The Gardens Park at 10640 No. 5 Rd. will be leased to the farm school, which began in 2009 and is a 10-month certificate program.
It focuses on providing training in urban agriculture and also gives graduates the opportunity to extend their learning by actively farming in an applied, cooperative and supported manner for up to three years.
The method, called incubator farming, will be applied on the Gardens Park land.
Ultimately, the program emphasizes local production, processing and distribution; human-scale systems that provide sustainability to local farms; and natural production methods that value ecological resources and local health.
In February, the Richmond Food Security Society received 4.5 acres of land for the purpose of incubator farming, with the condition that the society allocated the land to at least three Richmond Farm School graduates.
The new license still doesnt fully satisfy the universitys initial request for 20 acres of land for incubator farming, but city staff will continue to work on assisting the university in identifying private and public opportunities, according to the report to committee.
The report also stated the city will receive approximately $375 annually for the license of the land.
