Mark it up as a victory for residents.
A grassroots movement helped convince Pointe-Claire city council to kill a townhouse project that would have allowed 20 units to be built on the land of a dilapidated, closed strip mall and parking lot known as the Walton project.
The real estate developer will instead have to propose a new plan with 12 single-family detached houses.
“Standing ovation for all and thank you to everyone,” Kathy Gelinas told Global News.
The long-time resident posted a thank-you sign directed at council for rejecting the proposed project.
It’s now back to the drawing board for Mondev, the promoter looking to develop the property.
“It will create a precedent,” said Patrick St-Louis, a Pointe-Claire resident.
He says other grassroots movements could learn from a well-organized and managed group of people who are determined to stop a project from going through.
“It was mainly, like, the citizen’s general opposition that made the city step back into the project,” he said.
WATCH: (July, 2018) Future of Pointe-Claire’s Walton Avenue still up in the air
Their efforts, it seems, are paying off.
The Citizens for a Better Dorval Facebook group described it as “Citizen action gets results” in reference to what happened in Pointe-Claire.
Last winter, residents of Senneville also killed a condo project that was slated to be built on some green space. It’s now zoned for single detached family homes.
The Town of Mount-Royal still hasn’t issued housing permits to Carbonleo in the real estate promoter’s efforts to develop a $2-billion project known as Royalmount.