HIP project at Barrie Central site beginning to take shape

Long-planned key residential development for downtown Barrie’s west end is at long last moving ahead.

A public meeting was held Tuesday evening for new residential development plans on the former Barrie Central Collegiate property. HIP, or Barrie Central Developments, wants to rezone 34-50 Bradford St., to build 630 residential units on the seven-acre site.

“We’ve been at this site for a while… (and) we had a proposal come forward a few years ago. We’ve since come back (with) a much more intense development,” said Joel Doherty, HIP’s vice-president of real estate and development.

“We feel that this is a key downtown site. It’s large (and) has great potential,” said Trevor Hawkins of MHBC Planning, also speaking for HIP.

The project would include developing a two-tower residential apartment building with a shared five-storey podium. The podium would have 110 units, one 30-storey tower would have 284 units and the other tower of 26 storeys would have 236 units. There would be ground-floor commercial space and a parkette in what remains of Prince of Wales school.

Special variances requested include an increase in building height and reduction in parking to 0.78 parking spaces per unit, from 1:1, on the property, located on the west side of Bradford Street, south of Dunlop Street and east of the Eccles Street South and Perry Street intersection. The development would be built in phases, with what’s being proposed now as the first phase.

Cathy Colebatch, an Allandale resident, was the only speaker at Tuesday’s public meeting. She didn’t think 630 residential units translated to just 900 people living there, as HIP has suggested, and was concerned about the parking ratio and where the overflow parkers would go.

But overall, Colebatch said she liked the proposal.

“I was excited to see what was re-imagined for facing Bradford Street,” Colebatch said.

Coun. Keenan Aylwin, who represents the area, asked questions on affordable housing and whether the residential units would be condos or rentals.

“The previous application… it was rental apartments that were being proposed,” he said. “Is that what’s being proposed with this application?”

Doherty gave this answer.

“Our core business is either purpose-built rental apartment buildings or condominiums and we’ve not made that determination just yet on this site,” he said. “We evaluate… cost structure, market needs, market demand. Our review so far of the Barrie market is that both are definitely needed. … Housing stock is needed in Barrie, so either way we will continue to evaluate.”

Aylwin then asked about HIP meeting the 10 per cent affordable housing goal for new development in Barrie’s Official Plan.

“What do you plan to do to demonstrate you’ve met that goal,” he asked.

Again Doherty answered.

“I think what’s important to know here is all areas of the spectrum of housing are needed, whether it’s single-family houses, townhouses, condominiums, rental apartments, affordable housing. They’re all needed,” he said. “We all collectively need to get supply on the market and pricing has gone up, everyone’s aware of how pricing has gone up in a number of years. Costs have gone up. Margins have not grown in the marketplace.

“It’s always something we look at and we want to be as affordable as we can in the marketplace,” Doherty added. “We’re happy to engage in discussions with staff, but it has to be in collaboration with either incentives or the city, federal, provincial government. We’re happy to be part of that discussion and solution but costs are a lot and we want to make sure these projects go forward and we get supply on the market.”

A virtual neighbourhood meeting on HIP’s plans for the former Barre Central site was held Feb. 15, 2022, with approximately 49 people participating. Residents provided comments about commercial uses, specifically a food store in the development, concern with the extension of Simcoe Street to Eccles Street, the potential for pedestrian connection from Perry Street/Eccles Street to Bradford Street, potential challenges with a reduced parking rate and on-street parking in the neighbourhood to the west of the site and discussion regarding affordable housing and the target market for units in this development.

Despite this development dating back at least four years, a public meeting is one of the first stages in Barrie’s planning process.

Once held, a staff report to planning committee is anticipated to be brought forward in late 2022 or early 2023 for consideration of the proposed rezoning. It is from Central Area Commercial with Special Provisions (C1-2)(SP-589)(H-147) to Centra Area Commercial with Special Provisions (C1-2)(SP-XXX). Should city council approve it, an application for site-plan control will be required.

This is a new and revised HIP concept for the former Barrie Central site that had received zoning approval on May 11, 2020. HIP president Scott Higgins said last summer the possible location of a supervised consumption site (SCS) at 11 Innisfil St., right around the corner from the HIP project, changed its plans — leaving no room for a new YMCA, which is now expected to be built in downtown Barrie, at 50 Worsley St., known at the H-Block — once the Y and city work out  an agreement of purchase and sale. 

HIP buildings were reconfigured to front Bradford Street, where the Y was to be located.

Higgins said the site plan needed to be reworked because of the potential location of the SCS, which still requires Health Canada and Ontario Health Ministry approval, and provincial funding.

An SCS provides a safe space and sterile equipment for individuals to use pre-obtained drugs under the supervision of health-care staff; consumption means taking opioids and other drugs by injection, smoking, snorting or orally. The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit and the Canadian Mental Health Association Simcoe County Branch are the proponents for 11 Innisfil St.

The HIP development is one of several residential projects in downtown Barrie which will bring people, and shoppers, to the city’s core.

City council has also rezoned and redesignated property between Lakeshore Drive and Bradford Street, so towers of 41, 38, 35 and 25 storeys high could eventually be built by SmartCentres with a total of about 1,900 residential units, hotel rooms and commercial space at at 51-75 Bradford St. and 20 Checkley St.

Debut Condos is proposing two 32-storey residential towers at 39-67 Dunlop St. W. and 35-37 Mary St., the so-called theatre block, for 495 units in two phases, plus a six-storey podium, with ground-floor retail and commercial uses, along with parking on levels 2-6.

Lakhouse Lakeside Residence is under construction at 185-265 Dunlop St. E., the former Lakeview Dairy site. The residential condo project by Aalto Developments is 10 storeys of 178 units and more than 1,700 square metres of ground-floor commercial use.