Two dates bracket Clarkson Village's 2026. On April 30, more than 155 people registered for a virtual City meeting about the future of Lakeshore Road West through the village. On July 9, a full-service grocery store opened at Clarkson Village Shopping Centre for the first time since the Dominion era.
The meeting produced preliminary ideas and no decisions. Ward 2 Councillor Alvin Tedjo said nothing would be decided in 2026 and forecast that the study would come back for presentation in 2027. The village isn't waiting, though. Between the grocery store's return, a street closure on Halloween and a holiday evening in late November, the next eight weeks show a lot of what that April meeting described.
The plaza got its anchor back
Food Basics opened at 1865 Lakeshore Road West in a store of more than 32,000 square feet, its eighth location in Mississauga. According to INsauga, the plaza was once home to a Dominion supermarket. That store became a Metro and later moved to the nearby Clarkson Crossing plaza, and the space in the original plaza went to other retail uses. That Metro still operates at 910 Southdown Road. Metro is also the parent company of Food Basics, so the same company now runs two grocery stores a short trip apart, one on Southdown and one back on Lakeshore.
The location matters because of what sits around it. The plaza already holds McDonald's, Dollarama, Cobs Bakery and City Pizza. Food Basics is open daily from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. That gives the village core a weekday reason to stop in that doesn't depend on a dinner reservation. A grocery run here now puts you within a short walk of the restaurants the Clarkson Village BIA featured in its August Taste of Clarkson promotion: Capra's Kitchen at 1834 Lakeshore, Solstice Restaurant & Wine Bar at 1801, Clucker's Wood Oven at 1900 and Clarkson Bistro at 1731. Farther east, Halal Xi'an Foods is at 1712 Lakeshore Road West.
This connects directly to the April meeting. When the City summarized what it had heard, support for local businesses centered on street-level retail, patios and affordability. A discount grocer at the center of the strip doesn't settle any policy question. It does add daily trips to the part of Lakeshore the study is trying to strengthen.
What the City put on the table in April
The City built its preliminary ideas on input from the BIA, local ratepayer groups, businesses, landowners, direct emails and a six-question online ideas tool. The feedback showed strong support for keeping the village's character and heritage through small-scale buildings and sensitive design. Views on height and density were mixed. There was some support for more housing, along with concerns about scale.
Staff took that input and presented these early directions:
- A height hierarchy by district. The Core District would have the village's lowest heights and densities and its strongest main-street character. The Central District would sit at a mid-rise scale, stepping down from the Walden-Bonnymede District.
- Room in the road. Lakeshore Road has a 35-metre right-of-way, which staff said could fit wider sidewalks, cycling lanes, planting and street furniture.
- The problems they found. Sidewalk widths vary along the strip, and surface parking right beside the sidewalk can weaken both the walk and how visible the shops are.
- Small public-space wins. Staff named the existing walkway between Lakeshore Road and Feeley Court as a place to improve. They also said stronger links from the Turtle Glen Park Trail to other open spaces would benefit the village.
One number from that meeting is easy to misread. The presentation said current policies for the Clarkson GO station area allow buildings up to 25 storeys. That applies to the station area, not to the Lakeshore village core. Staff said clearly that everything shown in April was preliminary and would be refined before any draft policies are written. According to the City's project page, the next formal step is drafting Official Plan policies, zoning rules and urban design guidelines, followed by consultation on those drafts. The page gives no target date for that phase.
Three hours of the street the plan describes
The posted vision describes Lakeshore Road as a safe, pedestrian-oriented main street with attractive storefronts, mixed-use buildings and generous green space. On Saturday, October 31, part of that will be in place for an afternoon.
For Halloween in the Village, Lakeshore Road West will close from Clarkson Road North to Meadow Wood Road. The BIA promises bouncy castles, a trackless train, games, face painting, live performances and treats from local businesses. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The City's listing puts the road closure slightly wider, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. If you're driving to Food Basics or Clucker's that morning, plan around the longer window.
The rest of the fall calendar is quieter but runs through the same few blocks:
| Date | Event | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, Oct. 31 | Halloween in the Village | Lakeshore Rd W, Clarkson Rd N to Meadow Wood Rd | 11 a.m.–2 p.m.; road closed 10:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. |
| Wednesday, Nov. 18 | BIA Morning Mix & Mingle | Walden Circle Retirement Community, 1907 Lakeshore Rd W | 9–10 a.m. |
| Thursday, Nov. 26 | Christmas in the Village | Clarkson Community Church, 1880 Lakeshore Rd W | 5–8 p.m. |
The BIA says fuller details for Christmas in the Village will follow. The Mix & Mingle is a short weekday morning gathering, and it's the most direct way to meet the business owners who make up a large share of the village's voice in the study.
The stretch that stays under construction until 2028
The other big change on Lakeshore this fall is underground. Peel Region is installing a new watermain and a large sanitary sewer along Lakeshore Road between Jack Darling Memorial Park and Elmwood Avenue, and replacing a section of watermain between Ibar Way and Shawnmarr Road. In its September 15 notice, Peel said that from October 1 to the end of November, Lakeshore Road West is down to one lane in each direction between Jack Darling Park and Lorne Park Road, with no street parking in the work area.
That first zone is east of the village core. The longer outlook comes closer. Peel expects lane reductions between Jack Darling Memorial Park and Shawnmarr Road from October 2026 to summer 2028, with the zones moving as the work progresses. Peel calls those dates approximate. At Jack Darling Park, the Lakeshore Road West Trail is detoured around a construction compound, and the project page runs that detour through late 2029. Overnight tunnelling from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. was approved for the compound starting July 20, 2026, and running until summer 2028.
Put the timelines side by side. The pipe work on Lakeshore runs into 2028. The Clarkson Village Study is expected to report in 2027 and then needs draft policies and Council adoption before anything takes effect. For the next two years, the most visible changes on Clarkson's main street will come from a grocery store, a few event days and a utility crew. The study will decide what gets built after that. The City has also said there will be another round of comment once draft policies are written.
At Clifford Costello, we're following the Clarkson Village Study as it moves toward draft policies in 2027, along with the work on Lakeshore Road West. If you'd like to talk through how the proposed district heights or the streetscape ideas could affect your part of Clarkson, Contact Us.
