Gather a list of coordinating committee members and a list of committed gardeners.open_in_new

Find and evaluate the space for a community garden.open_in_new Get a soil screening and check if there are any utilities in the area where there will be digging.

Get a nonprofit sponsor and letters of support from the community.open_in_new

Create documentation for a community garden, including:open_in_new

• rules and a sample membership agreement
• a calendar or timeline of the garden's design and build
• a budget and fundraising plan for the first year

Write a description of the proposed garden and create a sketch to scale.open_in_new

Apply for a site plan or a site plan exemption.open_in_new

Submit a community garden permit applicationopen_in_new and pay the $50 application fee.

Pick 4 to 10 planning leaders and decide roles.

Community gardens are most successful when they involve multiple coordinators who can share the work required to plan, build, and maintain the garden. This group communicates with neighbors and may need to explain the need for a new community garden.

In most community gardens the coordinating team includes:

• A treasurer
• An outreach coordinator
• A site coordinator
• A member coordinator

Create a generic email for your garden, such as gardenname@gmail.com.

This helps you stay organized and makes things easier for future garden leaders.

Communicate to the public about the new garden. Ways to do this include:

• Create social media accounts, a listserv, or both.
  • Share them with your contacts.
  • Ask neighborhood groups and community members to like or follow your pages and update them often.
• Advertise in neighborhood newspapers, community council newsletters, or bulletin boards.
• Put a sign on the lot announcing the future garden.
• Put up flyers in community centers or public places.

Find people to volunteer. Talk to neighbors, business owners, and civic groups, such as:

• Daycare centers, schools, and community colleges
• Garden groups
• Neighborhood associations
• NextDoor and other social media platform groups
• Spiritual and faith-based communities
• Youth organizations (Boys and Girls Club, sports teams, outdoor education groups)
• Doctors' offices and clinics

These groups may be interested in assisting large projects, new construction, or weeding. Consider providing lunch, water, gloves, tools, and a first-aid kit when a community group volunteers. Always send a thank-you note afterward.

Invite people of different ages and cultures. People get involved at different times for different reasons.

There are pre-approved sites for community gardens. Use this mapopen_in_new to find an eligible site for your community garden.

• The map works best on a desktop or laptop computer. Be sure to zoom in to the neighborhood level to see all of the possible garden sites.
• The pink zones represent available pre-approved sites.

If you want to build a garden on private property, scroll to the bottom of this page for more information on that process.

Contact 811open_in_new to ensure that there are no utilities in areas where there will be digging. If there are utilities, find a different area or a different site.

Test the soil at the proposed garden location for heavy metal contamination.

You can use any soil test that includes heavy metals, such as this $25 Soil test from the University of Delaware Soil Test Programopen_in_new.

Once a year, the Soil Kitchenopen_in_new offers free soil testing, but it has been cancelled for 2020.

You will be asked to attach a PDF with your test results in your application. If the results show high levels of heavy metal contamination, you must:

• Inform the sponsoring non-profit (it may affect their liability insurance).
• Disclose the contamination in the membership agreement.
• Grow edibles in garden beds rather than directly in the soil.
• Re-test the soil annually.

Estimate the size of the garden.

Gardens range from only a dozen plots to over 80 plots. We recommend starting small, and leaving room to grow. Community Gardens typically will start with enough beds to meet the level of interest at the time that they are built, and they add beds over time based on needs and requests.

Gather the following:

• Address for the proposed community garden
• Estimated number of plots
• List of coordinating committee members
• List of committed gardeners

Within two weeks of receiving your application, the community gardens coordinator will reach out to you for a check-in. At that time you will discuss any issues with your application and any questions about next steps.

Get letters of support from:

• friends
• neighbors (can be owners or renters)
• neighborhood associations
• neighborhood businesses
• and key stakeholders (e.g., schools, churches, park users).

Any neighboring entity or contiguous landowner must provide a letter of support. However, the more support you can get for the garden the better its chances of success. If the garden is next to or within a neighborhood with a Homeowner's Association (HOA), you can get a letter of support from the HOA rather than individual letters from each household. The Community Gardens Program provides an optional templateopen_in_new for letters of support.

Get support from a sponsoring nonprofit in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The Community Gardens Program provides an optional templateopen_in_new for this MOU, but it should reflect the agreement between the community garden and the sponsoring nonprofit. The basic requirement of the MOU is that the nonprofit will provide liability insurance coverage for the garden and receive the water bill. This is available from the Austin Parks Foundation for gardens on city owned land. You may email Kathleen Barron at the Austin Parks Foundationopen_in_new at kathleen@austinparks.org.

Any 501(c)3 nonprofit can support your community garden, but consider working with a nonprofit that knows the process, such as Sunshine Gardenopen_in_new, Austin Parks Foundationopen_in_new, Green Corn Projectopen_in_new, or Austin Green Artopen_in_new.

