THE CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF WINDSOR

Service Area:	Office of the City Engineer	Policy No.:
Department:	Operations	Approval Date:
Division:	Pollution Control	Approved By:
		Effective Date:
Subject:	Community Gardens on Municipal Property	Procedure Ref.:
Review Date:	August 2024	Pages:	Replaces:
Prepared By:	Environment & Sustainability Coordinator		Date:

1. POLICY

Community gardens are an important tool for the development of healthy communities and quality of life improvements for residents. People can grow healthy and nutritious food while having a positive impact on the environment. The City of Windsor supports and encourages the development of community gardens on municipally owned lands.

2.  PURPOSE

2.1 The goals of this policy are to:

• Establish guidelines for the development and operation of community gardens on municipally owned lands;

• Establish site selection criteria;

• Facilitate equal opportunity for all residents to apply for a community garden.

3. SCOPE

• 3.1 This policy is applied to all City-owned land and to all community gardens located on City-owned land. It provides organizations, individuals, and neighbourhood groups the opportunity to operate a community garden on city-owned land.

• 3.2 Applicability of other policies:

  • The policy basis for this program is strengthened by recent Federal documents including the Food Policy for Canada (2019) and the creation of a Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council.

  • Other Provincial policies supporting Community Gardens include the Ontario Food and Nutrition Strategy (2012) developed by the Ontario Collaborative Group of Healthy Eating and Physical Activity, as well as the Local Food Act (2013).

  • Windsor’s Community Strategic Plan, which was adopted in February 2007, provides a vision of a durable economy and a healthy environment. Community Gardens support this vision.

  • Objective C10 in the City’s Environmental Master Plan (2017) aims to support education, engagement and local food production through actively