Lawrence Heights Community Recreation Centre & Child Care Centre

In-Person Pop-up Events

Join us at any of the following pop-up events to learn about the proposed design, meet the project team and provide feedback.

July 8, 2024

• Lawrence Heights Community Centre at 5 Replin Rd.
• 3 to 4 p.m.

July 12, 2024

• Columbus Centre at 901 Lawrence Ave. W.
• 5 to 7 p.m.

Online Survey

July 8 to July 29, 2024

Take the online survey to learn about and provide feedback on the proposed design for the new Community Recreation Centre. The project team will use this feedback to develop a preferred design

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Level of Engagement

This project has been classified as a Collaborate project based on the International Association of Public Participation Public Participation Spectrum. This means we aim to partner with the public, stakeholders, and rightsholders in each aspect of the design process, including the development of design options and the identification of a preferred design.

This project has a Community Advisory Committee (CAC) with a mandate to provide feedback, guidance and advice to the project team at key decision points during the community engagement process to ensure the perspective and needs of the neighbourhood are reflected in the designs. The CAC will meet at least once during each phase of the community engagement process. The CAC consists of 34 members, including individual community members and representatives from community organizations. The individual community members were selected through a civic lottery to represent the diversity of the community and includes:

• Ages 19 to 65+
• Members identifying as Black, Filipino, East Asian, Latin American, South Asian, Indo-Caribbean, and mixed-race
• 11 TCHC tenants
• Seven single parents
• Six newcomers
• Three Indigenous-identifying members

The CAC also includes representatives from the following community organizations:

• Coalition of Connected Communities
• Filipino Canadian Community House
• Lawrence Heights Arts Centre
• Lawrence Heights Inter-Organizational Network (LHION)
• Lawrence Heights Revitalization Coalition
• North York Community House
• Tripple’S seniors services

The vision, guiding principles and big moves for the new CRC were developed based on community feedback collected over the last 15 years of consultation for the Lawrence Heights Revitalization.

In Community Engagement Phase 1, the vision, guiding principles and big moves were refined using community feedback.

Vision Statement

The vision is co-created with the community to describe the ideal future CRC. It is a big-picture statement that should inspire everyone toward a common understanding of the project’s overall goals and objectives.

The new Lawrence Heights CRC will be:

• Alive with the energy of the many communities it serves
• A welcoming, inclusive and safe space for all community to gather, connect, and grow together.
• A place of play, fitness, food, sport, health, music, art, learning, belonging, connection, strength, and fun.
• Where diversity is celebrated and community aspirations are reflected and embraced.
• Up-to-date with government mandated accessibility standards, environmentally sustainable, and built with quality materials.

Guiding Principles

The guiding principles are high-level directions that reflect the community’s most important values and ideas for how the CRC should look and work. They help to clarify the vision statement and guide how the centre should be designed by describing the desired outcomes.

The guiding principles for the new CRC are:

1. Be open to all ages and accessible to diverse abilities.
2. Be flexible to support a range of different activities.
3. Respect the unique needs of different members of our communities, and be a welcoming, safe, and inclusive space that can facilitate programming for people of all ages, races, religions, cultures, genders and identities.
4. Create a modern space that incorporates natural light and materials throughout the building, and includes local and Indigenous art to help beautify the space and showcase works from local artists.
5. Encourage positive social interactions and community bonding throughout the many unique communities that will use the new centre (including African, Caribbean and Black communities, Southeast Asian communities, Muslim communities, Jewish communities, Eastern European communities, and many more).
6. Accommodate the importance of arts, culture, music, science, and technology.
7. Respect and embrace the importance of food to the local community through cooking, eating, gardening.
8. Accommodate access to technology.
9. Be a safe place for the community to use, and a safe place to gather in emergencies.
10. Integrate Indigenous design in keeping with the importance of Indigenous Placekeeping in Cityspaces. This includes seeking input from the First Nation, Métis and Inuit, and seeking the involvement of an Indigenous design advisor.

Big Moves

The big moves communicate the main priorities of both the community and the City for the design of the CRC. They are specific directions for how the physical design can achieve the vision and guiding principles.

