City council put construction on speed-dial for a long-term care (LTC) facility, a retirement home and a residential development in south Barrie.
At last night's meeting, council approved a direct motion that its development services staff initiative what’s called a community infrastructure housing accelerator (CIHA) application for this project at 800 Yonge St., in the St. Paul's area near Mapleview Drive East, and report back in September.
Ontario’s More Homes for Everyone Act 2022 changes the Planning Act to create a minister’s order authority, known as the community infrastructure and housing accelerator tool. This authority gives the minister of municipal affairs and housing the power to make orders to respond to municipal requests for expedited zoning outside of the Greenbelt.
“Barrie, and specifically Ward 9, have an opportunity to secure a once-in-a-lifetime, long-term care bed construction build,” said Coun. Sergio Morales, who represents this part of Barrie. “The CIHA will allow all the appropriate studies to still occur, while ensuring that avoidable delays and processes don't make us lose out on these much-needed long-term care beds in our community.
“Council and I have heard long-term beds where Barrie seniors can age in their community with dignity and respect are something residents desperately want, and so we are doing our part and seeing that happen," added the ward councillor.
Barrie has nine non-profit or for-profit facilities with 1,115 licensed LTC beds.
“When we see the opportunity for more stock for seniors in this city, I think we need to make sure it moves as quickly as possible,” said Mayor Alex Nuttall. “There should be absolutely zero barriers in the way for operators to open up supply beds and supply housing for seniors at the same time.”
Nuttall said the proponent for these LTC beds has been working with the province during the last year, but now planning approvals need to be fast-tracked, because Barrie is in need of more LTC beds.
This property is designated commercial district in Barrie’s Official Plan and is also located in what’s called a major transit station area. It’s right across Yonge Street from Barrie South GO Station. The land is zoned general commercial with special provisions.
Michelle Banfield, the city’s director of development services, has said this would allow for an LTC facility with 192 beds, two retirement home, assisted living facilities with a total of 485 suites and 120 dwelling units and two residential apartments with a total of 360 dwelling units, along with amenity areas and a range of commercial and related accessory uses.
“A CIHA can be used to regulate the use of land and the location, use, height, size and spacing of buildings and structures to permit certain types of development,” Banfield wrote in a memo to council. “The requesting municipality is responsible for providing public notice and undertaking consultation and ensuring the order, once made, is made available to the public.
“In issuing the order, the minister can provide an exemption for other necessary planning-related approvals from provincial plans, the Provincial Policy Statement and municipal official plans, if specifically requested by the municipality, and impose conditions on the municipality and/or proponent," she added.
The direct motion’s aim is to speed up the approval process, Nuttall has said, as the normal channels would take a few months.
The More Homes for Everyone Act 2022 works in tandem with the province’s More Homes Built Faster Act of 2022, which calls for 1.5 million new homes built in Ontario by 2031.
This property is generally located north of Mapleview Drive East, south of Country Lane, on the west side of Yonge Street. It’s also across Yonge Street from Yonge GO Village, a planned multi-family development site on 15 acres of land.
This part of Barrie is already a beehive of proposed, planned and approved development.
At 1012 Yonge St., the development of 1,029 residential units — in the form of three six-storey and two three-storey multi-residential buildings and 10 townhouse units — are proposed, along with ground-floor commercial space along Yonge Street and including underground and surface parking.
Approved at 681 and 685 Yonge is a seven-storey, mixed-use building with 176 residential units, ground-floor commercial space and associated surface and underground parking.
At nearby 989 Yonge, planned is the future development of 60 townhouses, four mixed-use residential and commercial buildings with approximately 1,218 residential condominiums, and commercial space, ranging in height from three to 12 storeys.
And at 651-673 Mapleview Dr. E., there’s a proposed commercial development, from Sobeys, in six buildings including retail, restaurant and food store uses at the southwest corner of Mapleview and Yonge.
