Mississauga’s ‘once in a century’ plan to remake itself

Mississauga's visionary strategic plan intends to make the city an urban trend setter

Thestar.com
June 8, 2016
By San Grewal

A new intelligent traffic flow system in Mississauga will not only signal for drivers how to efficiently get around the city, the visionary technology is another sign that this now mature mega-suburb is ready to become an urban trend setter.

It’s all part of the city’s strategic master plan. A report on the plan called “Our Future Mississauga” was presented to council Wednesday.

“What it has really done, is it has really focused council,” said Janice Baker, Mississauga’s city manager, after the report was presented. The strategic plan was launched in 2007, as a blueprint to move Mississauga out of its growth phase, from a large sprawling suburb, into its future as a “dynamic global city.”

Some of its particulars:

• The new traffic flow system to be launched late this year or early next year will co-ordinate intersection lights and other traffic signals in real time to ease volumes around accidents, construction zones, during rush hour or when special events are on. The system can communicate directly to cars and GPS-based devices such as smartphones, and can interact with buses and trains. The strategic plan, while anticipating the need for intelligent traffic management, places even more emphasis on shifting away from cars to higher order public transit.

• Exploring new conservation initiatives, after already implementing storm water charging based on the size of homes and a street light program to convert 50,000 old street lights to LED. New green plans include the creation of “Earth Markets” around the city featuring environmentally conscious vendors.

• Dynamic lakefront development featuring dense multi-storey residences, new boat access, waterfront retail and office space, as well as innovations such as storm canals instead of pipes and vacuum tubes for trash instead of using garbage trucks

• Other dense, highrise development around the city for both office and residential space.

The strategic plan, which is routinely updated, has involved 300,000 consultations with residents and other stakeholders. It promises to turn Mississauga into a city that would have been unrecognizable just a decade ago, councillors said.

“We had a big public debate about widening Creditview Rd.,” said Councillor George Carlson, after the meeting. “In the end the public came up with, themselves, the idea to leave the road one lane and implement three traffic circles in the area with a bike and multi-use trail on one side.

“Ten years ago, if you said traffic circles and multi-use trails, people would have said ‘what the heck are you talking about, we want four (car) lanes and traffic lights at the end of my street. Ten years ago we were still building the city for cars, now it’s completely the other way around. If you brought me one of those old subdivision plans, I would have to dust it off - I wouldn’t even recognize it.”

Councillor Jim Tovey, similarly, talked about the innovative way waterfront development is being approached in his lakeside ward, as part of the city’s strategic master plan.

“Chicago is built on two premises: great architecture in the downtown core and human-scale waterfront development with complete public access. When you think about it, Mississauga is one of the few cities that actually has that opportunity,” he said.

On any sunny Saturday afternoon, the city’s Port Credit neighbourhood, which slopes down to Lake Ontario, already has the vibrant vibe of Toronto’s Beach neighbourhood, not the typical scene of most sleepy suburbs, Tovey said. The strategic plan, he added, will allow the city to mature in a unique way, following decades of sprawling developer-driven growth.

“This opportunity only comes by once in a century, just like it did for Chicago after its great fire of 1871 (that destroyed more than three square miles of the city). It burned down, (17,500) buildings.”

He said Mississauga could “absolutely” develop in an even more visionary way than Chicago’s lauded renaissance following its great fire.

“We have the community in sync with staff, staff and council are in sync with the community and we’re all in sync with our strategic plan.”