Oakville neighbourhood
The historic core around the harbour, south of the QEW between Sixteen Mile Creek and Chartwell Road.
Latest
Oakville Council and its heritage committee are one of four nominees for ACO's 2026 Carlos Ventin Award, decided October 29.
This week's Oakville deadlines and closures, October 20 to 26, from the voters' list cut-off to Election Day.
Six variance applications reach Oakville's Committee of Adjustment October 28; comments and speaking requests close October 27.
Five minor variance requests go to Oakville's Committee of Adjustment on October 14.
Oakville's three Remembrance Day ceremonies, on November 8 and November 11, with times and places.
Route 11 detour from Oct. 19, possible delays on three routes, and a relocated Bronte Road stop.
The new downtown Central Library moves to 193 Church Street, opening in 2030.
Oakville is designating three more historic properties ahead of a provincial deadline on its register.
Three routes redrawn, one added, and the on-demand network finally reaches every GO bus.
Transit changes, a square closing, a school groundbreaking, and the dates that matter.
A $7.5 million rebuild of the downtown square, phased over a year to keep shops open.
Council refreshed downtown Oakville's heritage plan, updating the rules and inventories but no heritage statuses.
Oakville-wide coverage that applies here
Context
Old Oakville is the part of town most residents picture when they picture Oakville: the low brick storefronts on Lakeshore Road East, the harbour at the mouth of Sixteen Mile Creek, and a street grid that predates the QEW by more than a century. It is also, unusually for a historic core, still the town's civic centre of gravity, holding the Oakville Museum, Oakville Galleries at Centennial Square, the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts and the Central Library.
The planning story here is not growth so much as insertion. The blocks north of Lakeshore Road East carry a run of mid-rise and infill applications on Church, Randall, Navy, Allan, Water and Robinson Streets, each of which has to negotiate a heritage context and a street grid that was never sized for structured parking. That makes downtown applications slower and more contested than a greenfield subdivision in the north of town, and it makes the Committee of Adjustment and the heritage designation process unusually consequential here.
The single largest public investment in the area right now is the Towne Square rebuild, a $7.5 million project running from September 2026 to September 2027. It will close and reopen parts of the square in phases and take George Street out of service between Lakeshore Road East and Church Street from spring 2027.
Development
Tracked here
New development in Old Oakville
From the Town’s records
Schools
Old Oakville is served by the Halton District School Board and the Halton Catholic District School Board, with French-language schools operated by CS Viamonde and CS catholique MonAvenir.
Attendance areas are set by the boards, not by the Town, and change through boundary reviews. Confirm your own address with the board before relying on any school assignment.
