The Winter Park Land Trust

The Winter Park Land Trust ‘WPLT’ is a non-profit independent 501c3 organization, managed by a volunteer citizen board of trustees.

Important: Please join us at the Oct 17 “TREE TIME.” For more information Click here!

Mission

The mission of the land trust is to plan, finance, and manage the acquisition of land and interests in land to be used for the creation, expansion, improvement, and connecting of parkland and green space within and adjacent to the City of Winter Park, Florida.

vision

Our vision is that the Land Trust will help to ensure that Winter Park and surrounding communities will be an area with sufficient parks and open space, where the footprint of existing parks will be increased, and wherever possible, parks and green spaces will be connected in order to balance and reduce the adverse impacts of increasing development and population density. Attractive green space will then always be an important asset and characteristic of the Winter Park area.

the need for a land trust in winter park

As a city grows, urban parkland and open space must grow along with it in order to sustain and improve the quality of life for residents and visitors.  Throughout 2015 and 2016, the City of Winter Park Visioning Process revealed that maintaining and expanding urban parks and green space is among the most important community values of Winter Park’s citizens.

Community land trusts play an important role in advancing the goal of providing additional local open space and can supplement the ability of municipal government to provide and maintain green space in the community.  Land trusts in the United States are very long lived and can transcend the everyday fiscal and operational responsibilities faced by local government to support a permanent framework of parks and green space in cities and towns.

what is a land trust?

A land trust is a private non-profit organization whose purpose is to conserve land in perpetuity for the multiple benefits of open space, including enhancement of the aesthetic character of the community, recreation and enjoyment of nature, education, protection of historic and cultural sites or features, protection of water and air quality, wildlife habitat, and agriculture.  Land trusts accomplish this conservation by:

·       Acquiring land or rights in land, either to hold or to convey to others with restrictions on use and development

·       Stewardship of conserved lands and waters

·       Undertaking and promoting planning of conserved public lands

·       Educating and engaging the public  

There are more than 1200 land trusts across the U.S. ranging from all volunteer community-based organizations to large staffed land conservation non-profits with statewide or national territories.

what has our trust Accomplished
in its first years?

• Encouraged and participated in the planning of the creation of Seven Oaks Park--Winter Park's first new park in years

• Supported and contributed funding for the re-design and expansion of Howell Branch Park including recognition of the natural value of Howell Creek

• Proposed creation of greenways for pedestrians and bicycles connection Mead Botanical Garden, Seven Oaks, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Central Parks to begin a "Green Necklace" of Parks around Winter Park's downtown

• Offered to contribute private funding to a proposal to further expand Seven Oaks Park. While this effort was not successful, it demonstrated support for more greenspace in Winter Park in the face of mounting development pressures

• Created a tree committee to educate citizens and raise funding for the increase and care of Winter Park's exceptional tree canopy