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 in response to a contentious development proposal along Barrie's lakeshore.
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It goes without saying that Barrie is blessed with having one the most beautiful waterfronts. We thank our municipal leaders that have served Barrie for their wisdom and foresight in establishing necessary limitations and frameworks with respect to, among other things, building heights to preserve this jewel of Barrie, thus avoiding the blight that is Toronto’s waterfront.
To be clear, we are not opposed to the development of these lands. We welcome it. However, it should be in keeping with the characteristics of the community and not overwhelm it. We agree with the many submissions that have been made by many concerned residents relating to proportion, traffic, shadowing, and the myriad negative impacts that such a monstrous development will have on our lovely waterfront.
Until very recently, we had been under the (perhaps mistaken) impression that Barrie city council was responsive to constituent input, and in turn provided direction to Barrie city “staff” on that basis.
As evidenced by recent council meetings, this is not or is no longer the reality. Despite the public outcry over the comparatively monstrous proportions of this development, certain city councillors seem to have taken the position that it would be somehow unfair to impose reasonable limitations on the developer’s request to build as high as 46, 39, 36 and 25 storeys in their four-tower proposal, as it might impact on their profit.
I would like to remind all concerned that at the time of purchase, the developer had no expectation or guarantee of anything higher than 24 storeys, which, based on our understanding, was the height limitation at the time of purchase.
As such, any further concessions with respect to height is simply a bonus to the developer and the suggestion that to restrict the height is somehow unfair to the developer is misguided and misleading.
Has Barrie council considered that the truly unfair impact of so massive a development would fall upon residents who based their purchasing decisions in part on established height limitations contained in the Official Plan (16 storeys), and the related assurance that their properties would not be plunged into darkness and shadows and crowding by hulking disproportionate towers far more than the maximum heights promised?
How did we suddenly get from 16 or even 24 storeys to 46 or even 39? And the suggestion that we should be placated by the developer’s “willingness” to marginally reduce the height from some already arbitrarily designated number does not constitute any sort of “compromise." The 24 storeys was/is the compromise.
This development will have a negative impact on all Barrie residents who use and enjoy our currently sunny waterfront amenities. Just as we have restrictions on what can happen to heritage buildings — many of which are not even aesthetically pleasing — we need limitations where there is a risk of doing irreparable harm to what should be protected under a similar designation like “beautiful landscapes." Do not mess with them.
We marvel at how fortunate Barrie is to have this this wonderful waterfront that is truly accessible to the people, unlike Toronto’s. That it is this way is the legacy from our municipal leaders, past and present.
Going forward, do our leaders want their legacy to be one of bringing darkness to Barrie’s most prized asset?
We are not against building or developments, but to those who suggest that this proposal as it stands represents progress, we would suggest that it is anything but.
Kathryn and Charles Talbot
Barrie
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