Choose a nonprofit by considering their ability to assist with some or all of the following:

• Technical support, including assistance creating and submitting your community garden permit application
• Communicating with City staff and other community organizations
• Finding grant money for garden design and building costs
• Paying water bills
• Keeping track of grant funds, donations, and plot rental fees
• Recruiting volunteers to help install the garden

After your community garden permit application is approved, the nonprofit will need to apply to the city for a License Agreement with the Office of Real Estate. The community garden coordinator will assist with this step.

Make garden rules.

What rules will members follow? How will conflicts between gardeners be resolved? Who has keys to the site? How will the coordinating committee communicate with the garden members? Gardens must have rules, or bylaws, to help the garden succeed. See an optional template for this and all documents at the bottom of this page.

Create a membership agreement.

How will individual gardeners contribute to the garden? What fees will they have to pay, if any? How long do they commit for?

Lay out a timeline.

What events need to take place in order to successfully build your community garden? When do you plan for them to happen?

Draft a first year budget and fundraising plan.

Community garden budgets vary widely depending on their size and gardeners' choices. Whether you are planning for a small or a large garden, it is important to understand the resources required to start it and make a plan for how to obtain them. You can fund your community garden through:

• Donations of:
  • Money
  • Goods, such as lumber, plants, or tools
  • Services, such as those of a landscape architect
• Fundraisers
• Grants, such as:
  • The Neighborhood Partnering Programopen_in_new
  • Austin Parks Foundation Community Grantopen_in_new
  • Community Activated Park Projectsopen_in_new

Various organizations have grants for which you can apply. Grant applications will state when the grants are due. Contact neighborhood groups, community service associations, and educational, cultural, ethnic, or religious organizations to find out about any grant opportunities they may have.

We encourage you to reach out to other community garden leaders for more insights. The Coalition of Austin Community Gardens provides profiles for each garden.open_in_new

Gather the following documents:

• Memorandum of Understanding from a nonprofit
• Letters of support from the community
• Garden rules
• Membership agreement
• Timeline
• Budget and fundraising plan for the first year

Please read the pages on letters of supportopen_in_new and garden documentationopen_in_new for details.

Approximately two weeks after your submission, be ready to attend an meeting at the garden site between:

• The garden's coordinating committee
• The community gardens coordinator
• Other city representatives, such as a Park Forestry representative
• Representatives from other organizations (optional)

We will discuss:

• Your application packet, which includes the application you submitted at the 1st check-in, plus the new documents listed above
• Early thoughts on garden design
• Next steps

Write a description of your community garden. It should include:

• Why was this site selected?
• How will the garden serve the community's needs?
• When will the community garden be open to the public? Community gardens are required to be open to the public at least once per month.
• Will the garden host demonstrations or workshops that will be open to community members?
• How will you implement sustainable urban agriculture practices?
• General plans for layout, irrigation and waste/composting.

There is no required length for this document.

Create a sketch of your community garden design.

Your community garden sketch needs to be drawn to scale. Using a landscape architect is recommended, but not required. It will help in the site plan exception applicationopen_in_new. To meet site plan requirements your sketch should be at a 10 to 30 engineering scale or a 1/8” to 1/2” architectural scale. It should indicate, but is not limited to:

• Existing trees and landscaping
• Buildings
• Parking areas and driveways
• Roadways/streets
• Accessible parking
• Detention ponds
• All areas of impervious cover (existing & proposed)
• Erosion controls (i.e.: silt fencing, tree protection)
• Limits and type of construction
• Location of construction
• On-site sewage (septic) system

Some landscape architects offer reduced rates or are willing to do pro bono work for community gardens.

The Coalition of Austin Community Gardens provides some sample garden designsopen_in_new.

Determine if you are eligible for a site plan exemption under Section 25-5-2 of the Land Development Codeopen_in_new .

Note section subsection I: “A site plan is not required for development of a site solely for community garden use if the director determines that the overall plan does not exceed the exceptions described in subsections (B), (C) or (D).”

You will be informed of the result of your application within 10 days via email. If you do not complete the overall process within 45 days of submitting your plan, the site plan will expire and a new site plan must be submitted.

Site plans expire after 1 year.

Make sure that you have already gone through the firstopen_in_new and secondopen_in_new community garden permit check-ins. If you have not, please see the full community garden permit guideopen_in_new for details.

Gather the following documents:

• Garden design description and sketchopen_in_new
• Approved site plan or site plan exemptionopen_in_new
• Final draft of garden documentationopen_in_new, including:
  • Garden rules
  • Membership agreement
  • Timeline
  • First year budget and fundraising plan

Pay the $50 application fee.

Mail a check to:

Attn: PARD Finance, 200 S. Lamar Blvd., Austin, TX 78704

You will be contacted regarding your application within two weeks. Because you have gone through multiple check-ins and worked closely with the Community Gardens Coordinator, applications are typically approved. If an application is not ready to be approved, the Community Gardens Coordinator will communicate what is missing or needs to be revised.

An approved community gardens permit application serves as a fee waiver for a water tap installation. The Community Gardens Coordinator will work closely with your team to get water to your garden.