The Laneway Project
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Mission Statement
The Laneway Project’s core mission is to act on the overlooked potential of urban laneways - to bring together and work with collaborative teams of public, private and community stakeholders to transform neglected laneways into vibrant shared places that are well integrated into their local public space networks. Since 2014 we have worked with community, municipal and development-industry partners to envision, plan, design and implement pop-up and permanent improvements to laneways in over 30 Toronto neighbourhoods; drawn on the lessons learned on these projects to advise municipal staff on the development of laneway-friendly guidelines, policies and plans, including the latest Official Plan amendment and the TOcore Public Realm and Mobility Strategies; and produced an interlinked suite of free-to-user public planning resources to guide grassroots-level community groups in their independent laneway improvement projects - including typology frameworks, toolkits, how-to guides and interactive maps.
About This Cause
The Laneway Project is a not-for-profit social enterprise and Ontario’s leading expert in the interdisciplinary, community-centred revitalization of laneways and other overlooked public spaces. We are based in Toronto, where the population is growing by over 24,000 annually (2016 Census) and the built fabric is being intensified in response (Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, City of Toronto Official Plan). By accommodating more people, jobs and businesses in the same land area this intensification increases urban vitality but also puts pressure on our public space infrastructure, which must meet the social, economic and mobility needs of a diverse and growing population. Public space awareness in Toronto has historically been focused almost exclusively on parks and streets. In our busiest and most densely-built neighbourhoods, sidewalks are overcrowded, road space is in high demand for transit, cars, trucks, parking and cycle lanes, and per-capita park space is low - but these same neighbourhoods also have a hidden asset in their secondary, midblock network of more than 2400 public laneways. These laneways largely fall through the cracks between Toronto's municipal divisions. They have for decades been treated as purely utilitarian spaces and largely ignored in municipal design, maintenance and improvement operations - but with strategic improvements, created in collaboration with the community members who know our neighbourhoods best, Toronto’s laneways can be safe and welcoming places that provide accessible, inclusive space for local community life. If Toronto’s public spaces are to make a positive contribution to the quality of life and resilience of our neighbourhoods, they must be designed with and for the communities that they serve. TLP’s work is built on a community-centred urban planning and placemaking framework designed to be accessible to and integrate the knowledge and experiences of diverse local community members throughout the project process - ensuring that each improved laneway emerges from the challenges and opportunities of its unique community context and is set up for continued stewardship, adaptation and improvement by community members. To thoroughly and inclusively serve our project communities and Torontonians more generally, TLP’s in-house skills and services span the length of the project process, from initiation through ribbon-cutting - including neighbourhood research, community facilitation, outreach and communications, urban planning, urban design, landscape design, industrial design, horticultural design, permitting, project management, fundraising, procurement, and construction planning and coordination. We have also built strong professional relationships with companies and organizations specializing in services that we do not provide in-house, including traffic engineers, electrical engineers, artists, manufacturers, contractors and fabricators. This holistic service approach is in direct response to the often fragmented, siloed nature of Toronto’s municipal divisions and its development, design and urban planning industry, which frequently results in designs that languish for years on shelves, and projects that are ill-suited to the challenges, needs and opportunities of the communities they serve. Together, our skills, services and network ensure the timely and faithful delivery of high-impact and inclusive laneway transformations that realize the original project visions of local community members.