Mississauga planning policy - Planning for change

NRU
Aug. 17, 2016
By Geordie Gordon

Anticipating population growth and transit investment Mississauga is exploring significant land use changes in a number of its neighbourhoods. Moving forward, the city is facing a diversity of challenges-getting office development to occur downtown, urbanizing a rural area, anticipating transit investment and revitalizing a long neglected area.

Mississauga policy planning director Andrew Whittemore told NRU the policy framework for downtown Mississauga emphasizes a thriving downtown. But over the past several years, while the downtown has been transformed by residential development, it hasn’t had new office development. To turn this around, Whittemore said the city is creating its first community improvement plan to provide incentives for office development in the downtown.

While the downtown attracted significant office development 20 years ago, there has been little has interest since then. But Whittemore says consultations with office developers found they are interested to move back downtown due to its amenities, residential buildings and transit. The reason for incentives is the high cost associated with developing underground parking.

The geology of the downtown means that building underground parking, which is required for new developments, is expensive.

“There is a strong economic, financial argument to support and drive this through the CIP,” he said.

Whittemore also spoke to NRU about a number of on-going community projects in central and northern Mississauga, though he noted that the waterfront is the location of the most active community planning.

Shaping the Ninth Line project, which refers to land transferred to Mississauga by the Town of Milton in 2010, also presents some challenges, as a large part of the land is on a floodplain. The city has to go through a process to amend its and the region’s official plan to bring it within the city’s growth area, and implement the policies being developed.

Whittemore said the Ninth Line land was primarily agricultural and rural. The city hosted a public consultation in June to establish a land use concept for the lands, with the result being a proposed mixed-use community. After undertaking a floodplain study to determine just how much of the land is suitable for development, staff now has a good sense of what is
possible.

In addition to the physical constraints on the site, the area represents the last remaining greenfield land in Mississauga, and will serve as the western gateway into Mississauga.

“It has posed a really good, interesting planning challenge for this city. It will look different than probably the new communities that Mississauga has witnessed in the past,” he said.

Changes to the Growth Plan greenfield density targets will have to be considered as more detailed plan is prepared. However, Whittemore said that because Mississauga has been able to achieve balanced densities throughout the city, there isn’t a need to push densities higher in new areas to meet the proposed 80 people and jobs per hectare target.

Th e Dundas Connects study seeks to create a vision for the entire Dundas Street corridor from the border with Toronto through to Oakville. The study involves a consultant team led by AECOM and supported by SvN and Swerhun Facilitation.

Part of the process is to test different approaches to public engagement, Wittemore said, such as working with theatre and media project Tale of a Town to capture the memories of
the community along the corridor.

Whittemore says that the intent of the study is to derive two specific policy frameworks. One will be developed in partnership with Credit Valley Conservation to address floodplain issues along the corridor, particularly in the area around Dixie Road. The other will address intensification, and
exactly what it will look like.

“This is a very good opportunity to really support and direct growth to an eff ective integrated transportation and land use planning process,” he said.

The focus of the MyMalton initiative is on the area’s rejuvenation, with much of the emphasis on beautification and community assets such as parks, plazas and common spaces, Whittemore says. The investment in the public realm is critically important and should help to attract more redevelopment and further investment.

Ward 5 councillor Carolyn Parrish told NRU that, in part because of its geographic isolation, the area has been neglected for almost 20 years. While the area is in need of rejuvenation, she said the residents want to retain their own village identity, similar to the way Streetsville and Port Credit have retained theirs. To maintain the character of the area, Parrish said there are policies going to council in the fall intended to restrict lot coverage and heights on the older, residential parts of Malton with large lots.

“We’re trying to preserve it as a village, but modernize it so that it’s a little healthier. It’s a high pollution area, and it’s been neglected,” she said.

Parrish cautioned that the city needs to carefully consider the type of development it approves in the area, citing a proposed truck storage facility on Drew Road that she said she will be opposing. Truck traffic in the area, associated with the airport, is already very high.

Redevelopment will likely proceed on an incremental basis, Whittemore said, beginning with those sites ideally situated for redevelopment. And to help guide this redevelopment, design guidelines are also planned, following the completion of the policy framework for the area.

The Malton area is also going to be the focus of the city’s second CIP, a new policy direction for Mississauga. While the details of the CIP have yet to be worked out, Whittemore said there are a range of options from prioritizing capital improvements for city facilities to a facade improvement program.