Housing development dominates Barrie council meeting

Barrie city councillors meet on Wednesday night, and housing development was at the top of the agenda.

According to Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall, the focus was on collaboration when it comes to planning how to utilize the city's federal funding, which was about $25.6 million, and the provincial funding, which was more than $6.3 million.

"Our staff did a lot of work to get that in place, and we are really happy that the provincial and the federal governments are recognizing the good work by the staff here in the city of Barrie," said Nuttall.

The mayor added that while the city hopes to build more than 4,800 homes in the next three years, questions remain about what those homes should look like and how to ensure they will be affordable for prospective renters and buyers.

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"We have to look at these different properties that we have put to sale for high density along Highway 400 in downtown to provide that housing stock and not rely on individuals trying to turn single-family neighbours into multi-units as a whole," he said.

In addition to those discussions, there are plans surrounding a prospective residential development at 284 and 286 Dunlop Street West and 119 and 121 Henry Street in Ward Two.

"We need to find the way to properly use the funds that have been provided to incent all these different options, so if you grew up in the city of Barrie or you lived your life here, you have those options for the next step in your life," said Nuttall.

On Wednesday night, councillors voted on a bylaw adjustment that was approved, and will see a potential condo development receive approval to build up to 51 metres in height instead of its original 21 metres.

"It is likely that it will happen; however, the caution is that if we lose the ability to hold the balance on how high is appropriate, then having the conversations with the neighbours around it is going to hurt the ability to do the right thing on developments in other parts of the city," said Nuttall.

The decision was finalized at Wednesday's meeting.