Re: community_garden digest, Vol 1 #1114 - 2 msgs

**C*@aol.com**

Susan,
I'm the CEO of our non-rofit community garden corporation.
Although ours is not big enough to be called a farm (a little over half an 
acre with the promise of the rest of the whole acre in the near future), here 
are some ideas about land acquisition that we explored in developing our  new 
"Las Flores Community Garden" in Thousand Oaks, California that you may find 
helpful:
1. Cities and counties often have "leftover" pieces of land they'd be willing 
to auction off or give to a non-profit corporation for the sake of community 
betterment  from road and highway construction that may be unsuitable for 
residential, industrial or commercial development.
2. Recreation and Park Districts, as was our case, may be willing to sign 
long term agreements (five years or longer) with a group such as you envision.
3. Your state highway  building department may have surplus land which is 
listed for purchase or auction.
4.Public university systems and school districts may be worth contacting to 
work out free use of acreage on one of their campuses for a  public benefit 
demonstration farm.
5. Churches and other religious institutions may be willing to do likewise. 

A modicum of advise based on our exerience: Be prepared to told that your 
organization will have to provide annual "hold harmless" insurance to 
whatever agency owns the land in the amount of one to two million dollars and 
that it's not easy to find insurers who will write such insurance.  Our 
annual premium is $950.

Best of luck!.

Don Jacobs                                   

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