The city is eyeing a sweeping long-term transformation of the South Keys shopping centre, including the removal of almost all surface parking.

A design plan could take decades to play out but the city envisions South Keys to be a prime location for redevelopment because of the future extension of the O-Train.

The South Keys design blueprint is part of a bigger plan to manage long-term change along a 4-km stretch of Bank St. between the Greenboro park-and-ride and Lester Rd.

The community design plan is currently in its draft phase after launching last fall.

A second open house happened in June and a final session is expected this fall.

The proposed community design plan is expected to hit council's agenda in early 2015.

The 56-acre South Keys shopping centre, built in 1999 and owned by the Canadian Real Estate Investment Trust, is a box mall with major potential for a mixed-use community, the study has determined so far.

Part of the reason the study on the shopping centre is being done now is because the owner has expressed interest in expanding within a few years, according to Dana Collings, the city's program manager of community planning and urban design.

The redevelopment concept considers an intensified residential cluster at the Greenboro park-and-ride. In that scenario, the park-and-ride would be located somewhere else on the site.

The study suggests that parking across the entire South Keys shopping centre would either move into an underground parking garage or building podiums.

A new street would cut through the property, creating blocks. A "town square" would be carved in the middle of the land. Buildings could be as high as 21 metres. There would even be some new greenspace.

South Keys is slated for an O-Train station when the service is extended to Riverside South, subject to government funding.

Pedestrian plazas would be built in front of the South Keys and Greenboro station entrances under the draft design plan.

Other than extending the O-Train, the time it takes to transform South Keys is largely out of the city's hands.

"Market forces will ultimately determine if the landowner will develop the lands, and if the market is accommodating, the landowner will need to develop in accordance with the direction of the council-approved policy," Collings said.

In fact, all the big changes might not happen for a very long time. The complete build-out is estimated to take 30 to 50 years.

jon.willing@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @JonathanWilling