Crops could no longer grow tall in south-end Barrie at 15 Harvie Rd.
City councillors decided Wednesday night not to extend the temporary-use bylaw to permit farming there, which allows a lower tax rate for agricultural use.
“I have great difficulty supporting this to continue,” said Coun. Gary Harvey, who represents the area. “It’s been going on for a long, long time. We have an application that’s come through on this land, the rezoning has already been approved by this council.
“And by doing this we’re almost incentivizing them to delay development, whereas if we don’t continue giving them the break that they’ve had for countless years now, maybe that will incentivize development to occur,” Harvey added. “I have a hard time … with the situation many of our homeowners are in right now that we’re giving a multi-million-dollar developer a break on taxes when we’re not giving our own residents a break on taxes.”
The application for a temporary-use bylaw for these 82.1 acres comes from SmartCentres REIT on behalf of Barrie-Bryne Developments.
Mayor Alex Nuttall agreed with Harvey.
“How is it plausible to give one of the wealthiest real estate trusts in the country a break on taxes while people are struggling because of inflation and because of interest rates?” he asked. “It just doesn’t make sense. And I’m not sure how we look our residents in the eye and say your taxes are going up X amount this year. How do we substantiate that? And give the wealthy this break?”
“I can’t provide an incentive to not build something,” said Coun. Sergio Morales.
Only Coun. Ann-Marie Kungl voted for extending the temporary-use bylaw. She asked about the consequences to whoever is farming the property in terms of lost income in the years ahead.
“It has been crop farmed,” said Michelle Banfield, the city’s director of development services. “I believe it’s had soy before and corn this year, so it has been farmed and that’s where they have the benefit of a different (lower) tax rate because MPAC has confirmed it’s actively being farmed.”
She said this is the only Barrie property with a temporary-use bylaw for agriculture.
“This is not going to be an agricultural property long-term,” Nuttall said. “This is going to be a development property. This is not the good intentions of some developer to provide food to the city of Barrie. This is a hope to pay less taxes while our residents are paying more taxes.
"That’s what it is, full stop.”
Property taxes on this land are $8,250 this year. If the extension isn’t granted, the land would be re-assessed by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC).
City council could consider final approval of the motion not to extend the temporary-use bylaw to permit farming at 15 Harvie at its Sept. 20 meeting. The bylaw is in effect until Oct. 5, 2023.
This land is designated neighbourhood area, employment – non industrial and natural heritage feature in Barrie’s 2023 Official Plan. The zoning is for light industrial, general commercial and environmental protection (EP).
However, city council rezoned this land Aug. 16, 2023 to permit 29.6 acres of commercial and light industrial uses along Highway 400 to the east of the Bryne Drive extension, and 155 residential units in the form of semi-detached dwellings and townhouses, as well as two blocks for mid-rise apartment buildings, a school block and a public park, to the west of the Bryne Drive extension.
This change awaits the 20-day appeal period.
The property is located on the west side of Highway 400, south of Harvie Road and east of Thrushwood Drive.
The land will be divided by the future Bryne Drive south extension.
