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Opa-locka CRA to convene residents for community-garden pilot at recently purchased site
Summary
At the March 11 meeting residents expressed interest in a CRA-run community garden. Staff said the agency will meet interested residents within two weeks to organize a pilot garden on a CRA property and provide home-gardening assistance.
Residents and CRA staff discussed a new community-garden initiative at the March 11 City of Opa-locka CRA meeting.
Resident Selah Pruitt told the board she and neighbors wanted to know whether the CRA still offers assistance for home vegetable gardens. "I'm 1 of the ones that's interested along with a few others that have asked me about it," Pruitt said during public comment. Executive Director Jason Walker replied that staff would collect names and hold a meeting within about two weeks to begin organizing the effort.
Walker said the CRA has placed a sign on a recently purchased CRA property on Alibaba (referred to in the meeting as a street purchase) and is completing surveys and water hookups at that parcel. "That's gonna be our first community garden effort," he said, and staff plans to use that site as a focal location and to support planting in private yards where state law now allows front-yard edible landscaping.
Staff said they will partner with a local nonprofit (a veterans group mentioned in the meeting) to distribute excess produce. Walker also told the board the CRA had cut the community-garden budget in half at a prior meeting but believed the remaining funds would be sufficient to start the pilot and several home-based gardens.
Board members and residents asked for clearer public communication; staff said they had updated one of the CRA websites and the Facebook page and would share an outreach plan with the board before public advertisement. The director invited residents who provided contact information to a meeting planned within two weeks to finalize participation and roles.
Ending
Staff will contact residents who signed up, convene an organizational meeting in the coming two weeks, and post program information on CRA channels before broader advertising.
