• Protecting Water and Farmland in Simcoe County

Big-box housing won’t go away

By
In Barrie
Sep 23rd, 2010
0 Comments
1264 Views

Editorial Barrie Examiner Sept 13 2010
Barrie residents are seeing a trend in high-density plans for residential development making their way to city council.
Monday evening, councillors turned down the Clawson Group’s plans for 300 Essa Rd. — five high-rise apartments from 14 to 25 storeys, 1,130 apartments, 31 townhouses for a total of 1,161 units, and 143,000 square feet of retail, commercial and office space.
City planners said the development was just too big for this property, and that its environmentally sensitive areas were not being respected — a view shared by Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority officials.
Clawson was told to revise its plans, and that those plans would require another public meeting. One in June showed considerable opposition by area residents.
As did a public meeting a week ago concerning Baywood Homes/Options for Homes’ development plans to build 2,174 units on nearly 100 acres of land, at 700 and 725 Mapleview Dr. East.
Residents were also concerned about the sheer size of this medium-and high-density housing project, including street townhouses, four-and six-plexes, and a number of apartments varying from six to 24 storeys.
Baywood/Options’ plan is for land immediately east of the St. Paul’s GO Transit Station, and it includes 46 acres deeded to the city.
This is another development plan that could be ripe for revision.
Both cite Places to Grow and provincial planning policies, which speak of intensification and complete communities. Residents can live, work, shop, play and move in these communities, in the most efficient ways.
Or at least that’s the theory.
Barrie is also on-board. The province has designated this city’s downtown central area as a growth area. Council also has an intensification plan, which identifies parts of Barrie where development should be dense.
Instead of urban sprawl — street after street of single-family homes — there are to be townhouses, walk-up apartments and large high-rises, condominiums and rental units.
This cuts down on commuting to work, and back, pollution, the need for larger highways and allows people to become part of their communities, not just sleeping there and cutting the grass on weekends.
But the intensification theory is becoming an excuse for developers to plan for extremely large projects — thousands of housing units, thousands of people, which could lead to extreme pressure on area services, especially traffic.
As one resident near the Baywood/ Options property noted, it’s like having a new city spring up in your backyard.
From the developers’ point of view, this is a business venture. The more units they build and sell on the property, the more money they make. That’s the way the development game is played.
Once the housing is built and occupied, however, it’s the city’s problem — and that of the neighbours. They’re the ones who have to deal with greater traffic volumes, noise, less green space, etc.
And the politicians hear about it, or read about it in e-mails or in the newspapers when residents get sufficiently ticked off.
Which is why Barrie councillors are taking such a close look now at these large projects and questioning exactly how they will fit into the community.
Is it all part of a negotiation? Probably. But don’t look for an end to applications for these huge developments, even with the clear messages coming from city hall.
There’s just too much money at stake.

Leave a Reply

Commenters must post under real names. AWARE Simcoe reserves the right to edit or not publish comments. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *