‘The core to how the city runs itself’: Why you need to get involved in Barrie’s Official Plan process

Want to keep a highrise apartment building out of your well-established, low-density neighbourhood? Or get council to focus on improvements to the city’s transportation and cycling networks?

Many of the municipal government’s key decisions are based around the rules, regulations and rationale set out in the (OP). This is council’s overarching guiding document, telling members where everything from subdivisions and employment zones to environmentally-sensitive land and public parks should be. It helps determine how much waterfront space should be left in public hands and targets areas — such as the downtown, Essa Road corridor, properties surrounding the city’s two GO Transit stations and the former annexed lands in the south-end — for substantial development in the coming years.

And if something is excluded from the OP, residents and developers alike often have multi-year battles in front of them to get pet projects on council’s radar.

Bill Scott learned that lesson about a decade ago. The past chair of the Allandale Neighbourhood Association recalls helping meticulously sculpt a city-authorized historic neighbourhoods strategy over the span of about two years. Council approved the strategy.

But nearly a year later, when he tried to use the document in an argument against a proposed development, the city told him his claims were irrelevant because the strategy’s recommendations were never added to the OP.

“They said it’s not in the (OP), so we don’t have to pay attention to it,” he said. “We worked so hard to get council to approve the strategy, we didn’t realize we should’ve then got them to amend the (OP). Until that happens, it’s got no impact. The (OP) is really the core to how the city runs itself. There are a lot of time bombs in it. I’ve never actually read it all the way through, but you’ve got to watch it; there’s all kinds of things in there nobody knows about.”

The city’s current OP was approved by Ontario’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing in 2010. It’s run its course, given the municipality is now projecting a population of 298,000 people, and 150,000 jobs, by 2051.

So staff have developed a draft OP and urban design guidelines and they’re seeking public feedback until Dec. 22.

“The draft (OP) responds to the vision of the future that residents, businesses and council want to see based on feedback we heard from the many community engagement activities that have taken place over the past two years,” city development services director Michelle Banfield said. “A mix of land uses is being encouraged across the city to strive for more walkable, compact and complete communities. The OP is not all about development and growth for people and jobs. There are policies about our waterfront and green spaces, as well as mobility matters and how to move around the city. Everything in people’s day-to-day lives are impacted by the (OP) and the policies within. This is a chance for people to proactively think about urban planning and design in their community. Now is the time for residents and businesses to help shape the policy.”

The urban design rules set out the aesthetics for neighbourhoods within the city. Basically, it details how new buildings and reconstruction projects have to fit in with their surroundings.

OPs are highly technical and hundreds of pages long. Indeed, it may seem as if you need a planning background or years of government experience to slog through some of the minutiae. 

“Boy, there’s a lot of reading,” Scott said. “You have to struggle through it and keep asking yourself what this really means. The trouble is, none of us have time to do the whole story. You can’t have a glance at it.”

But, if you have “aspirations” for your community and the city as a whole, this is the best time to share that vision, Mayor Jeff Lehman said.

“Ultimately, an (OP) is an expression of a community’s vision for its own future,” he said. “That’s what it should be. We want to be more of an employment centre. We don’t want some of the challenges that come with being a big city to take over. We want a transportation system that will get us around. Making sure that happens is about proper long-term planning.”

There have been about 700 downloads of the draft OP document to date, Banfield said. 

Following the consultation period, staff will make necessary updates. An open house and public meeting is scheduled for spring. The documents could be adopted by council in about one year.

For more information, or to provide input on the documents, visit .

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: The city’s draft OP and growth strategies have been discussed around the council table recently. Simcoe.com decided to take a deeper look to help residents understand the effect this weighty document has on their everyday lives.