A school project to improve the city’s green space has blossomed into a possible solution for vacant properties.
Lakehead University students went before council Monday night at city hall and proposed their idea called Adopt-a-Lot. The students suggested that the city lease out a vacant piece of property to community groups who would then turn the area into a public garden or park.
In the proposal, the Adopt-a-Lot program listed various benefits to the city from reducing crime to promoting community involvement.
Tim Smith, one of the students involved in the project, said they would look at lots that weren’t sold or used for the past two or three years and then have those transformed into a green space.
“We realized that the idea fit pretty well into the city’s food charter that the city’s proposed,” Smith said.
“By making gardens, it helps beautify the neighbourhood and helps increase property value as well as gives groups something to do.”
Smith said he would like the first project to be the empty lot on Elgin Street because it was across from a school. It would give students a chance to get together and create a garden or a park for them to use on their breaks, he said.
One of the problems Smith foresaw was that the group who leased the property may become too attached. He said the city still owned the land so if they wanted to give it up to a developer it was in their right to do so.
“(The leasers) have to know going into to this that the lot could be taken,” he said.
At-Large Coun. Rebecca Johnson said she liked the idea when she first heard it, but wished that the students went to the Clean, Green and Beautiful Committee before coming to council.
She added that their proposal could have been a recommendation and that would have helped move the program forward.
“I think it’s a positive and I’m delighted that some young people in our community, not all from Thunder Bay, are interested in beautifying our community,” Johnson said. “It was unfortunately, in my way of thinking, that it should have come to the Clean, Green and Beautiful Committee first to get their endorsement. All of a sudden it’s coming to council and council is saying how does this fit into everything where if it had come to the committee first that would have been all looked at.”
Despite some councilors, not know much about the project, she said the idea was well received.
Johnson said once they have a report they will clearly layout in an agreement what exactly the responsibilities would be for someone who leased the lot.
In that agreement it would state that if a developer wished to purchase the lot then it would be the city’s right to allow the sale, she said.
