With the clock ticking on a major annexation, Barrie city council moved fast this week to prevent a flood of development proposals on thousands of newly acquired township acres.
Barrie council’s approval of an interim control bylaw Tuesday placed an immediate freeze on redevelopment across most of the 4,133 acres set to move from Springwater and Oro-Medonte into city hands. This pre-emptive step, okayed just weeks before the lands officially become part of Barrie on January 1, 2026, aims to give city staff time to bring local land-use plans in line with the city’s long-term growth goals.
The massive land transfer, mandated by Ontario’s Bill 76, marks one of the city’s most significant expansions. Mayor Alex Nuttall explained the urgency: council wanted to ensure landowners could not fast-track development proposals before the city had tools in place to properly manage growth. “This is the best way to give our civil servants time to connect with the property owners impacted by Bill 76 and do land-use planning exercises that align with our original intention,” he said during the brief special meeting.
Under the interim control bylaw, rezonings, minor variances, and new uses not already permitted are paused for at least a year, with a possible one-year extension. The move is meant to prevent ad hoc development while Barrie completes a review of its Official Plan and updates land policies for the annexed territory. However, five properties—key sites for employment and major medical expansion—have been exempted, supporting crucial projects like the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre extension.
The stakes are high. Barrie’s population has surged by nearly 13 percent in two years, and provincial projections warn the city would run out of residential land by the 2030s and employment land by the 2040s without expanded boundaries. While the annexation affects only a small fraction of Springwater and Oro-Medonte, the ripple effects will shape Simcoe County’s infrastructure, housing, and job landscape for decades.
With the interim freeze in force, all eyes now turn to council and staff as they chart a course for Barrie’s next era of urban development—one that balances growth with the needs of both current and future residents.
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New Barrie bylaw puts controls in place on land annexed from townships
