FAQs

If you own, lease or rent property in the City of Barrie, the Zoning By-law affects you. Every property is regulated through the Zoning By-law and new standards may affect how you use or make changes to your property. In order to find out how the changes may affect you and to learn more visit BuildingBarrie.ca/zoning. 

How does zoning impact your property?

The zoning informs:

• how the land may be used
• the types of buildings/structures that are permitted
• where buildings and other structures can be located
• the minimum required dimensions and setbacks for buildings/structures
• parking requirements
• building heights
• other requirements

Some examples include rules for building decks and sheds, parking requirements, and whether you can build a coach house in the backyard.

In most cases your neighbours will have the same permissions for their property as you do on yours. 

If the Zoning By-law allows you to build a shed 0.6 metres off a lot line, your neighbour can do the same on their lot. 

Zoning helps prevent incompatible land uses from being next to each other, for example, a manufacturing plant in a neighbourhood area. 

The new Zoning By-law will permit additional height and density in all neighbourhood areas.

Zones are applied to a property through zoning maps. Each zone has a list of rules that provide details about what you can and cannot do on a property.

Using Barrie's Official Plan as the basis, all zoning categories have been reviewed through the process of creating the new Zoning By-Law. Individual rezonings aren't being considered through this review at this time. A rezoning on an individual property requires a full rezoning application under the Planning Act.

The Zoning By-law is required to implement the land use policies as defined by Barrie’s Official Plan, which is the long-term plan for growth and development.  The land use designations of the Official Plan determine where people will live (neighbourhood areas), protects natural heritage and open space, identifies where employment and commercial businesses will be located, and where intensification should occur. The proposed zoning categories (eg. neighbourhood low, neighbourhood intensification, commercial district, etc.) directly correlate to and reflect the policies of the Official Plan.   

Built form is the shape and size of a building. The built form describes what a building looks like, how tall it is, how much land it takes up, how far it is set back from the sidewalk, street, property lines, and how it relates to other buildings and open spaces around it.

A setback is the minimum distance which a building or structure must be set back from a property line, street, environmental feature (eg. river/stream, wetland, shoreline or flood plain). Setbacks in a Zoning By-law establish minimum distances from a property line to the outer walls of buildings, to provide adequate access, to avoid conflicts with structures, provide privacy, and public safety. Setbacks may also allow access to public utilities buried below ground, or for the protection of nearby environmental features like wetlands or wood lots.

• all buildings and structures
• accessory buildings (sheds, garages)
• coach houses
• landscaping
• parking areas
• decks
• pools

Special provisions (SPs) are By-Laws that introduce area- or site-specific zoning standards, such as building setbacks or height limits, to facilitate development or recognize unique circumstances. These were often implemented to facilitate development, usually subdivisions. This is why SPs typically affect broad areas vs. individual lots.

Staff recommend removal of special provisions where the development has occurred and the area is built out. Any standards introduced by special provision By-Law XYZ will be replaced by standards in the proposed Zoning By-Law provides. In most cases, the standards in the proposed Zoning By-Law are slightly less restrictive and will permit more housing options and uses.

The repeal/removal of an in-effect special provision will mean that a property will no longer be subject to area or lot-specific zoning standards. Rather, the property will be subject to the generic standards of the zone in which a property is located.

To assist property owners review the special provisions affecting their property, as well as information on whether the special provisions is proposed to be kept or removed, the City has prepared a mapping tool. 

This tool enables property owners to look up the current and proposed zoning of their property. More importantly, the mapping tool allows residents to review the unique zoning standards introduced by the special provision By-Law that applies to their property. 

City staff have reviewed all in-effect special provisions to determine whether they should be kept or removed. This was done by reviewing the in-effect zoning standards introduced by the special provision By-Law against the standards in the proposed Zoning By-Law. In most cases, special provisions By-Laws were implemented to facilitate development that has already occurred, and as such they are no longer required. Special provision By-Laws related to built-out developments are proposed to be removed. However, special provision By-Laws related to ongoing development are proposed to be maintained and will form part of the new zoning By-Law.

Property owners that disagree with staff’s recommendation as to whether an SP should be kept or removed must do so in writing by mail to: Attn: Director of Development Services, Barrie City Hall, 70 Collier Street, P.O Box 400, Barrie ON, L4M 4T5. Feedback can also be provided by email to newzoningbylaw@barrie.ca.

As a property owner, you may own property subject to a special provision which is technically applicable but has no practical use today because your neighbourhood is built out. These special provisions may relate to minor technical details, such as minimum lot sizes, minimum frontage requirements, etc. City staff are obligated to provide notice that a change is proposed, even if these special provisions have little to no practical application.