Barrie trailer park residents vow to keep up fight

Councillor defends owners’ rights

By Laurie Watt Barrie Advance

Barrie council is simply refusing to help a group of vulnerable residents, Burton Avenue Mobile Home Owners Association spokesperson Frank Fanuzzi says.

Monday night, councillors gave initial approval to a rezoning and a subdivision plan that would see 96 townhomes and a 20-unit apartment building on a four-hectare site at 196 Burton Ave.

“They’re choosing not to enact their authority. They don’t care,” Fanuzzi told The Advance.

“They can put a hold on any redevelopment of any rental housing — and that includes trailer parks. They chose to ignore it.”

Council’s decision, which is to receive final approval April 28, averts an Ontario Municipal Board appeal by owners Dino Melchior and Joseph Vellinga for non-decision. Presenting their application in September, they appealed last November.

They also issued eviction notices, in which give their tenants until July 31 to move their homes from the Allandale site that’s been a trailer park for more than 50 years.

“They’re getting rid of the affordable housing stock,” said Fanuzzi, who highlighted the irony of the timing, as both Barrie and Simcoe County are working on affordable housing plans.

Mayor Jeff Lehman struggled with the decision, although, as chairperson, he does not vote during general committee meetings, unless it’s to break a tie.

He isn’t convinced the planning arguments are that strong, as good planning should consider the social impact.

“The intensification argument in favour is weak and the affordable housing (issue) is not addressed. Therefore, the justification is pretty weak,” Lehman said.

“This isn’t a vacant piece of land. It’s an existing community and it will be displaced.”

A Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation (CHMC) meeting in February generated an array of ideas, including a pocket neighbourhood, which has small homes arranged around green spaces in a park-like setting. The Institute without Boundaries is examining the possibility, but has yet to release a report.

The day also included brainstorming about sites the trailers could move to, including another in Barrie, which would have to be rezoned.

“The impact of this application is…it will displace people who don’t have a lot of other options. (Let’s) allow more time to enable discussions from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation charrette. It will end up at the OMB regardless,” said Lehman.

“It’s a request, to see if something more can be done for the tenants. I struggle to support this. It’s a small area of land as a rezoning matter. I don’t feel the argument in favour is strong and the implications are severe.”

Most of the site is zoned to allow the townhouses and apartments, the planning report noted.

Ward 8 Coun. Arif Khan defended the landowners’ right to do what they want on land that’s appropriately zoned.

“I refuse to offer up false hope (to residents),” he added.

He supported the rezoning and redevelopment, despite concerns from other residents, who don’t like the traffic impact the new townhouse development will create.

“Be happy that it’s what it is, not five storeys,” he said. “This is a matter of compromise. The proposed built form does blend with the existing neighbourhood. It does not create a stark change to the neighbourhood.”