BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is co-signed by three members of the Allandale Neighbourhood Association.
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Somewhere along the way, our provincial and municipal governments stopped working for the residents. While both levels of government have done — and continue to do — good work in some regards, they have failed to create affordable housing. Why?
Although the province mandated municipalities create more affordable housing with second suites and houses in backyards, it did not include building more subsidized units, rental buildings across all wards, nor did it demand a significant monetary ask of developers to create affordable units.
Instead, the City of Barrie accepts money in lieu of building those units.
So, the lack of success is not surprising. Second suites within single-detached dwellings, semis or duplexes have been common for years in Barrie. However, provincial and municipal reports confirm these suites have now become unaffordable.
Landlords/developers are building units from 700 to 1,500 square feet. Who are they building them for? Certainly not seniors, single-parent families, students, a small family, or folks with disabilities.
They’re building it larger to capitalize on our already unaffordable rents.
The City of Barrie’s mistake in allowing houses to be built in backyards prior to establishing any reasonable bylaws has developers and landlords racing to get accessory dwellings built the size of a primary house with a full basement in our single-family neighbourhoods.
The result is the destruction of our tree canopy, costs incurred by neighbouring residents for property damage, severing of properties and the increase in density in the number of people on one single lot with no limitations. Homeowners are not doing this, investors/developers are. They are not living in the units themselves, but instead are renting out unaffordable properties.
Rents are ranging between $1,700 to $3,500 per month. Complete communities include all housing types and built form, however in historic neighbourhoods, where residents chose to buy homes to live in, and perhaps create an affordable second suite within the primary building, are now expected to be happy about the large, unaffordable units being built in our immediate neighbour’s backyard.
We are not happy and why should we be? This is not benefitting anyone other than investors and developers. The City of Barrie is trying to create housing at the expense of — and on the backs of — hard-working, tax-paying homeowners.
Urban design guidelines for good planning are being ignored, and at a time when we should be planting trees, the city is approving the development of houses in backyards, which could result in the removal of 83,700 trees in the City of Barrie.
If the city is serious about creating affordable housing, why are we supporting urban sprawl and not subsidized housing in all wards and more rental apartments, six storeys or less.
Why are developers building subdivisions with single family homes and no affordable units? Is the city working with the County of Simcoe, who have a long history of affordable housing initiatives? Has the city worked with provincial and federal governments to receive some of the tens of millions of dollars of funding that is available to other municipalities to build non-profit housing projects and repair thousands of public housing units?
Building houses in backyards is not the solution.
Please contact your city councillor, who has been elected to represent you, if you, like us, have concerns about houses being built in backyards.
Our city must be held accountable to all residents and not simply approve developments without any regard for neighbours and communities.
Barbara Mackie
Cathy Colebatch
Arlene McCann
Allandale Neighbourhood Association
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