South Common Community Centre and Library renovation

Overview

The City of Mississauga is redeveloping South Common Community Centre and Library to meet the needs of the community as well as improving infrastructure to address population growth and changing demographics in the area. The project will aim to serve the community through improving the quality of recreational services and implementing higher accessibility and green building standards.

Objectives

• Improve the quality of recreational services provided to the residents of Mississauga to achieve the City’s goal of providing access to quality recreational facilities in order to maintain healthy lifestyles
• Modernize and increase the size of the library to address the community need for welcoming, creative, collaborative, fun spaces
• Address the aging state of municipal infrastructure and implement lifecycle upgrades
• Design with an environmentally responsible approach, improve energy efficiency and meet the City’s Corporate Green Building Standard
• Develop a site that meets Mississauga’s Accessibility Design Standards and improve building circulation through enhanced accessibility, wayfinding and connectivity between program spaces
• Alleviate pressure on existing recreational infrastructure by addressing population growth, changing demographics and cultural diversity
• Create strong linkages between indoor and outdoor activity spaces and introduce daylight throughout the building
• Establish a clear, strong entrance identity and convenient location for pedestrians and motorists accessing the building
• Meet the increasing demand for aquatics and fitness programming in the area
• Improve site safety to meet the City’s Vision Zero objectives – eliminate all traffic fatalities and injuries while increasing mobility and safety for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers.

Public engagement

The redevelopment plan for the South Common Community Centre and Library was informed by several community engagement exercises, including Recreation’s Future Directions Master Plan (2019), Youth Plan and Older Adult Plan consultations.

A survey was available online from March 21 to April 18, 2022 where residents were asked for feedback on the proposed facility design, layout, accessibility, and programming.

View the Public Engagement Survey Results

A public engagement session will follow in Winter 2023

Background

The South Common Community Centre and Library was built in 1981 and has been in operation for over 40 years. Over the past decade, the City has invested millions of dollars into maintaining, replacing and updating life-cycle components. The last major construction project was completed in 1999 to add a library branch to the community centre.

In accordance with the City of Mississauga’s Strategic Plan, this renovation will provide improved infrastructure for Mississauga’s citizens for generations to come and follow the City’s design principles to integrate sound, functional, accessible and attractive buildings, facilities, public and open spaces to build a City for the 21st century. This redevelopment was recommended and approved as part of the City’s 2019 Recreation Master plan and the City’s 2019 Library Master plan, which were informed through extensive community consultation.

In 2021, the Province of Ontario announced it would invest over $45 million to support the Redevelopment of the South Common Community Centre and Library in Mississauga as part of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP).