The city’s do-it-yourself housing plan is moving ahead.
Barrie councillors gave initial approval Wednesday night to rezone three parcels of city-owned land that could one day hold hundreds of new residences.
These parcels — 29 and 35 Sperling Dr., 50 Worsley St. and 48 Dean Ave. — can be sold to developers that could turn them into an estimated 1,375 new units.
“The land is for sale, let’s get going, let’s get some housing built,” said Coun. Sergio Morales. “I’m in support of any initiatives that can get more housing … and maximize units and density.”
City council will consider final approval of these rezonings at its April 17 meeting.
“The more we do these types of projects, and we’re able to provide them and get them to market, the less people will feel the pain inside the neighbourhoods five and 10 years from now,” said Mayor Alex Nuttall.
The 29 and 35 Sperling property, which is Ward 3 land north of Highway 400 and east of St. Vincent Street, contains the former police building and surface parking on 3.5 acres. The city’s development concept is for two nine-storey buildings on the two irregular shaped lots.
The target proportion of non-residential uses is five to 10 per cent of the gross floor area, and may include workshops, offices and small-scale retail. One level of underground parking would be provided for each building.
Coun. Ann-Marie Kungl added an amendment to the rezoning motion that development services staff be requested to further examine any additional standards that general committee deems worth exploration, beyond the permissions of the Official Plan (OP), including a special policy area to permit increases in height and density on the site and report back to Barrie councillors in June 2024.
“It’s the opportunity to really explore if we can go a little bit higher, than what was presented,” she said, noting it could mean changing the OP, “to see if we can look at exploring greater density and height on that space than what’s been proposed to date.”
At 48 Dean, located in Ward 9, there is already Barrie Public Library’s Painswick branch, surface parking and a landscaped area. The latter 1.66 acres on this site’s eastern half would be rezoned for a 10-storey building with 201 units and 257 parking spaces. It could have one level of underground parking and two levels of above-grade structured parking. The library and parking area would not be affected by any future development.
Morales added a privately owned public space on the property, with community input.
“The land is owned by the condo corporation, but maybe it’s a public garden,” he said. “Maybe it’s a community garden, maybe it’s a sitting area for seniors.”
The H-Block property, at 50 Worsley, is 1.58 acres in Ward 2, adjacent to library’s downtown branch. The city’s concept would have two 33-storey towers, a three-storey podium and 628 units. On the east side of the three-storey podium there would be 12 two-storey townhome-style units overlooking John Edwin Coupe Park.
Retail would be on the ground floor along Clapperton and McDonald streets. As well, 395 parking spaces would be provided in one level of underground parking and three levels of above-grade structured parking, screened with commercial and residential uses.
The sale and development of these three properties could also be a cash cow for the city, Mayor Alex Nuttall has said.
The potential sale values of these three properties is roughly $35 million, he said, their estimated annual tax revenue to the city is $3.5 million and the development charges (DCs) created through these property sales is $36 million.
DCs are designed to recover the capital/infrastructure costs associated with residential, commercial, industrial and institutional growth within a municipality from developers, so that existing residents don’t have to foot the bill.
Nuttall has said this funding would help pay for city priorities and keep property taxes affordable.
On March 14, the city received $25.6 million in federal housing accelerator funding, to both fast-track more than 680 housing units in the next three years and help spur construction of 4,100 homes during the next decade.
Barrie’s plan commits to nine local initiatives, such as permitting four units as-of-right citywide, helping stalled developments that already have planning approvals get building permits by offering incentives, expanding the city’s affordable housing community improvement plan to include forgivable loans for secondary suites and making city-owned land available for affordable housing — such as 29 and 35 Sperling Dr., 50 Worsley St., and 48 Dean Ave.
Bill 23, the province’s More Homes Built Faster Act of 2022, calls for 1.5 million new homes built in Ontario by 2031.
Barrie councillors endorsed a pledge in early 2023 with a target of 23,000 new homes built by 2031, in addition to what’s already planned.
The residences that would be built from the rezoning and sale of the Sperling Drive, Worsley Street and Dean Avenue homes could help the city make that target.
