Community workshops launched to restore Glenwood

THE Pigeon Valley Urban Improvement Precinct is providing an opportunity for homeowners in Glenwood to improve their living environment and increase property values.

Glenwood residents have risen to the challenge of doing what they can to establish a positive direction for the suburb. There are dozens of community-led projects that ordinary local people have taken on.

According to local community builder Karen Brokensha, these individual initiatives aim to benefit a broader design-and-planning framework and strategy for Glenwood’s development.

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“A sub-committee of the Urban Improvement Precinct has been set up to help develop framework plans for the precinct. The task is to work with Glenwood residents, to identify, support, coordinate and prioritise urban development and place-making projects. The focus will be on quick, implementable projects that make best use of funds available from the UIP and the municipality. The proposals will be included in each annual business plan of the Pigeon Valley Urban Improvement Precinct, for formal decisions to be prioritised,” said Brokensha.

The Glenwood resident says the work is being led by architects, planners and urban designers working and living in the precinct, who have volunteered to do this work pro-bono.

“Together with local residents, the Design Glenwood team will put together a framework for sustainable place-making interventions. This will be done in a way similar to the creation of a Community Brief for Bulwer Park, but with stronger citizen control over implementation,” said Brokensha.

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Brokensha says that the participatory public workshops will start in October, when they will, together, develop framework plans, concentrating on:

• The Street Network
• Greening Network
• Developments
• Project Implementation

“This process will help establish a combined vision for Glenwood, which will underpin the interventions and plans of the PV-UIP,” she said.

The first workshop will be held Saturday, October 29 from 09:00 to 11:00 at the KZNSA Art Gallery in Bulwer Road.

For more information, contact Karen Brokensha at 083 777 5633 or email her at karen@matatumarketing.co.za.