The big moves for the new CRC are:

1. Provide year-round aquatic space including a lane pool and leisure/tot pool.
2. Provide space for fitness and physical activity including a gym, weight room, indoor track, and fitness studios.
3. Provide spaces to support food-centred programming including a community teaching kitchen and space to grow edible plants.
4. Provide dedicated youth space where youth will have access to technology and youth-specific programming.
5. Provide gathering spaces for community meetings, events and celebrations, including indoor and outdoor spaces.
6. Provide tech spaces that enable community creativity and growth including a music recording studio, public WIFI, and tech-connected meeting spaces.
7. Provide a variety of multi-use spaces that can support a diverse range of community uses including arts and cultural programs, seniors programs, accessible and sensory programming, prayer spaces, community meetings, incubator space, etc.).
8. Encourage local access through active transportation and transit.
9. Provide lively, all-ages outdoor spaces on the ground floor and rooftop that can accommodate potential community gardens and pollinator gardens, fitness and activity space, gathering and event space, and play space.
10. Incorporate Indigenous cultural needs, the needs of First Nation, Métis and Inuit families, and ensures the CRC is a unique and welcoming, Indigenous place. This includes creating both indoor and outdoor spaces for Indigenous cultural programing.
11. Design an environmentally sustainable building by achieving Toronto Green Standards and Net Zero Emissions.

Between September 2023 and January 2024, community members provided shared their programming and activity preferences for the new CRC, and provided feedback on the project’s draft vision statement, guiding principles and big moves.

Download the Phase 1 engagement report.

Draft Vision, Guiding Principles and Big Moves

The draft vision statement, guiding principles and big moves for the new CRC were developed based on community feedback collected over the last 15 years through consultations and engagements relating to the Lawrence Heights Revitalization.

Draft Vision

The new Lawrence Heights CRC will be:

• Alive with the energy of the many communities it serves
• A space for the community to gather, connect and grow together
• A place of play, fitness, food, health, music, art, learning, belonging, connection, strength and fun
• Where diversity is celebrated and our collective aspirations embraced

Draft Guiding Principles

1. Be open to all ages and accessible to diverse abilities.
2. Be flexible to support a range of different activities.
3. Respect the unique needs of different members of our communities, including those of different religions and cultural needs.
4. Be beautiful.
5. Encourage positive social interactions and community bonding.
6. Accommodate the importance of arts, culture and music.
7. Respect and embrace the importance of food to the local community through cooking, eating and gardening.
8. Accommodate access to technology.
9. Be a safe place for the community to use.
10. Integrate Indigenous design in keeping with the importance of Indigenous placekeeping in City spaces. This includes seeking input from the First Nation, Métis and Inuit, and seeking the involvement of an Indigenous designer.

Draft Big Moves

1. Provide year-round aquatic space including a lane pool and leisure/tot pool
2. Provide space for fitness and physical activity including a gym, weight room, indoor track and fitness studios
3. Provide spaces to support food-centred programming including a community teaching kitchen and space to grow edible plants (options about whether and how to include space for a food bank are being considered)
4. Provide dedicated youth space where youth will have access to technology and youth-specific programming
5. Provide gathering spaces for community meetings, events and celebrations, including indoor and outdoor spaces.
6. Provide tech spaces that enable community creativity and growth including a music recording studio, computer lab, public Wi-Fi and tech-connected meeting spaces.
7. Provide a variety of multi-use spaces that can support a diverse range of community uses including arts and cultural programs, seniors programs, accessible and sensory programming, prayer spaces, community meetings, incubator space, etc.)
8. Encourage local access through active transportation and transit, providing a limited amount of parking as the site allows.
9. Provide lively, all-ages outdoor spaces on the ground floor and rooftop that can accommodate gardens, fitness and activity spaces, gathering and event spaces and play spaces.
10. Incorporate Indigenous cultural needs, the needs of First Nation, Métis and Inuit families, and ensure the CRC is a unique and welcoming, Indigenous place.

Community Engagement Meetings and Events

January 2024

Community Advisory Committee Meeting 1

On January 18, 2024, the first Community Advisory Committee meeting took place at the Lawrence Heights Community Centre.

Download the January 18, 2024 CAC meeting summary.

November 2023

Online Survey

From September 15 to November 12, an online survey collected community feedback on program and activity preferences and the draft vision statement, design principles, and big moves for the new CRC. Paper copies were available upon request. In completing the survey, participants could share program and activity preferences and provide feedback on the draft project vision, design principles and big moves for the new CRC.

Download the November 2023 survey summary.

