In 1841, Ontario decided the Simcoe County courthouse and jail would be located in Barrie.

It was a move that shaped the city’s role – reinforced even in Ontario’s economic and planning policy, Places to Grow.

The 2006 award-winning policy designates Barrie as the only urban growth centre in the county, a move that gives Barrie a strategic role in terms of services and in economic development and prosperity not only within Barrie and Simcoe County, but also as a contributor to the well being and wealth of the Greater Golden Horseshoe and Ontario.

“Barrie has always seen itself as a place to grow,” said Richard Forward, Barrie’s infrastructure and development general manager.

“Barrie was recognized 155 years ago as an urban growth centre (with the arrival of the county courthouse and the city becoming the county seat). That’s our history. It was recognized back then that we have a prosperous future.”

But the potential of building Barrie as a live-work-play community, as a regional growth centre, as the area’s economic hub is limited only by its dwindling land supply, he noted. As Barrie lobbies the province to intervene to help the city obtain more land from Innisfil, Barrie holds up its record of responsible growth.

It has consistently invested in public services for the future: it has committed $52.5 million to the Royal Victoria Hospital’s expansion, a plan that recognizes the hospital’s role as a regional health care centre, not just a community hospital. The city has also invested $100 million to upgrade its sewage treatment plant, as well as $150 million for a new surface water treatment plant, which will augment the drinking water supply in the city’s south end.

The city is also home to the Royal Victoria Hospital, which provides an array of specialized programs for the region, as well as Georgian College, which trains a variety of health care professionals and offers several university degrees through its University Partnerships Centre.

Making better use of existing infrastructure and services requires intensification, literally making better use of our urban lands. P2G sets targets: by 2015, it requires regions, counties and single-tier municipalities (like Barrie) accommodate at least 40 per cent of new residential units within already built-up areas. As well, P2G sets a density target of 150 people and jobs per hectare in urban growth centres and a target of 50 people and jobs/hectare in other communities.

This fits with the city’s vision for downtown and for creating a community that offers an array of services for a varied and growing population, said Ward 2 Coun. Jeff Lehman. Downtown plans include creating an arts and entertainment hub, with a small theatre and possibly moving

“The (provincial) growth plan fits perfectly with Barrie’s plans for city centre revitalization. At the root of this, it’s about having more people and jobs within the core of our city, in order to create a complete community, one with a strong enough daytime and evening population to support a wide range of shops, services, cultural attractions, recreation facilities and all the other things that create a strong quality of life,” he explained.

In downtown, Barrie’s plans include a series of applications for condominium projects that will help the city achieve the 150 people and jobs/hectare target – which is literally three times the density a couple of years ago.

Senior policy planner Eric Hodgins noted there are more than 1,000 units in the works: 600 units at the proposed Blue Sails development on Lakeshore Drive, another 200 on the project proposed for the old Lakeview Dairy (located on Dunlop Street East) and 300 in the two-tower Nautica project on Lakeshore at Victoria Street.

There are other proposals as well, including a condo on the site of the old bus station and a hotel/convention centre that would also include residential. On the east edge of downtown, at 185-205 Dunlop St. E., the Northern Lights condominiums brings two 12-storey towers, with a total of 193 units to the area, along with ground-floor retail along Dunlop Street and a restaurant.

Jobs also count; the city worked to bring two bank offices into the city core, Scotiabank and TD Canada Trust. Plans are also in the works for a development on the city-owned parking lot near Foodland, across from City Hall; the proposal would mix residential and commercial, with a full-service grocery store as the anchor. The city’s proposed hotel/convention centre would also feature jobs – in the 144-room hotel and 650-seat convention centre.

Intensifying in the core supports public transit; many people live where the routes connect, and as employers move into the core, many more work where the buses go, which gives them the option of leaving the car at home.

Barrie Transit, noted Hodgins, is already growing at a faster pace than many other municipal systems, because the city has added routes to where people want to go; ridership is increasing about nine per cent per year, which is 50 per cent above the six-per-cent average increase. Barrie is also planning a second GO station for the old Allandale Station site, and has integrated fares to simplify trips for GO riders.

Upgrading roads for cars is also a priority for the city; now underway is the continuing realignment of Lakeshore Drive, to facilitate traffic flow from the city’s southeast into downtown.

This year, Lakeshore will be realigned at Tiffin Street to send cars efficiently up the four-lane Bradford Street, while Lakeshore will remain a two-lane parkway. Alongside Lakeshore will be the naturalization of Hotchkiss and Dyment creeks; their channels will be opened up and restored in a way similar to the Kidd’s Creek project near Toronto Street – a project that won a naturalization award.

Downtown and the lakeshore are also a primary canvas for the city’s arts and cultural life; the city’s fledgling cultural development department has increased strategic support for local groups, and this summer, the Lawnchair Luminata series will draw people into the city’s core for music, theatre and film on Wednesday evenings.

Job creation and intensification is also taking place in other areas of the city; in the new Mapleview West Business Park, the BMO technology centre provides several hundred jobs, and Ontario Hydro’s grid control centre opened a couple of years ago in the city’s west end.

Subdivisions, too, are more intense, with proposals including not only semi-detached homes, but also townhouses and walk-up apartments. In the Georgian College area, the city has a plan to encourage investment to create more affordable housing for not only students but also those new to the work force. The first plan came just a few weeks ago, in the Penetanguishene Road area, with a professionally managed apartment building being proposed.

“We’re embracing intensification, but as a community, we want to provide a mixed housing stock,” said Forward. The city, however, is running out of land for residential as well as high-end industrial uses.

Hodgins noted planners aim to provide a balance of housing types, especially as a community grows, to accommodate a variety of socio-economic groups. “There’s your young first-time buyer looking for a suburban house,” he said, with a backyard for the kids, and if Barrie doesn’t get more land, the city’s ability to offer more for that group will decline.

The key to being able to continue to live Places to Grow is more land, said Forward.

“In our perspective, we’re living the Places to Grow plan and there’s lots of signs of it,” he said.
Barrie needs a balance of residential lands, and also more employment lands.

“The key thing in terms of where we need to fill Places to Grow is employment lands and having an appropriate balance of employment lands. That’s the final piece of the growth plan. The city requires lands for employment to meet the live-work-play model.”