A new Community Recreation Centre is coming to 1377 Sheppard Ave. W., near Sheppard Avenue West and Keele Street in the Downsview neighbourhood. The design will be developed through community engagement and will provide cultural and recreational opportunities that support the growth and well-being of the Downsview community.
The timeline is subject to change.
This project has been classified as an Involve project based on the International Association for Public Participation Spectrum. This means we work directly with the public, stakeholders and rightsholders throughout the design process to ensure that ideas and aspirations are understood and considered.
This project will have a Community Advisory Committee (CAC) made up of representatives of the Downsview community. The CAC’s mandate is to provide a forum for feedback, guidance and advice to the project team at key decision points during the community engagement process. The CAC will meet approximately one to two times per phase of the project. The CAC is not a decision-making body and does not speak on behalf of the entire community.
This project will have an Indigenous Advisory Circle (IAC) made up of representatives of the city’s urban Indigenous population. The IAC’s goal is to inform Indigenous placemaking opportunities and provide feedback and guidance on the overall design of the Community Recreation Centre. The IAC will meet once per phase of the project. The IAC is not a decision-making body and does not speak on behalf of the entire community or the city’s urban Indigenous population.
In this phase, the City will work with the community and project advisory groups to define an overall vision, guiding principles and big moves for the new Community Recreation Centre (CRC). These will guide the development of design options in Community Engagement Phase 2.
The vision is co-created with the community to describe the ideal future community recreation centre. It is a big-picture statement that should inspire everyone toward a common understanding of the project’s overall goals and objectives.
The guiding principles are high-level directions that reflect the community’s most important values and ideas for how the community recreation centre should look and feel. They help to clarify the vision statement and guide how the community recreation centre should be designed by describing the desired outcomes.
The big moves communicate the main priorities of both the community and the City for the design of the community recreation centre. They are specific directions for how the physical design can achieve the vision and guiding principles.
This phase will be separated into two parts, A and B. In Phase 2A, feedback will be collected from the community and project advisory groups on the early draft design. In Phase 2B, feedback will be collected on refined draft designs based on input from Phase 2A. The feedback will be used to develop a preferred design for the Community Recreation Centre (CRC).
In this phase, the City will share the preferred design with the community and project advisory groups. Once the preferred design is confirmed, the project will move into the detailed design phase, where the design team will finalize the preferred design by working through the technical details and plans for the construction contractor.
The anticipated outcomes of this phase include a refined preferred design.
Downsview Community Recreation Centre (CRC) will offer a variety of year-round programs and services for Downsview’s growing communities and surrounding areas.
The CRC is proposed to include:
The CRC will meet Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act accessibility standards and target Net Zero emissions building design.