Agent Urban served as Urban Design and Heritage Lead for the development of a Community Planning Permit System (CPPS) in Barrie: an innovative planning instrument that consolidates zoning approvals, site plan control, and minor variance processes into a single streamlined application. The study area encompasses two strategically significant urban precincts: the Downtown Urban Growth Centre along the Lake Simcoe waterfront, and the Allandale Major Transit Station Area, an established neighbourhood identified for intensification near GO Transit service.

Agent Urban led the urban design analysis underpinning the CPPS bylaw's built-form standards, ensuring the regulatory framework reflects the character, scale, and design quality of the surrounding built environment. A key component was stress-testing draft zoning provisions against real-world development scenarios before the bylaw was finalised, exposing gaps, inconsistencies, and unintended consequences before adoption.

Contributions included community design analysis for both study areas; advice on heritage-adjacent development, streetscape character, and transitions between low-rise residential fabric and intensification nodes; and input to the policy structure of the draft bylaw and Official Plan Amendment to embed urban design and heritage objectives as enforceable standards.

Heritage work encompassed identification and mapping of designated and non-designated cultural heritage resources, assessment of heritage sensitivity associated with proposed density permissions, and development of heritage-sensitive design parameters including massing transitions, setback requirements, and facade compatibility standards.

The Barrie CPPS represents a leading-edge application of planning reform in Ontario, directly linking housing supply with design quality and heritage conservation.