Downtown Streetscape Guidelines

What are the Downtown Streetscape Guidelines?

Streetscape Guidelines are a part of a long-term strategy to revitalize how downtown streets look, function and feel for pedestrians who move through the area.

Why introduce new guidelines?

The City of Burlington's current streetscape guidelines were established more than 30 years ago. To better suit the changing needs and uses of Burlington's downtown streets, the City has been working, with input from the public, to evaluate and update its streetscape design guidelines.

Once finalized, the new downtown streetscape guidelines will provide the foundation for a consistent, unified, cohesive look across the downtown. The guidelines will also inform an appropriate level of service to maintain the streetscape through the years.

The downtown streetscape guidelines are an important piece of Burlington's committment to design excellence. As the city transitions from a suburban to a more urban community, a focus on urban design will help ensure that buildings, public spaces and streetscapes in the urban areas are functional, attractive, and sustainable.

Project status

With input from the public about the types of improvements they’d like to see in downtown Burlington’s streetscape, a copy of the proposed new streetscape guidelines will be presented to City Council for information at a meeting of the Planning and Development Committee on July 9, 2019.

Thank you to everyone who took part in the public engagement opportunities to share their feedback. A summary of these meetings and the feedback that was shared is available on this page.

View the proposed new streetscape guidelines

Public engagement

Opportunities in 2015 and 2016
In 2015 and 2016, public meetings were held, along with an online survey to gather resident feedback about the types of improvements they'd like to see in downtown Burlington's streetscape.

What we heard
Residents told us they would like to see:

• wider sidewalks where possible in the downtown
• an increase in the number of pedestrian crossings to help feel safe when crossing the street
• more garbage, recycling and compost bins
• more benches to sit and enjoy the downtown
• more greenery and street trees on downtown streets
• a greater number of bike lanes and bike racks in convenient locations
• a style of furnishings that reinforces the mainstreet character along Brant Street.

First Draft - May 2018
With the input gathered, the City released a first draft of the Downtown Streetscape Guidelines in May 2018, with additional opportunities for the public to comment and share their input, including two open house events on May 17, 2018.

What we heard

• General agreement with the defined character areas, particularly agreement with Lower Brant Street as a “main street”
• Explore different colours outside of Lower Brant Street
• Heritage theme of furnishings should extend beyond Lower Brant Street, but maintain a specific treatment for Lower Brant Street
• Waste receptacles should have multi-streams for recyclables, compost, etc.

As a result of the feedback received to date, the following revisions are reflected in the proposed new downtown streetscape guidelines that will be presented to City Council:

• Reduce the total number of furnishing options (from three to two)
• Add a new section entitled Design Priorities to inform the preliminary planning, design, and implementation of the guidelines (Section 3.2)
• Add guidelines specific to Transit Stops (Section 3.3.3)
• Recommend a colour for the Lakeshore Road Character Street streetscape elements (i.e. grey)
• Add concept drawings to demonstrate a typical layout scenario for each of the Character Area streetscapes (Appendix A).

Past Public Meetings

If you have any questions, please contact:

Todd Evershed
City of Burlington
Tel. 905-335-7600
todd.evershed@burlington.ca