The development dominoes continue to fall into place for Barrie’s Allandale area.
Councillors gave initial approval Wednesday night to rezone almost 4.3 acres to build four residential towers of 39 storeys, 26 storeys (two) and 23 storeys, with a six-storey parking podium, for 1,259 apartments on land north of Essa Road and east of Innisfil Street.
“It is a sizable application, certainly a very important application for Allandale,” said Coun. Jim Harris, who represents this area. “It is significant.”
City council will consider final approval of the rezoning at its June 19 meeting.
The rezoning of 27, 31, 33, 35, 41 and 43 Essa Rd., and 259 and 273 Innisfil St., is from light industrial and central area commercial to central area commercial with special provisions-hold.
The special provisions include, but may not be limited to, an increase in height, a reduced parking standard, a reduced commercial use requirement of 2.65 per cent from 50 per cent, decreased setback from the railway and reduced landscape buffer areas.
Harris successfully amended the rezoning motion Wednesday so that a minimum parking standard is no longer required; it was one parking space per residential unit, although 0.8 was being proposed. Also, that a minimum three-metre wide landscape buffer along all side and rear lot lines is not required, but a 2.5-metre landscape buffer is required along the Innisfil Street lot line.
There is also to be a publicly accessible connection, for direct community access from Innisfil Street to Essa Road and the Barrie Allandale Transit Terminal and Allandale Waterfront GO service, for vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians.
And this is just part of what Tonlu Properties is proposing in the area.
At nearby 17 and 27 Jacobs Terrace, Tonlu is planning 19- and 23-storey towers, plus a four-storey podium, for 504 residential apartments.
This land had been rezoned from light industrial to transition centre commercial with special provisions-hold, which would see a reduced parking rate of 0.8 parking spaces per residential unit.
This project still requires site-plan control.
And at 272 Innisfil St., a 17-storey apartment building with 333 residences is planned, including some ground-floor podium units.
This property is almost 1.73 acres in size and is located at the southeast corner of Innisfil Street and Jacobs Terrace.
It is rezoned for this use and is subject to site-plan control, a process that is underway.
The application comes from RW Walters Planning and Ollie Switch Developments, on behalf of the unidentified owner.
And the largest residential development remains in limbo.
In March, city council gave final approval to a motion supporting a community infrastructure and housing accelerator (CIHA) application to the province, which could lead to building more than 4,000 residences on 55.3 acres at Highway 400 and Essa Road, the old fairgrounds property.
The development would be 4,054 total residences — highrises, mixed-use highrises and townhouses, along with commercial uses and a school block. That breaks down to 13 residential towers of 15 to 40 storeys, 113 townhouses and 98 three-storey townhouses.
Also proposed is 196 parking spaces for the townhouses and 3,260 spots for the highrises, including those in a five-storey parking podium. There could be a public/private park almost a half-acre in size and walking trails. Commercial uses would front Essa Road, and there would be no development on the Wood Street property, which includes Hotchkiss Creek. It would be for storm-water management and open-space uses.
The development proposed includes two new city access points from Essa Road and Anne Street.
Harris said Wednesday the city has not heard back from the province on the status of the CIHA application.
