A community garden proposed on Okotoks’ south side won’t be taking root this summer.
The garden planned for Kadey Park, on Cimarron Grove Way, was voted down after council received opposition from 51 area residents ahead of its Oct. 15 meeting.
“I am very passionate about food security, about growing my own food, but I’m also very respectful of the process of democracy,” said Coun. Florence Christophers, who made the motion to rescind plans for the garden. “When we receive 51 emails from houses that are surrounding this park I think it’s pretty clear the timing isn’t right.”
She said there may be somewhere for the garden to be relocated in the future – possibly even in the same park – but right now Kadey Park isn’t the right location.
“We can look at other places, but this one seems like it would be nothing but resented,” said Christophers.
Council had approved plans to proceed with a community garden in Kadey Park at its April 22 meeting, after public engagement saw only three residents turn up. They had each spoken in opposition of the garden.
It was enough for Coun. Ed Sands to vote down the garden back in the spring, when he thought if more people were in favour of it they would have come forward. However, he said it’s clear not even all those in opposition had spoken up.
He voted against the garden this time around “with a heavy heart.”
Community gardens are great opportunities for neighbourhoods, he said, adding he’d be happy to have one behind his own house.
“The most important part of the concept of a community garden is not a garden, but community,” said Sands. “This is the coolest opportunity.”
As a long-standing member of the Okotoks Coalition community garden at Kinsmen Park, he said concerns about increased traffic are likely inconsequential. There are usually three or fewer cars outside the current community garden, which he said is three times the size of the proposed plot in Kadey Park.
But it’s not just losing the garden that had Sands concerned.
He said he’s also worried about the future of decision-making in Okotoks.
“I’ve seen some distressing activity this year,” said Sands. “It’s entirely possible that moving forward we just stick to the purest business of the municipality, rather than trying to do something proactively, trying to grow the community, and then reacting to cancel things moving forward.
“It does distress me how I’m going to make decisions moving forward. It’s a very challenging thing.
“I’m voting in favour of the neighbourhood to get their park back with great distress.”
Coun. Thorn agreed, sharing her concerns about the direction council is moving with public engagement.
She said the public participation opportunities for the community garden were extensive, and it’s concerning only three people came out initially but 51 spoke out via letter once they had been approached on their doorsteps.
“I’m a little concerned about what this says,” said Thorn. “Everything we do, if someone in the community decides they don’t like it they can go knock on a portion of their neighbours doors and bring us a letter and we’ll reconsider it because they’ve come back but they didn’t engage at the beginning part of it.”
However, she said the fact they did come back to council to speak up needs to be taken seriously.
Christophers said people getting fired up and going door-knocking isn’t forcing council’s hand.
“I don’t feel like our hand is forced, I feel like they’ve just turned up the volume,” she said.
She initially voted in favour of the garden in April, believing there were only three people in opposition. Seeing the real numbers was an eye-opener, she said.
Having residents willing to go through their community and collect opinions is a good problem to have, she said.
“It’s a little more in-your-face than we’re used to, but this is what democracy can look like sometimes and they had to turn on the volume to really get our attention,” said Christophers.
