Council trims stormwater and Potash Brook planning requests to preserve housing and mitigation funding

Barrie’s council on Sept. 24 approved reduced planning grant requests for citywide stormwater design and the Potash Brook / Courier Park neighborhood design so the city could keep housing and the two river‑process mitigation projects fully funded within the CDBG‑DR application cap. Staff said the stormwater planning line was lowered from an earlier $1,000,000 request to $250,000 and the Potash Brook design was reduced from $500,000 to $50,000; staff said the original figures likely overstated planning costs because those amounts did not include construction; the lowered amounts are intended to fund targeted engineering and design work that will produce prioritized projects for later construction grants. Council discussion included frustration that some federal application rules limited funding for certain construction components in planning requests and concern about having sufficient planning resources. Staff said the scaled‑down planning requests should remain competitive while allowing full funding of housing and two key mitigation projects; the council approved both planning items for inclusion in the CDBG‑DR submission.