Municipal Community Garden Strategy

St. Alberts municipal development plan, Flourish: Growing to 100K, identifies community gardens as important to Urban Agriculture and Local Food Production in advancing the goal of Community Well-being. Historically, St. Albert provides ad hoc support to community gardens. Public interest in community gardens has increased in the past 5 years. St. Albert requires a strategy that will allow it to make purposeful planned investments which will maximize support for community gardens either on civic lands or private property, while balancing a range of variables including municipal space limitations, competition for space, and financial prudence. Developing a community garden strategy will require: 1) public engagement with a variety of interested citizens, groups, and organizations to identify community values, interests and needs, 2) review of governing documents, 3) review of strategies and lessons learned from other municipalities, 4) development of strategy, and 5) identification of resource required to implement and support the strategy. This project will help to define the municipal role in supporting community gardening, and provide St. Albert with a foundation for future actions and resourcing, in relation to its role.

Faculty Supervisor:

Karsten Mundel

Student:

Partner:

City of St. Albert

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Public administration

University:

University of Alberta

Program: