Barrie staff dispute report’s employment land findings

Barrie's mayor seeks to expand city limits into neighbouring municipalities. (CTV News)

Staff with the City of Barrie is providing more context into council’s recent escalation of its push to expand the city’s footprint into its northern neighbours.

Discrepancies

This week a staff memo sent to Barrie councillors pointed to discrepancies in the amount of employment land a third-party report suggested Barrie has available. The report published in early December by Hemson Consulting stated the City has enough land to meet employment needs until 2051 but pointed to a potential stagnation in the short term.

That claim by Hemson Consulting directly contradicts the push by Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall for a shift in the city’s boundaries. Since late 2023, Nuttall has been arguing that the City no longer has enough serviceable land to bring new, large employers to Barrie. So for more than a year, Nuttall has been negotiating publicly and privately with the townships of Oro-Medonte and Springwater.

The mayor has been arguing that the City is best positioned to lure new employers to the region.

Concerns

According to the new memo from Barrie city staff, Hemson focused on identifying all lands in the City’s current boundaries that are zoned for employment opportunities, and did not consider factors, including if developments have already been approved on those lands, if the lands are outside of the capital plan and if the lands have other constraints to being developed.

Barrie staff also claim in the memo that Hemson did not factor in a recent change in provincial policy. In October 2024, the province issued a new Provincial Planning Statement that made some changes to what qualifies as employment land.

The new definition of employment land no longer includes properties meant for institutional and commercial uses. According to Nuttall, the changes are meant to better isolate lands that can be used for large-scale manufacturing, the type of employers that the mayor would like to have in Barrie.

“We used to call it service industrial; it’s quasi commercial uses instead of, you know, manufacturing, warehousing and production,” Nuttall said. “So, what this is done is it’s bringing us back into line of how much land do we have that’s strictly, available for, production, for manufacturing [and for] warehousing.”

Challenges

According to City staff, about 340 hectares of land will be removed from employment areas. While they could still one day host sites that employ people, staff say they will not be the type of employment developments that will add a substantial number of new jobs in Barrie.

The new staff memo also highlighted that not all land is developable. Staff say an average of 75 per cent of a piece of property is developable. Things like new roads, servicing and storm water management often take up much of the property. Environmental concerns could be another factor.

Staff say the Hemson report did not account for all the above factors when stating Barrie has enough employment land to meet its growth targets through to 2051.

Increases

In addition to eyeing land in Springwater, the initial proposal brought forward by Nuttall in late 2023 included approximately 772 hectares of land from Oro-Medonte.

However, upon the publication of Hemson’s report the City of Barrie upped its request, asking for an additional 930 hectares of land, with the mayor pointing to a figure in the report that says that amount of land is typical for suburban density forecasting.

In recent months both the mayor of Oro-Medonte and the County of Simcoe warden have publicly said they had a different interpretation of the Hemson report. The report indicates the City’s strongest case for annexation lies in addressing a growing housing demand, particularly for mixed-use developments that combine residential and employment opportunities, something the warden has said he agrees with.

In February, Oro-Medonte Mayor Randy Greenlaw penned an open letter stating employment land should no longer be the focus of the ongoing negotiations, citing the Hemson report.

Mediation

In 2024 the provincial government appointed a mediator to help the three municipalities and the County find an amicable solution.

Nuttall said he had spoken to that mediator in the days since Premier Doug Ford was re-elected with a third majority government.

“As we go forward I think we’re probably more looking to be a partner of the province in this process,” Nuttall said. “It’s dragged on.”

Barrie staff say the City has received numerous requests for sites between 20 to 40 hectares that they have been unable to accommodate. The largest employment land parcel in Barrie is 42 hectares.

The mayor of Springwater Township, Jennifer Coughlin, has denied repeated interview requests from CTV News for comment on the land dispute.