Community gardens stumped by Palmerston North council rules
Red tape is discouraging the creation of community gardens on public land in Palmerston North, prompting at least one to go a little bit rogue.
Roslyn Commons has been running at the Hulme Reserve for about three years but does not comply with rules the city council put in place after it was set up.
Josh Parsons said the group had been back and forth with various council staff, and members were ready to throw in the trowel.
The latest advice from the council was that they needed to set up an incorporated society and negotiate a lease.
“We never wanted a lease. We’re just community members growing food for the community,” Parsons said.
“We’ve given up. Our entire garden, with multiple growing beds, water tanks, compost bins, fruit and native trees, and a toolshed, is all technically illegal.
“So we continue, without compliance, forever frustrated.”
Parsons said the group of friends had done their best to work with the council and neighbours.
Before setting up back in 2020 they had knocked on 37 doors, about 80% of the neighbourhood, and found no opposition to the plan.
They contacted the council’s community team and believed they had verbal approval to go ahead. The parks team arrived on site while the first compost was being delivered, so everything was out in the open.
They received a grant to buy a garden shed, but that money would have to be paid back if it was not installed by the middle of 2022.
When it was delivered to the site as a flat-pack, council staff took it away. The group asked for it back and proceeded to put it up without permanent foundations.
The Palmerston North City Council’s chief customer officer, Kerry-Lee Probert, said the shed had no council approval and was positioned in breach of the District Plan rules for the recreation zone.
She confirmed the process community garden groups should go through to deal with security and safety, ensure neighbours’ views were considered, protect the parks and any underground infrastructure, and ensure the gardens were sustainable.
That process involved the following seven steps:
1. Form a management group to set vision, purpose and operating guidelines.
2. Work with the council to select a site, consulting neighbours.
3. Work out what resources and budgets are needed; possibly apply for water permits.
4. Form a legal non-profit entity or trust, or find someone else to act as the umbrella group.
5. Submit a detailed proposal to the council.
6. The council puts the proposal out for public submissions.
7. Sign a lease or licence agreement with the council.
Parsons said the process of setting up a group back account and becoming an incorporated society was an intense legal process for a small group of residents who just wanted to grow food.
Food Action Network co-ordinator Daniel Morrimire said he understood the council needed to ensure projects complied with the law and had community buy-in, but the bªr had been set a bit too high.
One group that had mastered the process was the Papaioea Pasifika Community Trust, which last month won approval to enter a licence to set up a community garden on reserve land at Bill Brown Park.
Morrimire said the trust had the formal arrangements in place and the people who understood what it took.
But most other community gardens around the city were being set up on private, trust-owned or business properties because access to public land was so difficult, he said.
There was one other example of how growing food for communities could be done.
A small group defending a sliver of land at the Waterloo Reserve from council plans to swap it for a new Manawatū River access in the proposed Roxburgh Cres residential area just went guerrilla.
Rosemary Watson said the group’s members simply planted a pumpkin patch on the overgrown council land in early summer, and had harvested and given away the produce to community groups and individuals who needed it.
They were considering what to plant next.