| Bramalea | |
|---|---|
| — Unincorporated community — | |
| Residential Apartments at Bramalea | |
| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Ontario |
| Regional municipality | Peel |
| City | Brampton |
| Time zone | EST (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| Forward sortation area | L?? |
| Area code(s) | 905 and 289 |
| NTS Map | 030M12 |
| GNBC Code | FALIC |
Bramalea is a neighbourhood in the city of Brampton, Ontario, Canada. Created as an innovative "new town", Bramalea was developed as a separate community from the city. Located in the former Chinguacousy Township, it was Canada's first satellite community developed by one of the country's largest real estate developers, Bramalea Consolidated (later Bramalea Limited), formerly known as Brampton Leasing.
The name "Bramalea" was created by the farmer William Sheard, who integrated the BRAM from Brampton, MAL from Malton (a neighbouring region), and the LEA, an old British word meaning meadow or grassland. He sold the land to Brampton Leasing developers and built one of Bramalea's first houses on the intersection of Bramalea Road and Avondale Boulevard. Mr. Sheard owned a large parcel of cattle grazing land that was purchased by the new venture.
The community had an extensive Master Plan, which included provisions for a parkland trail system of "green belts" that followed small rivulets that feed the Etobicoke Creek and a "downtown", which would include essential services and a shopping centre. The downtown area's centrepiece was the Civic Centre, which included the township's council chamber, a library, live stage theatre, fire dispatch control centre, post office, and the fledgling Rogers Cable community production centre. This building was funded and built by Bramalea's agreement to maintain a particular balance of residential/industrial taxation base. In default, and in lieu of cash payment, Bramalea offered the Civic Centre as recompense. The township accepted, and as a result, an interesting piece of 1970s architecture was erected.
Shortly thereafter, the Township of Chinguacousy was swallowed up in a merger with the Town of Brampton, to become the City of Brampton. Directly across Team Canada Drive from the Civic Centre, Bramalea Limited built a shopping centre named Bramalea City Centre. The two centrepieces were connected by a short underground tunnel, which has long since been sealed due to hooligan activities. Other features included a police station, which was built before the other structures, (closed in 2008 in order to move into the new Peel Region offices), a bus terminal which originally was a "dial-a-bus" hub, and a collection of seniors' retirement homes.
Each phase of the new city was built with progressing first letters of street names. Development started with the "A" section, with street names like Argyle, Avondale, and Aloma. Developer then created a "B" section, "C" section, and so forth.
Bramalea is the location of the Brampton Assembly automobile factory, owned by Chrysler and originally developed by American Motors for the manufacture of its large Eagle Premier sedan (a joint venture with Renault).
The neighbourhood is served by the Bramalea GO Station on GO Transit.