Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust had an information table at the Parkdale BIA’s Spring Into Parkdale event on April 26. Despite the end of April, it was rather a cold and windy day, but many people stopped by at our table to learn about PNLT!

We had lots of great conversations about land use in Parkdale. Many of people who stopped at the table shared their concerns about ways in which neighbourhood change has taken place – “we have more condo development but are losing more affordable housing”; “the nature of retail space is changing rapidly as a result of the increase of bars and restaurants”; “we would like to see more green/open space for community gathering and events!”; “can we have more kids’ clothing stores?” and so on…

We also had brief but important discussions about what  the community land trust model can offer to mitigate some of the challenges while promoting more local control over neighbourhood development. People were very excited with the potential of the CLT model as a community-based strategy to redefine how we talk about land use to better meet community needs.

To deepen this conversation, we are planning to hold a “community charrette”, as one of the goals of PNLT is to act as a vehicle to promote community based planning and participatory decision making over land use and neighbourhood development.

To keep you updated about ongoing activities and future events, the PNLT newsletter is planning to come back after a long hiatus! If you have not signed up yet, please sign up from here!