An end might be in sight for Barrie’s proposed new comprehensive, city-wide zoning bylaw.
The subject of a public meeting Thursday night, it drew a standing-room-only crowd to the Council Chamber at Barrie City Hall.
But change will not come without difficulty for residents, who had their say during the two-hour-plus meeting.
“We need to be mindful of existing neighbourhoods,” Allandale resident Cathy Colebatch said of the bylaw’s proposed changes. “We are adding housing stock, but we are not adding affordable housing stock.”
There is also considerable concern that, under the new zoning bylaw, a four-storey apartment could be built with no notice to neighbours, no public meeting, no appeal and no ability to comment to council.
Jerry Bruce, of Kempenfelt Drive, has lived in Barrie since 1976 and is one who is troubled with certain types of housing being allowed, as a right, in some residential zones, with little opportunity for opposition.
“We will lose the opportunity to have a voice,” he said. “We need to slow down.”
Janet Lougheed, who also lives on Kempenfelt Drive, had similar concerns.
“I feel you are taking away the rights of residents to be involved in their neighbourhood,” she told city councillors.
And there were other concerns about the new zoning bylaw.
William Scott, of Burton Avenue, and a member of the Allandale Neighbourhood Association, spoke of the need to protect the historical character of this city.
“Barrie has not done well in protecting its history,” he said, “with many buildings gone from the downtown.”
Karen Hansen, of Pratt Homes, said she has 24 fundamental concerns with the proposed zoning law, which she said is less flexible than the current zoning bylaw.
“We have a housing crisis,” she said, mentioning affordable housing, “and it’s not easy to solve. We have to make more housing options available.”
Darick Battaglia, of Jean Street, asked that his property, near the north shore of Kempenfelt Bay, be exempt from the zoning change to green space from open space.
A zoning bylaw is a tool used to implement the policies of the newly approved City of Barrie Official Plan 2051. This key document controls the use of land, buildings and structures, across all properties within Barrie. The zoning bylaw shows where buildings may locate on a property, how they can be used and what form they can take — such as detached houses and mid-rises.
Barrie’s proposed new zoning bylaw expands building types in all neighbourhood areas, providing more housing options — singles, semis, row houses, walk-up apartments and multiplexes, for example — to aid in improving housing affordability, according to the city.
The new bylaw also permits additional height and density in all neighbourhood areas.
Building types permitted in neighbourhood areas have been linked to road classification, to tie denser developments to the streets that are equipped to encourage walking, cycling and transit use.
Land uses have been expanded to permit a wider variety of uses to support walkability, reduce automobile dependency and create opportunities for connectivity to the local community.
Overall lot standards and setbacks are smaller, allowing for more compact built forms. Zoning standards which were historically only seen in the previous Hewitt’s and Salem secondary plans have been applied, where appropriate, across the city.
'Poor city planning'
There was a common theme to comments the city received about the new zoning bylaw.
“For the record, I do not agree that the new zoning bylaw should permit four-storey apartments in all Barrie neighbourhoods,” said Jeff Garner, a Barrie resident. “This is poor city planning. Please do better. This is over-intensification. Please change the new zoning bylaw accordingly.”
“In order to help to resolve the current housing availability crisis, I strongly believe we need to, first and foremost, focus on increasing density in already developed areas with existing infrastructure,” said Petr Malik, also of Barrie. “We need to work on enabling more mid- and high-density, family-friendly and transit-friendly development in the existing zoned areas.
“That’s why I’m urging (city council) to support amendments that would end exclusionary zoning by allowing for four-plexes and four-storey, walk-up apartments in neighbourhoods as of right, allowing for mid-rise developments ranging from six to 11 storeys on transit corridors and main streets,” he added. “That will ultimately be more beneficial in tackling the housing supply shortage by effectively utilizing existing resources and providing more affordable and transit-friendly options to families that may not be able to afford or rent a single-detached house.”
“This (zoning) bylaw would allow a four-storey apartment building on any property zoned as (residential) NL1, NL2, and NL3 in Barrie,” said Barrie resident Joe Quinto. “Although I am not against the ability for developers to help accommodate the increasing population of the city of Barrie, I am concerned that this will detract from the attractiveness … of Barrie and the ability for residents and potential residents to choose the residential environment in which they desire to live in.
“The main issue with this proposal, in my opinion, is the removal of the input of residents to maintain their residential landscape,” he added. “Without public input, as well as other checks and balances, the proposal could lead to a drastic change in the living environment that people have chosen to raise their families in.
“In fact, I would have grave concerns about moving to a city that would allow the unrestricted ability of developers to severely affect a neighbourhood that is currently desirable to me,” Quinto said. “I am unclear as to why the city would choose to remove an oversight that would preserve the city’s ability to control its future housing needs.”
Gail Shotlander said she wished to make a formal objection to the comprehensive zoning bylaw that permits four-plexes in nearly any location in Barrie.
“I have given my concerns and objections to other building projects’ public hearings in the past, and felt that my voice, which was echoed by others, was ignored and disregarded,” she said. “Is this another case? Will Barrie's councillors and the mayor hear our objections and those of others to this specific portion of the bylaw and remove it? I hope so.”
The city received more than 300 written submissions, mostly from Barrie residents and planning consultants.
Michelle Banfield, Barrie's executive director of development services, acknowledged the city has heard a great deal about four-storey structures as a right in many residential zones.
“They’re not permitted everywhere,” she said, noting they would go on larger lots.
Banfield said the city needs a new zoning bylaw to align with provincial policy, and that the present one dates back to 2009 — although there have been updates.
Veteran planning consultant Bob Lehman has spoken out about the proposed new city-wide zoning bylaw. He’s also said one of the most significant changes is the permission for four-storey apartment buildings anywhere in the east end of Barrie.
A four-storey apartment can be built with no notice to neighbours, no public meeting, no appeal, no ability to comment to council, he said.
Lehman also has concerns with design standards in the proposed bylaw. This includes: regulating the location, height, spacing or number of entrances and the direction that a pedestrian entrance faces; regulating the length of a building; how much of a building frontage is required to be certain type of use, exterior finishes, the location and nature of windows, the minimum or maximum height of a podium, the minimum proportion of ground-floor frontage in a certain use or type of use; and regulating the interior design of entrances.
If applied throughout the city, it will suppress innovation and encourage sameness of design, Lehman has said.
Comments, suggestions and questions from Thursday night’s public meeting are to be addressed in a report from city planning staff on the new comprehensive, city-wide zoning bylaw.
It’s expected to be before Barrie councillors sometime next year.
