Big skies, wide lanes, lowrise sprawl — that’s the post-’60s identity of Mississauga, burned into the GTA psyche.

But this month marked a historic step in the rapid evolution of this giant, sprawling suburb. A multibillion-dollar LRT transformation is about to begin, promising to do for Mississauga what the subway did for Toronto.

“This is truly transformational.” Adjectives are speeding out of Ed Sajecki’s mouth. The man in charge of planning and building Mississauga can’t contain his excitement, a day after council agreed on a “memorandum of understanding” with the province to build an almost 20-kilometre light rail corridor right up Hurontario St., the centre of what will soon be the country’s fifth-largest city.

“I mean, imagine what this could mean,” Sajecki says over the phone, the words flooding out of him in a stream of consciousness. “Imagine what Toronto was like without the Yonge subway and then the Bloor subway.”

For a builder like Sajecki, being handed the opportunity to transform Mississauga from that detached post-’60s identity into an interconnected city is akin to Michelangelo, commissioned to turn the Sistine Chapel’s blue ceiling into a magnificent series of frescoes.

Sajecki describes how, as a child, he began taking the subway to High Park, on his way to the lakeshore to fish and enjoy the city’s waterfront. “You didn’t need a car, you could leave it at home; the whole city became your neighbourhood.”

Just as the subway fostered incredible growth and connection between Toronto’s previously far-flung neighbourhoods, the LRT will do the same for Mississauga, Sajecki says.

Commercial and employment opportunities are also part of the LRT frenzy.

Already, the LRT plan has activated interest in building more than 9 million square feet of office tower space around the city centre. Without higher order transit, Sajecki explains, recent vertical downtown growth had been dominated by residential towers, as businesses felt parking to accommodate employees would be too expensive.

“Now, companies want to come here because parking at that scale won’t be needed as people can take higher order transit to work,” Sajecki says.

Residential growth will also explode. Two weeks ago council approved the construction of three more condo towers — between 35 and 50 storeys — along the downtown portion of the Hurontario-LRT corridor. They will rival the city’s iconic Marilyn Monroe towers just to the north.

Councillors have said property owners along the corridor are lining up with applications to build along the LRT.

The roughly $1.3 billion the province has dedicated to building the 22-stop Hurontario LRT is just a fraction of the billions Mayor Bonnie Crombie says will pour into the corridor to construct future transit, other infrastructure and unparalleled private-sector investments.

The change has already been dramatic. The population of the “city centre” in 1981 was just 259. In 2011 it was 24,000. It’s estimated to be about 40,000 now, and with the LRT that figure could easily double in less than two decades.

“The LRT is a game-changer,” Crombie says. “The LRT will be the north-south spine of a regionally integrated rapid transit network. It is truly transformational, and it is already shaping how our city will grow for decades to come.”

Crombie says the LRT corridor, within two decades, will accommodate more than 100,000 new residents and workers.

The $1.3 billion worth of building permits issued in 2015, she says, represents a 10 per cent increase from the previous year.

“Residential permit values — primarily condominium and townhouse projects — showed the greatest gains, going up over 35 per cent from 2014 to 2015,” when the province gave the LRT the green light.

Crombie and her council colleagues have promised that the glittering new tower developments will not push away people who can’t afford the high-end transformation.

“We are committed to planning for mixed-use zoning for a truly diverse range of accommodation, businesses, commercial, retail and arts-cultural spaces along Hurontario.

“Connecting people is about ensuring no one is left behind. The LRT will usher in new and accessible developments. When it does, council will have a plan requiring a minimum number of affordable housing units in future buildings along its route.”

There is even a plan for the city’s own central park along the northern half of the LRT corridor.

Susan Burt, Mississauga’s director of strategic community initiatives, says the LRT will be a catalyst for creating arts and cultural spaces, and fostering social interactions that have been antithetical to the type of isolating development prevalent in North America for far too long: big-box, shopping mall, subdivision planning.

“It’s really about neighbourhood development,” Burt says. “When people go to catch higher order transit, the LRT or the GO trains that will be directly connected, we want them to walk. We want their experience to be way more than waiting for a bus at a shelter.”

Burt says major terminals along the LRT route will feature shops, restaurants, cafes and services, with green space, public art and other cultural programming nearby.

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“We want the creation of vibrant, walkable public realms,” she says.

Even Mississauga’s often maligned downtown identity, shaped by the outsized imprint of the Square One shopping mall — a quintessential, car-dominated destination from an era that idealized the sprawling suburban dream — is being transformed.

“The Exchange area — outside the southwest part of the mall — will turn the mall inside out,” Burt says. Call it a mall reclamation. Square One will still stand, but construction has already begun to turn part of its Disney World-sized parking lot into a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly series of dense, walkable city blocks lined with galleries, outdoor patios, boutiques, cafes and restaurants.

The rising Exchange district could become an example of “new urbanism,” the reclamation of spaces to serve human connectivity after generations of displacement following the rise of the automobile.

“The LRT will loop around the Exchange area, the civic centre, the Living Arts Centre (Mississauga’s main arts and culture venue) and Sheridan College,” Burt says.

Not long ago there were no outdoor patios or cafes in the area. Burt says there are now 25, as more are added every year with the boom that has already begun. “Jamie Oliver’s restaurant (opened in the mall in June) with its outdoor patio, and we are continuing to develop that Exchange district. The LRT really is a game-changer.”

Sajecki and Burt say it will stitch together Mississauga’s residential neighbourhoods, connect people directly to the city’s health-care precincts and immediately get people out of their cars.

“You will be able to get to the lakeshore in 10 to 15 minutes, with direct connectivity to east-west transit corridors,” Sajecki says. The city’s expansive lakefront, he adds, will become a model for accessible development, driven by the LRT, which will connect to an east-west higher-order transit corridor along the city’s waterfront.

“This is a truly transformational time for Mississauga,” he repeats. “Taking a traditional suburb and turning it into a much more connected, walkable, accessible, vibrant city where people today want to be.”

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KEY STOPS ALONG THE LRT ROUTE

Port Credit GO: The most southern LRT stop will connect with the Lakeshore West GO line and an east-west higher order transit corridor that will be built along the city’s lakeshore, where large-scale development is planned.

Cooksville GO: The Cooksville GO LRT stop will connect the LRT with the Milton GO train line. A major terminal will feature shops, restaurants, cafes and other development, part of a plan to energize the Dundas-Hurontario area.

Exchange: The Exchange stop is part of the LRT’s downtown loop, where part of the massive Square One Shopping Centre (dating to 1973) parking lot is being converted to dense city blocks with boutiques, cafes, restaurants and patios.

Eglinton: This stop on the LRT will be the gateway to a mixed commercial-residential area. Plans are to anchor this area with Mississauga’s own 200-acre central park on the current Britannia Farm lands along the LRT.

Courtneypark: This stop will take workers into one of Mississauga’s key employment areas. Future plans might link the LRT with east-west higher order transit, possibly connecting to Pearson airport.

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