Mid-level residential development could have a place along Barrie’s Yonge Street.
A public meeting will be held Jan. 8 regarding an application to rezone 375 Yonge St. and 389-393 Yonge St., needed to construct a six-storey, mixed-use residential building with 111 rental apartments, one ground-floor commercial unit and more than 100 parking spaces. Plans also include 119 cycle parking spaces — 104 indoor and 15 outdoor.
The rezoning application is from general commercial and general commercial with special provisions to a mixed-use node with special provisions zone.
The variances would include less minimum coverage for commercial uses than is required, less landscape buffering than required, and more parking lot coverage for apartments than required, but fewer parking spaces per residence than required.
There are a variety of uses in this area, with 375 Yonge occupied by a vacant, one-storey commercial office building and associated parking.
There’s a Starbucks drive-through restaurant at 389 Yonge and a multi-unit commercial building at 393 Yonge, fronting onto Little Avenue. The northern portion of 389 Yonge is vacant.
A concurrent consent application was approved by Barrie’s committee of adjustment last month. It permitted the northern, vacant portion of 389 Yonge to be severed and merged with 375 Yonge.
The newly reconfigured 375 Yonge St. land, near Little Avenue, comprises the development area associated with this rezoning application.
Surrounding land uses include commercial along Yonge Street to the north and the south, with predominantly lower-density residential uses to the east.
The Willoughby Natural Area is located to the southwest along Little Avenue, and Whiskey Creek Walk connects Yonge Street north of the site to Willoughby, running behind the residential uses that front onto the west side of Yonge Street across from the land that could be rezoned.
A neighbourhood meeting was held last March with 19 residents attending, along with Ward 8 Coun. Jim Harris, city planning staff and the consulting team for the applicant, named 375 Yonge St. Inc.
At that meeting, residents expressed concerns about the proposed height and density of the development, whether it would be rentals or condos, the impact on traffic along Yonge Street, stormwater management and drainage, and resulting impacts on adjacent properties and the potential impacts on boundary trees due to construction.
A public meeting is one of the first steps in the city’s planning process.
This application now goes to city planning staff for a report to Barrie councillors, who will ultimately decide on the rezoning application.
The public meeting on Jan. 8 is scheduled for 6 p.m. as part of affordability committee in the Council Chambers, both in-person and online.
