[Community_garden] City $ for Buying Gardens

[Karen Jones]

In many cities there is a Land Dedication Reserve.  This is usually 10% of development costs on new developments. It goes into a pot and is used to purchase land for public use. Your council may consider using these funds to purchase gardens.The Trust for Public Land wrote a really good document called 'Who's Going to Pay for this Park?  The Role of Land Dedication Reserve'. It may be difficult to find on their web site, but it is well worth the search.  Here in Winnipeg private people can own land zoned PR-1, it means they pay less taxes. To get land re-zoned is sometimes expensive but for non-profits the fees are sometimes waived. And then there is always 'Adverse Posession'  if you have been occupying the land for 7 years continiously without the permission of the owner, or the owner does not want you on, you can claim posession under British Common Law, yes, these legal things stretch back that far. We do not have British Common Law now, but our laws are based on it both here and in the US. All you need now is a Real Property Lawyer to donate some time.  Best of Luck....Karen