This part of the city is expecting significant growth with new residential units, so additional stores of all sorts are welcomed and will prosper in the Holly/Salem area," the councillor added.
Developer Plaza REIT’s rezoning application would allow 51,165 square feet of major retail use for a food store, in addition to two 6,510 sq. ft. of retail use, for a combined gross floor area of 64,185 sq. ft.
Barrie’s new Official Plan designates the land as employment area – non-industrial, which reflects the land-use designation required for the proposed major retail and other retail uses of the property.
The rezoning changes the special provisions of the light industrial zoning, to permit additional employment uses associated with a retail store, a personal service store, food store, supermarket and a stand-alone restaurant.
Its development plan would be formalized through a future site-plan control application under the Ontario Planning Act.
This land is just more than six acres in size and located on the south side of Mapleview Drive West, east of Essa Road and west of Hollyholme Farm Road.
The property has a frontage of approximately 132 metres along Mapleview Drive West with a 20-m. easement running along this frontage for municipal servicing and infrastructure.
If the rezoning is approved Wednesday for 315 and 323 Mapleview Dr. W., it still requires the final OK from city council.
