Nearly 3,700 people have signed a petition
By Chris Simon Barrie Advance
Michelle Lackey may lose her home’s biggest selling feature.
The Barrie resident moved into her Loon Avenue dream house in June. The backyard has a pool and it overlooks part of a large wooded area, which is connected to the Lovers Creek ravine. But shortly after closing the purchase and moving in, she found out neighbours had received notice of a public meeting for a proposed 104-unit development, which could be built five metres from the back of their property lines, just weeks earlier.
Lackey says she didn’t know about the proposal and any development on the land would be “devastating” to residents and “costly” to her property value.
“If this development happens, it’s opening a huge can of worms,” she said. “I never thought we’d be backing onto more houses, given it’s a wetland. That’s a big disappointment. We didn’t think it was even possible, but they’ve found a small piece of land they feel they can develop on. It just seems the developers are cramming. It’s busting at the seams with townhomes, leaving no buffer between us and the road that’s going to go right through our backyard. If we’d have known, we’d have backed out of that deal. This is why we moved into this house, because it backed onto this beautiful forest. It’s a huge shock.”
That public meeting for the 521 Huronia Rd. proposal was held in mid-September. MHBC Planning has submitted an application for Official Plan and zoning bylaw amendments that, if approved, would allow for the construction of 12 traditional and 92 stacked townhouses on three of the site’s 15.3 acres.
MHBC partner Eldon Theodore says preliminary community consultation began about a year ago.
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