City council could help fast-track construction of a long-term care (LTC) facility, retirement home and a residential development in south Barrie.
At its Aug. 16 meeting, council will consider 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., 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.
“The proponent for the long-term care beds has been working with the province over the last year or so…but the planning piece of this is being rushed,” said Mayor Alex Nuttall. “Obviously we’re in need of more long-term care beds here in the city.
“So we thought it was necessary to work with the province on this and pass it back to them to accelerate it, and then they can make the decision on it.”
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 – special provision.
Michelle Banfield, the city’s director of development services, said this would allow for an LTC facility with 192 beds, two retirement homes, 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.
Nuttall said the direct motion’s aim is to speed up the approval process.
“The normal channels will be a few months, for sure, at the earliest,” he said. “I understand that there is a pending deadline and so if the province wants to move it as quickly in terms of the long-term care and the beds, then we’re giving them the opportunity to do that.
“Because we don’t have the ability to move it that quick, so passing it back to them…makes a lot of sense.”
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 667-675 Yonge St., for example, there’s a proposal to develop an 11-storey, mixed-use building with residential condominiums and commercial space on the ground floor.
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 St. is a seven-storey, mixed-use building with 176 residential units, ground-floor commercial space and associated surface and underground parking.
At 989 Yonge St., 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.
City council is scheduled to begin Wednesday, Aug. 16 at 7 p.m., in-person in the council chambers and virtually.
