City councillors reviewed its intensification strategy - a plan that designates nodes and corridors where more-intense development will be encouraged. An intensification node would be a place such as Dunlop and Anne Street, where an existing 142-unit apartment building sets the stage for more high-density housing; an intensification corridor would be Yonge Street, an arterial road that links major intersections and along which public transit runs.

"We're the poster-child of Places to Grow," said Coun. John Brassard, who has served on Barrie's boundary negotiating team and continues to serve on its working group, which has been lobbying Queen's Park to resolve the boundary issue.

"People who live here and play here need places to work here. That's why (boundary) expansion is so important."

Barrie and Innisfil had tried to come to a deal, with the help of a provincial development facilitator; talks, however, failed in February 2008. Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Jim Watson and his staff have been trying to get them talking again. Earlier this year, Barrie MPP Aileen Carroll, who serves as the provincial culture minister, urged her cabinet colleague to intervene, to enable the city to become the growth node it is designated to be and to bolster the local economy.

Places to Grow encourages development in areas that are serviced by municipal water and sewer, and served by public transit and close to hospitals, libraries and recreation centres. Barrie is planning a southeast library branch to open in 2011 in the Big Bay Point/Yonge area, and a recreation centre for that area around 2015. It is also expanding its sewage treatment plant and is constructing a new plant on Big Bay Point Road to treat water from Kempenfelt Bay to drinking-water standards and meet growing demands in the city's south.

The city, however, is running out of residential and employment lands which is a challenge as Places to Grow mandates the city offer a range of housing options and provide jobs for the growing local population, said former Barrie-Innisfil boundary committee chairperson Coun. Mike Ramsay.

"We've been through prolonged boundary discussions for the past few years and one thing our neighbours say is we don't need more land," he said. "We've always said we support higher-density housing. The proof is here. We support Places to Grow.

"We are in the forefront in Simcoe County and Central Ontario in meeting the stricter standards. It still means we need boundary expansion.

"We need both (intensification and expansion). We still need to have our boundaries expanded ASAP."