NEIGHBOURHOOD’S NEW RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION PROVIDES COLLECTIVE VOICE

By Sean Frankling

It has only been in the last decade or so that Liberty Village has been a residential area, but newly-built condominiums have brought a massive influx of people. They in turn have brought their views on how their new neighbourhood should be run.

The Liberty Village Residents’ Association (LVRA) was formed to represent these views and has been gaining momentum in the new year.

“It seemed when I was living in Liberty Village that a lot of people were really passionate about the area,” said Todd Hofley, the organization’s founder and president, who started the organization this past October. “Nobody was asking us what we wanted to happen … I thought we needed to speak with one voice instead of yelling with a thousand voices.”

Hofley is a new resident. He says that starting the organization was a matter of building connections between the condo buildings, which had already become close-knit communities in their own right.

The association plans to deal specifically with traffic and parking policies in the area, get involved in development choices and improve contact between residents and local businesses.

To accomplish this, the LVRA is organized into three committees. The Neighbourhood Planning Committee is involved in infrastructure, development and traffic management. The Design and Business Development Committee is charged with working with developers and businesses to build a “cohesive” design vision for the Village as a whole. The Social Events Committee is tasked with bringing the community together by planning gatherings and events.

“They decide which [issues] they want to tackle, priority-wise and my job as president is to help them achieve the goals that they set,” said Hofley.

The organization plans to work closely with Councillor Mike Layton (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) as well as the Liberty Village BIA. “The one unique thing about the area is that they still have a lot of neighbours coming. This will actually be a growing association … You’re about to add 4,000 new people to the neighbourhood.” said Councillor Layton.

“[In other neighbourhoods] they’ve fought against this, they’ve rallied around that. They really have a history, whereas we’re building that new history, that second generation, that Liberty Village 2.0 right now. To have a strong group with a strong leader, that’s really the energizer.”

Layton says the residents need to think about what issues will attract people to the community, specifically echoing Hofley’s stance on traffic and parking as well as improved public transit.

In the coming year, the LVRA plans to take a role in the building of the new pedestrian bridge between King and Liberty Streets, encouraging movement toward creating an intersection at Lynn Williams and East Liberty Street, and improving traffic safety along East Liberty Street. The organization has several events planned for 2012, including a massive neighbourhood garage sale, a food truck day and an as-yet unspecified community-wide event in the late spring.

The LVRA can be visited at their facebook page or on twitter, @libertyresident.