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City of Missoula, Montana Item to be Referred to City Council Committee Committee: Conservation Committee Item: Agreement for Creating Community Vegetable Gardens Date: October 15, 2010 Prepared by: Jackie Corday Initiated by: Parks & Recreation Department and Garden City Harvest Action Required: Approve an Agreement between the City and Garden City Harvest (GCH) to allow for community gardens on City owned properties that will be identified in the future. Recommended Motion: I move the City Council approve the Agreement for Temporary Use of Land for the Purpose of Creating Community Vegetable Gardens as shown in Exhibit A. Timeline: Referral to committee: October 21, 2010 Committee discussion: November 10, 2010 Council action: To be determined Background and Alternatives Explored: Staff from GCH, City and County Parks, OPG, County Extension Office, and others have met over the past year to develop criteria and an application for determining suitability of potential parcels for expanding the number of community gardens since demand exceeds the current plots available. The City owns numerous small undeveloped parcels of land that are either left-over right-of-way or small lots that could be great locations for community gardens. There are also some undeveloped parklands that could be good locations and there is even one approved public park that will exist in the future that has designated community garden space on the plat (the 7 acre park that will be dedicated with Linda Vista Estates). The attached document is essentially an agreement that the City and GCH would work together in good faith to locate and evaluate potential city owned land for garden sites through the formation of a Garden Committee consisting of GCH, Parks, Public Works, OPG, Office of Neighborhoods staff and any other agency staff needed for review. Once a site is identified, the Garden Committee would obtain approval from the Park Board if the site is parkland or the Committee would go directly to City Council for approval if the site is not parkland. The Council would be asked to approve the site and the terms of each lease. Financial Implications: All costs of preparing the city property for gardening, managing the site, and utilities or other costs associated with the garden will be the responsibility of GCH. The City may experience some cost savings from not having to mow the weeds often associated with the lands being evaluated for garden sites. Attachments: Exhibit A – Land Use Agreement