Midtown Oakville

Urban Strategies is working with a team of consultants to assist the Town of Oakville on an Official Plan Amendment and Implementation Program to manage anticipated growth in the Midtown Strategic Growth Area – an underdeveloped 103-hectare area located around the Oakville GO Station. Urban Strategies has supported the Town of Oakville with the development of a new policy framework for the site, to plan appropriately to manage and service continued growth of the future. Urban Strategies developed a draft OPA which would enable Midtown’s ongoing evolution within a flexible framework resulting in an urban community that uses land more efficiently, enables more housing supply, unlocks opportunities for more parkland, and shapes a complete, compact, walkable area making more efficient use of existing and planned transit infrastructure. 

 The key directions in the draft OPA were rooted in: 

• Achieving the efficient utilization of land at a key node within Oakville’s urban structure; 
• Enabling the provision of new housing supply; 
• The establishment of a unified and comprehensive urban plan; and, 
• Reflecting contemporary planning policy directions and insights learned from other Urban Growth Centres. 

By embracing a forward-looking and long-term planning approach to urban community building, the draft OPA enabled a wide range of future development scenarios to unfold within a unifying urban structure to allow for more effective growth management that can adapt to changing market conditions. Planning for long term change through this framework will benefit current and future Oakville residents, while also serving the broader public interest of the region. The Town continues to advance the OPA towards completion. 

In addition to planning policy development, Urban Strategies’ role in shaping the future of Midtown will continue through the development of an updated Designing Midtown document, a site specific urban design guideline, as well as a Public Realm Plan to implement the directions of the future Official Plan Amendment.