Zoning By-law Consultation

The City of Barrie is in the process of creating a new comprehensive Zoning By-law, which will be designed to implement the vision and policies of Barrie’s recently approved Official Plan.

Curious about zoning? Watch this video.

Now open: Special Provisions

When released, Draft 2.0 will help reconcile over 600 Special Provisions (SPs) currently in-effect. These SPs affect over 4,600 properties in Barrie ranging from individual lots to whole subdivisions. They are established through stand-alone By-Laws, each of which provides an area or individual property with a set of specific permissions, regulations or other interpretive clauses.

The City has reviewed all in-effect SPs to determine if it is appropriate for them to be removed or maintained. This means that, in some cases, an SP affecting a property currently could be altered. Recommendations can be accessed using the mapping tool.

Have more questions? Check out the Special Provision FAQ for more info.

Affected property owners: Share your feedback

If you received a letter as an owner of property subject to a special provision, we are inviting you to advise if you disagree with the staff recommendation for the SP affecting your property (no reply means you agree with the staff recommendation). To determine this, please review your SP using the mapping tool and see if the recommendation appropriately addresses the unique characteristics of your property or development.

While property owners are encouraged to provide feedback, this is not required. Rather, property owners can defer to staff’s recommendation by simply not sending feedback in writing. However, if you want to review the SP and proposed zoning to provide feedback (whether you agree or disagree), please do so by following the method outlined below.

Special Provision Mapper

A custom mapping tool has been created to provide all SP information for affected properties. Because property owners need to review the SP affecting their property against the proposed Zoning By-Law, the mapping tool shows two maps on the same screen: in-effect Zoning By-Law and SPs (left) and the proposed Zoning By-Law (right).

Property owners can search their property by typing in their address in the search bar. Information and links to the in-effect Zoning By-Law, the SP, the proposed zoning, as well as the City’s position as to keep or remove the SP, can be found by clicking on the property in question.

How to review the in-effect zoning, SPs, and proposed zoning

In-effect Zoning and SPs

Property owners looking to review the SP affecting their property will need to review the implementing By-Law. Links to the PDF version of the implementing By-Law can be found by clicking on a property subject to a special provision, as shown below. The example below is for a SP-256, which applies to the City’s waste management facility. SP-256 was implemented through By-law 2001-272. Staff have recommended that this SP is to be kept and incorporated as part of the draft new Zoning By-Law.

Proposed Zoning

To determine if an SP should be kept or removed, a property owner will need to review the standards of the proposed zone. Information on the proposed zoning is provided on the right side of the screen. Property owners can click on their property to view the proposed zone as well as access the full text of the draft Zoning By-Law. Of particular importance are the Permitted Use, Lot Standard, and Building Standard tables, as this is where there may be variation between the SP and the proposed Zoning By-Law.

Submitting feedback

Property owners that disagree with staff’s recommendation for an SP affecting their property must inform us in writing:

• Attn: Director of Development Services
  Barrie City Hall
  70 Collier Street
  P.O Box 400
  Barrie ON, L4M 4T5
• newzoningbylaw@barrie.ca

Comments are accepted until September 29, 2023.

Next Steps

Zoning By-law - Draft 2.0 (Late fall 2023)

Draft 2 of the Zoning By-law is currently being developed. Staff anticipate that a full second draft of the Zoning By-Law, being Draft 2.0, will be released for statutory public consultation in Late Fall 2023*. Statutory consultation will take place (an Open House and Public Meeting) to gather feedback on Draft 2.

*The Provincial government is currently in the process of making significant changes to the Provincial Policy Statement and A Place to Grow: A Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. These policy documents guide land use planning in Ontario and proposed changes, if implemented, will delay the release of and consultation on Draft 2 of the new Zoning By-Law.

Staff Report to Council (TBD)
Collected feedback will be analyzed and inform any changes to the new Zoning By-law. A staff report with the final new Zoning By-Law will be presented to Council in early December for consideration and approval.

Why does the Zoning By-law matter to me?

Residents, business, and industry stakeholders should be interested in this process as it may affect them in the following ways:

• This is a key document the helps implement Barrie’s new Official Plan.
• A Zoning By-law controls the use of land in our community; it tells us how land may be used, where buildings and other structures can be located, the types and form of buildings that are permitted, and how those buildings can be used.
• It tells you what you are allowed to do with your property like widening your driveway, adding an addition to your home, and requirements for fences, landscaping, parking, etc.
• The introduction of a ‘Form Based Approach’ to zoning land, which means splitting uses from building types, which aims to create greater flexibility in land use and make it easier for residents, businesses, and industry stakeholders to use the by-law.

This is the first new Zoning By-law for Barrie in 13 years (and previous updates were just that – updates/minor tweaking). The City realizes that some land use planning best practices have changed, and that we also have new concerns that we need to respond to today.

There are many ways to approach a Zoning By-law, and the City hopes to ensure we land on a document that is user-friendly for residents and the wider development community.

Previous Consultation

Zoning By-law - Draft 2 Development (Summer 2023)

As part of Draft 2 Zoning By-law development, an interim second draft was released for public and stakeholder consultation. This pre-release focused on fine-tuning (i.e. catching errors, missing definitions etc.) the document before Draft 2.0 is released for statutory consultation. This draft was developed addressing public and stakeholder feedback on draft 1.

Zoning By-law - Draft 1 (Spring 2023)
The first draft of the new Zoning By-law and the first draft Zoning Map were available for consultation until April 28,2023 via the forum below and by email. Public Information Centre (PIC) meetings were held April 19 (in person) and April 20 (virtually), 2023. Proposed changes provided more permissive and flexible zoning categories, high quality public realm while responding to zoning trends and best planning practices. Some of the highlights of the new comprehensive Zoning By-law included Zoning in Neighbourhood Areas, parking, Zoning the entire City and Employment Areas and backyard chickens. Full details here. Please see memo to council for highlight of comments received.

Public Education and Information Meetings (Fall 2022)
Phase 1 (now complete) helped clarify what belongs in the Zoning By-law and the approach the City should take in the creation of the new document. The City offered public education campaign for residents about zoning, and what a zoning By-law can (and can’t) do. Consultation consisted of a virtual Public Information Centre meeting held on Wednesday, November 9, 2022, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. The presentation (PDF) from this meeting is saved in the "Documents" section on the right-hand side of this page. An in-person Public Information Centre meeting was held on Thursday, November 10, 2022, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Southshore Community Centre, 205 Lakeshore Drive in Barrie. These meetings were a chance to learn more about the existing Zoning By-law and potential updates.