Urbanizing Suburban Downtowns: Transit-Supportive Design Guidelines for Downtown Mississauga

Abstract

The City of Mississauga is a suburb in the Greater Toronto Area that is actively pursuing a more urbanized core. The implementation of light-rail transit (LRT) in the suburbs needs to be carefully planned in order to ensure the success of the actual system as well as the surrounding blocks, districts, and city as a whole. The purpose of this report is to develop transit-supportive design guidelines for the Downtown Mississauga LRT loop. The study will focus on how to successfully integrate LRT on suburban streets in Downtown Mississauga to create an urban street character. This report is a resource that can be used by the City of Mississauga, developers, and other municipalities who are interested in implementing light rail transit and associated developments on suburban streets. Municipalities that contain a regional mall and an existing or future light-rail transit system will benefit most from the lessons learned, best practice examples, recommendations, and design guidelines presented in this report. While not comprehensive across all aspects of urbanization, this report places a strong emphasis on built form, streets, and urban design.