The number we know, the reasons for it not so much.
Barrie’s 19,000 approved but unbuilt housing units continue to confound.
Coun. Mike McCann, who asked for and got the number at Monday night’s city council meeting, offered his opinion Thursday on the reasons.
“Because the builders can make more money if they wait,” he told BarrieToday. “There’s going to be more demand than supply. What happens to the supply? It increases in price.
“That (19,000 number) was just shocking, I think to everybody,” McCann added.
Karen Pratt-Hansen, co-owner of Pratt Homes, one of Barrie’s larger home builders, didn’t disagree, but took issue with the reason.
“I don’t like the way that the conversation is going, suggesting that the development community isn’t motivated in a hot (housing) market," she said.
“I believe the city and development community can work together to bring these applications through a more streamlined process so that we can get this product to market confidently and be able to get the construction contracts out to tender so that we can lock in construction prices and build at the lowest affordable rate we possibly can," Pratt-Hansen added.
Mayor Jeff Lehman has said there are several reasons why homes are approved but not built — water tables, hydrogeology issues, changes to financing or in project ownership that come up after the planning approval.
But he said it also just takes time to develop, such as in the former Innisfil land to the south of the city.
“Barrie’s number (19,000) is unusually high because many of the secondary plan approvals have been given by council, but in those areas building would naturally take 10 years or more,” Lehman said. “However, we do have many approvals that have sat on the books for years and never been built.”
He mentioned the Residences at Five Points in downtown Barrie, shelved last year after condominium sales failed to reach 85 per cent and construction financing could not be arranged. There were to be 20 storeys of 208 condo units.
Pratt-Hansen noted that Barrie was built to its borders by the early 2000s, but the province’s decision to transfer Innisfil land the city’s way in 2010 changed development patterns.
“It finally gave us the availability to build larger developments and bring a more vast level of (housing) inventory,” she said. “It’s been a decade of working through that process.
“Unfortunately, though, there are 19,000 homes in Barrie approved for development, they still have to go through the municipal and conservation authority approvals, which at the moment in my professional opinion is quite backed up,” Pratt-Hansen added.
“When there’s a backup in municipal approvals, the development community is very intimidated to go to market with housing not knowing when they are going to be able to build the houses because inflation is at an all-time high and there are certain insecurities about listing a house for sale now that you’re not going to be able to build for two years, and what the cost of that house will be at that time.”
Since Monday, McCann said he’s been in touch with Ontario planners, mayors, MPPs and MPs to get the lay of the land.
“Many of them are like we were on Monday, on the heels of their feet, not having answers,” the Ward 10 councillor said of the housing backlog. “The speculation and the theory is simply that some of it’s been mismanaged, some of it’s strategy, some of it’s waiting for the market, some of it is red tape with city halls.
“Really, I think everybody is a little gobsmacked and wondering why as well,” he said.
McCann said the number of new Canadians coming to this country, hundreds of thousands in the next few years, will also put more pressure on housing stock in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), and ultimately Barrie.
“I don’t think this issue is going to get solved, the affordable housing issue is going to get solved, anytime fast unless we have strong, synergies between federal government, provincial government and municipal governments, and the builders," he said.
McCann said he expects house prices to continue rising.
“Look what we have to offer. Barrie is a beautiful city,” he said. “Why wouldn’t they want to come to Barrie. But we need more supply.”
McCann says Barrie city council also needs to put more pressure on the County of Simcoe to provide affordable housing, since social housing is the county’s responsibility and the city contributes funding toward that responsibility.
“We need to have more strong conversations with the county to help solve this problem,” he said.
Michelle Banfield, the city’s director of development services, told city council Monday night there are approximately 19,000 residential units approved but not built in Barrie. She said city population targets average 2.7 people living in each unit, so if these 19,000 were built and occupied that would mean another 51,300 people living in Barrie. The 2021 Census says Barrie’s population is 147,829.
BarrieToday has asked city planning staff to break down the 19,000 number — when they were approved, where they are located, types of housing (single-family homes, townhouses, mid- and highrises), and level of approval (council, bylaw, staff).
City staff said the answers would not be available until next week.
The approved but unbuilt homes issue began during talks on Barrie’s new Official Plan (OP), which council approved Monday night. It’s designed to take this city to 298,000 people and 150,000 jobs, while at the same time defining land use, between now and 2051. The OP still requires provincial approval.
