Dance, Dine, Play: A New Vision for Barrie’s Central Waterfront
Centennial Park — already home to a beach, open lawns, walking trails, and some of Barrie's best lakefront views — is ready for its next chapter.
The Centennial Park Food and Activity Hub will introduce new food experiences, gathering spaces, and activity areas organized around three zones: Dance, Dine, and Play.
Centennial Park is the heart of Barrie's waterfront — a beloved gathering place where the city comes to celebrate, unwind, and connect with Lake Simcoe. The Food and Activity Hub builds on that foundation, imagining a new kind of destination at the water's edge: one that draws people in throughout the season, creates real economic opportunity for local food producers and entrepreneurs, and deepens the park's role as a place where everyday life and community celebration happen side by side. This project is about more than amenities — it's about strengthening what makes Barrie's waterfront worth coming back to.
Preferred Design Concept & Community Priorities
Between April 9 and May 1, 2026, residents made 425 contributions to the online survey and shared ideas that will help shape the future of Centennial Park. Community members reviewed two preliminary design concepts, identified priorities for the park, and highlighted the features they believe will make Centennial Park an even more vibrant waterfront destination.
The engagement demonstrated strong support for enhancing Centennial Park while preserving the qualities that make it one of Barrie's most valued public spaces. Using this feedback, the project team has refined the preliminary concepts into a Preferred Design that builds on the strengths of the ‘Market Grove’ concept while incorporating ideas from both concepts where they improved the overall design.
The Preferred Design Concept will serve as the foundation for the next phases of the Centennial Park Food & Activity Hub project, which includes detailed design, implementation planning, and construction (pending future Council capital budget approvals).
Several consistent themes emerged through the survey results, which guided the design team in the development of a Preferred Design Concept. These themes included:
What We Heard | How the Preferred Design Responds |
Enhance Centennial Park's green character. Residents strongly supported a landscape character with naturalized features and that built upon Centennial Park’s existing nature.
| The preferred design increases tree plantings, naturalized landscape, and shaded gathering areas while maintaining Centennial Park's active waterfront character and balancing new community and programming needs. |
Maintain a lighter development footprint. Residents preferred flexible improvements that enhance the park without overwhelming it. | The preferred design minimizes permanent buildings and structures while introducing adaptable infrastructure that can evolve over time and support a variety of events and activities. |
Support local food and seasonal experiences. Residents expressed strong support for local food vendors, markets, and food trucks.
| Flexible spaces are provided for seasonal food trucks, vendor stalls, markets, and other community programming rather than a large, permanent food pavilion. |
Create welcoming places to gather. Respondents wanted comfortable spaces for both everyday use and community events.
| New gathering spaces, open lawns, seating areas, and an enhanced performance space support festivals, community events, as well as informal daily use of the park. |
Increase trees, shade and visitor comfort. Trees and landscaping were among the most requested improvements.
| Additional tree canopy, seating, picnic opportunities, and shaded spaces have been incorporated throughout the park. |
Enhance recreation for all ages. Residents supported nature-based play and flexible recreation opportunities.
| Nature play opportunities, enhanced recreation spaces, and improved connections throughout the park create a more enjoyable experience for visitors of all ages.
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Improve accessibility and park connections.
| Enhanced pedestrian routes and accessible pathways improve connections between parking areas, activity spaces, the waterfront, and surrounding neighbourhoods.
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Support City events and key stakeholders. Ensure that utilities and infrastructure is right-sized and integrated into the park design from the start. Maintain or improve access for event operations | Some previously proposed berms were removed from the design to ensure good access to key event spaces in the park. |
Previous Public Consultation Opportunities
Community Pop-Ups
The project team hosted in-person community pop-ups at the following times and locations:
- Saturday, April 25, from 3 to 5 pm at Peggy Hill Team Community Centre (171 Mapleton Avenue)
- Saturday, April 25 from 9 am to 1 pm at the Barrie Farmers' Market (inside the City Hall Rotunda at 70 Collier Street)
