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.

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.

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