Barrie's new Urban Design Guidelines

With the implementation of Barrie’s new Official Plan, it's time to create City-wide Urban Design Guidelines (UDG). The draft City-Wide Urban Design Guidelines were guided by the feedback received from public consultation and stakeholder engagement during the development of the Official Plan. Throughout consultation, the community consistently voiced the need for a higher standard of urban design in development across the city.

For a consistent and coordinated policy framework for the City of Barrie, the draft City-Wide Urban Design Guidelines have been revised to consider the approved Official Plan with Provincial modifications as well as the first draft of the City’s new Comprehensive Zoning By-law (in progress).

Feedback collection on first draft

Feedback collection is closed. Feedback was collected on the first working draft of the proposed Urban Design Guidelines. The At a Glance document outlines the Building Types and Demonstration Plans found in the Draft City-Wide Urban Design Guidelines in a short, easy-to-read format.

Highlights from the first working draft include:

• Area Specific Guidelines
  • Urban Growth Centre, Strategic Growth Areas, Major Transit Stations Areas, Historic Neighbourhoods, Employment Non-Industrial
• Context, Site & Building Design by Building Type (High-rise, Mid-rise, Low-Rise, Flex, Rowhouse) and Building Uses (Residential, Mixed-use, Retail, Commercial, Employment, Community Hub)

Second (current) draft

As of March 2025, the guidelines (now referred to as Community and Sustainable Design Guidelines) are currently in draft and are expected to be endorsed by Council in conjunction with approval of the new Zoning By-law.