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 from Cathy Colebatch is in response to ongoing talks — including tonight's meeting — around a multi-tower project slated for Bradford Street near the city's lakeshore.
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As our planning committee, made up of council members, gets ready for another discussion on the Bradford Street and Lakeshore Drive project this evening, will they have listened?
Coun. Jim Harris at the last meeting made a very good point: Planning officials adjudicate applications before them, based on all the policies they must adhere to.
Planning staff does not make the final decision, but council does.
These decisions, especially this one due to the proximity to Kempenfelt Bay, surrounding neighbours, and the community love of the waterfront and skyline, will not be easy. Nor should it be.
If you as council struggle to make this decision, perhaps you should abstain from the vote on Jan. 11, 2021, or continue to work with the applicant on a meaningful reduction in height and scale.
If reductions were made as previously suggested in my deputation, what would the development look like? More human scale. Obviously less revenue, jobs, units and spin-off, but still intensified.
Keeping in mind what the constituents want to see. This is the community’s quality of life and love of our waterfront in jeopardy.
Tall buildings are defined in our Official Plan as anything above three storeys, so I guess the sky is the limit. (Pun intended.)
I am in support of growth on this site, using the existing zoning of 55 metres in height. At this height, we are still eight storeys above the surrounding buildings, and proposed buildings.
I have included a few statements from the justification report quoting guidelines and polices and the applicant’s evaluation on how they have been met. Really!
"Buildings should be designed to complement and contribute to a desirable community character in terms of massing and conceptual design."
"Evaluation: The proposed development meets the intent of Policy 6.5.2.2 a) by: • The proposed massing respects both the immediate context of adjacent lands as well as the wider context of the Barrie downtown by proposing podiums that are scaled to be perceived at a pedestrian scale while carefully considering the existing highrise condos in the immediate surroundings."
Further delays and reconsiderations of these applications will not advance the proposal and will not yield a different position from the applicant or the community, or a different professional planning opinion from staff.
While the above statement from planning is accurate as far as the applicant and planning are concerned, the community is trying to compromise.
If the applicant wants to be a good neighbour, we encourage them to continue the conversation. This is too important to our city.
Cathy Colebatch
Barrie
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