Barrie Central site at centre of OMB appeal

By Laurie Watt Barrie Advance

The Simcoe County District School Board is taking the city to the Ontario Municipal Board, The Advance has learned.

The school board has filed an appeal on the hold provision on the commercial zoning of the land now occupied by Barrie Central Collegiate and Prince of Wales Public School, Mayor Jeff Lehman confirmed yesterday.

“Yes, they have,” Lehman told The Advance, referring to the board’s decision to appeal the zoning approved last month. The mayor said he could not comment further, as the matter is now in the hands of the quasi-judicial appeal authority.

The hold provision restricts the school board from selling the land for commercial purposes, if the proposal doesn’t include a school.

The city envisions an educational hub at the corner of Dunlop and Bradford streets that would include a university and a high school. However, the school board has plans to close Central in June 2016, if it does not find a partner  by September 2014 willing to build a turn-key school.

The board issued a Request for Proposals on Nov. 1, but excluded the city’s lands, which would create a more developable, 11-acre site, rather than the 5.7-acre high school parcel and a 1.6-acre elementary parcel that abut city-owned lands, including the Red Storey field.

On Nov. 22, no prospective developers attended a site visit.

Barrie subsequently attempted to sweeten the pot by putting its rezoned lands, including several Bradford Street lots, on the market.

The board extended its deadline for proposals to Jan. 20 from Jan. 13, due to a request for more time from one respondent, said SCDSB superintendent Paul Sloan.

When asked why the appeal has been filed at the OMB, Sloan said the board is not “comfortable with the language” in the bylaw.

“There is opportunity to sit down with the city to develop language that satisfies both sides. We remain hopeful this will happen,” he added.