In-Person Community Pop-Up Events

Multiple pop-up events took place where community members could learn about the project and provide feedback to guide the CRC design.

• On November 13, the project team hosted a pop-up at Unison Health and Community Services to engage youth through the Unison Tutoring program. Approximately 25 high-school-aged youth were engaged.
• On November 9, the project team hosted a pop-up inside Lawrence Allen Centre mall. Approximately 30 community members were engaged.
• On September 27, the project team hosted a pop-up in the lobby of the Lawrence Heights Community Recreation Centre. Approximately 50 community members were engaged.

Download the 2023 pop-up summary.

October 2023

Indigenous Communities Virtual Sharing Meeting 1

On October 4, the first Indigenous Communities Virtual Sharing Meeting took place.

Download the October 4, 2024 indigenous communities virtual sharing meeting summary.

Community Advisory Committee Application Process

A Community Advisory Committee (CAC) will meet in each phase of the community engagement process to review and discuss key project elements. Members will support the project team by providing feedback and sharing information about the project with their networks and communities. Four CAC meetings are planned from fall 2023 to winter 2024, each meeting will be approximately two to three hours, and a $50 honorarium will be provided per meeting. Professional experience is not required and all community members 16 years or older are welcome to apply.

Applications have now closed, and applicants will be notified if they are a member of the CAC by the end of October. The CAC is selected through a civic lottery process.

September 2023

Community Workshop

Two community workshops took place on Wednesday, September 27, 2023, at the Lawrence Heights Community Centre to collect feedback from community members to guide the design of the new CRC.

Download the September 27, 2023 community workshop summary.

In this phase, draft designs for the new CRC will be presented to the local community for feedback and revisions.

May 2024

Staff Workshop

On May 14, a virtual workshop was held for Lawrence Heights CRC staff to review and provide feedback on the draft design.

April 2024

Indigenous Communities Virtual Sharing Meeting 2

On April 30, a second Indigenous Communities Virtual Sharing Meeting was held to give Indigenous community members an opportunity to review and provide feedback on the draft preliminary design, and review the final version of the vision statement, guiding principles and big moves.

A meeting summary will be posted on this page.

Community Advisory Committee Meeting 2

On April 25, the Community Advisory Committee met at the Lawrence Heights CRC to review and provide feedback on the draft preliminary design, and review the final version of the vision statement, guiding principles and big moves.

Download the April 25 Community Advisory Committee meeting summary.

This phase of the community engagement process will start in fall 2024. In this phase, a final proposed design for the new CRC will be presented to the local community for a final round of feedback and revisions.

Lawrence Heights CRC and Child Care Centre will be one of the City’s largest new Centres. The new facility will replace the existing Lawrence Heights Community Centre, which will remain open until the new facility is built. The new CRC will be a free centre.

Both the CRC and the Child Care Centre will meet Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act accessibility standards and target Net Zero emissions building design.

Location

The new CRC will be located at a new location near Varna Drive and Ranee Avenue, north of Flemington Public School. This location was chosen during the Lawrence Heights Secondary Plan process in 2011, to become a well-connected future hub in the growing community. The site will connect to a new road extension and other infrastructure.

Community Recreation Centre Features

The design of the CRC will be determined with the help of City staff and community feedback collected during the community engagement process. Based on the City’s Parks and Recreation Facilities Master Plan and initial feedback from community members and recreation staff, the proposed CRC features include but are not limited to:

• A six-lane, 25-metre lane pool
• A leisure/tot pool
• A double gymnasium with raised track
• Fitness/dance/aerobic studios
• Multi-purpose rooms (for various activities and uses)
• A community kitchen
• Enhanced youth space
• Weight and conditioning room
• Social services office
• An active rooftop
• Active outdoor space
• Indigenous Placekeeping elements
• Wi-Fi access throughout the building

Child Care Centre Features

The CC is an 88 space facility that includes spaces for infants (10 spots), toddlers (30 spots) and pre-school children (48 spots) up to four years old. The number of child care spaces available has been maximized based on the City-Council approved budget, provincial design requirements and provincial staffing ratio requirements. The design is planned to include:

• Parent/staff resource room
• Laundry room/toy washing station
• Kitchen
• Universal washrooms
• Stroller storage space
• Gross motor space
• Lobby area
• Infant playroom/sleep room
• Toddler playrooms
• Preschool playrooms
• Administrative and technical space