Thursday, October 1, 2009

Barrie - School Yard Bully

I saw an article in the Barrie Examiner reporting on council's desire to impose a buffer zone around the City and have the surrounding municipalities enforce a no hunting zone.
I live in Grenfel and we are bombarded with the noise from shotguns 365 days a year because of the Barrie Gun Club on Pinegrove Road. Guess what. There are probably not 10 members from our Springwater Township. There are many members that live in Barrie and as far away as Toronto. It was Barrie that had them close down the Miller Drive location of the Barrie Revolver club and move it out of the City some decades ago. How is it fair that Barrie can dump its unwanted nuisance problems on their municipal neighbors?
If Barrie wants a buffer, it should follow the example of former Springwater mayor Helen Coutts and establish a non-development buffer zone. Ms. Coutts established a no non-farm development buffer around the City of Barrie and the Town of Wasaga Beach, the only two major urban settlement areas that border on the township. It is found in section 3.29 in the township's official plan. This was implemented to avoid the problems that the City of Barrie are now concerned about. It is my further understanding that this was discussed with the then Barrie mayor Laking as it was understood that both would establish buffers to avoid land use conflicts. Barrie's oversight is now catching up with them.
As the Barrie Gun Club community liaison told me when I suggested that they mitigate the negative noise impact, "Sue the real estate firm for not letting me know of the gun range being less than a kilometre away". I guess those Barrie residents that are now concerned about the noise from hunters in the new subdivisions should sue the developer or realty firm for not informing them of the potential conflict of Hunters in the local forests.
Does Barrie think it can bully its way through everything they want?
I for one would not support our township spending one dime on signage or enforcement that is a result of Barrie's ongoing lack of planning and foresight.