When Michael Van Reekum looks across Roslyn Road, he can see where there will be two homes on a single lot, not one.
The Barrie man objects to provincial and city laws which allow a detached home, in addition to a second suite in the main house, on one property.
That second house is being built right now behind the main home on Roslyn Road, and with a city building permit.
“It may be legitimate with the City of Barrie and with the province, but every single one of my neighbours — and I’m talking everyone — is completely just so upset,” Van Reekum said. “One neighbour, back on Rose Street, is so upset that he actually put a ‘for sale’ sign on his house the very next day when he found out about this. And he sold."
Roslyn Road is located in north-east Barrie near Georgian College.
“We all bought here, all my neighbours and I bought here, because it’s single-family residential. How does this come anywhere close to single-family residential? It’s not,” he said of the Roslyn address. “You can’t just go changing zoning when people have invested all their money in their homes, and then you go around and change our whole neighbourhood.”
As part of Bill 108, the More Homes, More Choice Act of 2019, the province amended the Planning Act to require that Official Plans permit three housing units on one lot — a main dwelling with a second suite and a detached accessory suite.
In November of the same year, Barrie council amended the city's zoning bylaw to make it easier to build a second suite and provide other forms of affordable housing — permitting both a second suite and a detached accessory dwelling unit in nine residential zones.
Coun. Clare Riepma said this isn’t just a Roslyn Road problem.
“We have a number in Ward 1 as well and I get complaints about them regularly,” he said. “In some cases it would be fine, but often they can be very disruptive, cause overcrowding and a loss of privacy for the neighbours.”
BarrieToday was unable to contact the owner of the Roslyn Road property.
“All the neighbours are upset,” Van Reekum said. “The only person who’s happy is… it’s a rental property, and so it’s an absentee landlord, who as far as we know lives down in the city (Toronto).
“So he’s happy, he’s happy that his rental unit is going to bring in an extra few thousand dollars every month. He’s the only person that’s happy. He’s not even a Barrie resident," Van Reekum added.
As many as three units per lot are now permitted across Barrie in single, semi-detached and townhouse units on public roads — one in the main house and one in a detached unit. Both accessory units need a building permit and need to be registered on the city’s second-suite registry.
There are standards for the second suites in homes and for those in detached units. The detached units have to meet the provisions of accessory buildings in terms of height (single storey), size, can’t be in the front yard and have setbacks from the lot lines. These standards are all contained in the city's zoning bylaw.
As part of Barrie’s affordable housing strategy update, staff will also be initiating amendments to the city’s zoning bylaw. A public meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 15 and the notice of the public meeting will be issued on Thursday May 20.
Information at that time will be available on the city’s website about the nature of the proposed amendments.
