Spring/Summer Greetings to All!

June 2024

 

We hope this message finds you all cozy enough, well enough, and happy enough in these often challenging times.

 

This message will be another rather lengthy one, including:

• Some updates of what we’ve been up to

• Some “Big Picture” ideas for moving forward

• An invitation for your thought partnership and collaboration

 

Empowered with some of the wonderful input we received in those first two large community meetings, and two subsequent smaller ones, we have been taking steps toward exploring possibilities in the directions which were articulated and developed there. Here are some of the notes from those meetings.

 

In the most dense nutshell, our current vision includes about 20 acres where conservation, wildlife habitat, and passive recreation is the top priority, about 20 acres focused on agricultural activities and food system enhancement - including entrepreneurial opportunities, and about 25 acres dedicated to housing. Those three elements (Conservation, Food Systems, and Housing) will likely have significant overlap and interaction, and also include dedicated shared public spaces and amenities such as walking trails with edible landscaping, common gathering areas, community gardens, etc.  More details on all of this are mapped out later in this letter.  In each area we have been exploring possible partnerships, and we are also working currently to more clearly define our own internal processes for both how we function in general, and for how we engage with various potential partners. We are keen for more community input and guidance - and we are working on mechanisms for this to happen - currently exploring processes under the broad rubric of Regenerative Development--which can be described as “developing the capacity for human and non-human living systems to realize their innate potential” (there is a cool video here to learn more about this concept). 

 

In terms of ownership and management structures, briefly, we envision that the conservation areas will eventually be either in trust or under a conservation easement; the housing elements will involve a combination of private ownership, community land trust, and possibly cooperative housing models; and the food system focused areas will be largely owned and managed by some form of collective - perhaps a new non-profit entity.

 

In the late Spring 2024 update, we shared about some extensive conversations we engaged in regarding possible food-systems advancements.  This included our most recent grant-writing efforts.  Quick sad story - we didn’t get awarded any grant money (after mighty efforts from several folks named in that last update).  Silver lining - we had some beautiful conversations about possibilities for collaboration and progress around making use of this land for healthy and inspiring food-related prospects.

 

Over the Summer and Fall, Wis has been tapping plenty of resources in the housing realm - enlisting mentors, studying examples, and learning about various tools for financing and development of community-friendly dwelling options.  Tanya has continued to connect, co-work, and communicate with various folks in community spaces like farm volunteer days and community meetings, while also taking some basic steps to make the packing shed and surrounding area safe and pleasant for comrades to visit.  And while Dan was largely out of town, he spent several months engaged in other land-oriented endeavors - primarily supporting a newly created land trust in its transition to ownership by a BIPOC-led nonprofit - deepening his experience and understanding of collective management systems and economic models.

 

In greater detail in the housing realm, we met with potential community partners such as Gainesville Housing Authority, Habitat for Humanity, some other Florida development partners, and UF’s Program for Resource Efficient Communities (PREC).  In March the Florida Housing Coalition agreed (after a massive effort by Wis) to partner with us in applying for a grant that we in part hoped to use for  a robust community engagement process around health, equity, and housing.  The grant was offered by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).  Sadly, we learned that we were not invited to submit a full proposal, but while we will not be getting that grant funding, the organizing and planning work that went into creating our Letter of Interest will help guide our steps regardless.

 

In terms of agriculture and food systems, we remain excited about possibilities for broad and deep collaboration, and have only engaged in very speculative conversations about potential cooperative models since last Spring’s flurry of activity. 

 

In recent weeks we have pursued an opportunity with Alachua Conservation Trust to receive assistance via the Natural Resource Conservation Service with ecological stewardship.  Much of this will probably look like removing invasive exotic plants, managing some prescribed burns, and promoting healthy creek and forest ecosystems.  Our application paperwork to be considered for the program was approved, and we have begun some initial consultation around prescribed burns and riparian clean-up and planting.  Our goal is that we can combine these plans with grant opportunities to support shared community experiences and some paid participation for neighbors of all ages to learn more about local ecology and pitch in to these efforts toward ecological sustainability. We believe this approach honors some of what we heard in our initial meetings, and hope folks are as excited about these prospects as we are.

 

We have also engaged with the local creek health group Current Problems toward organizing some care for the creek and ditches, mainly trash clean-up and removal of invasive exotics.  This would actually start in the nearby neighborhoods, to give some love to the stormwater runoff waterways that feed into the BBF land.  Stay tuned for volunteer opportunities!

 

Through connections with PREC and the Florida Friendly Landscaping Program we were put in touch with the UF Landscape Architecture program and Dr. Hansen De Chapman, who introduced us to a graduate student named Marc Grossberg, who is eager to learn along with us as we explore various collaborative prospects. We are thrilled to have his caring and enthusiastic energy being focused on this project.

 

While we’ve tossed around plenty of ideas for collaboration and project-development, nothing programmatic has been nailed down.  We have continued in very much an information-gathering, relationship-building, exploratory mode.  This “baby steps” phase has also included initial conversations regarding next systemic steps - how shall this overall project be organized?  What will be the ownership and management structure moving forward?  Who are the stake-holders?  Who makes decisions?  Who is impacted?  Who benefits?  Who does the work?  How is work compensated?  Without an overarching system at the start, we have been moving forward with a patchwork of initial approaches while engaging in various conversations, inviting examples of model systems, and pursuing our own individual journeys of inquiry.

 

And we are ready to share a draft proposal in answer to at least some of those questions - on which we warmly welcome your feedback.

 

The slightly expanded version is this.  We envision:

• Approximately 20 acres - the land we consider most suited for food-related pursuits - may include community gardens (and related programming), farm-to-neighbor systemic innovations, food-related entrepreneurship and collaborations, and other avenues for community enrichment/learning and economic development opportunities. We are interested in the potential for transferring ownership and management of a substantial portion of this land to a collective non-profit entity with a highly democratic structure.

•  Approximately 20 acres of protected wetlands and floodplains to include forest walking trails and facilitated multimodal transportation across the site, interconnected with nearby neighborhood amenities and regional trail networks. Conservation and restoration activities will take place in cooperation with local agencies and community volunteers. 

• A privately held (for now), but extensively community-engaged housing endeavor on about 25 acres. The housing options we imagine emerging could include opportunities for single and multi-family homes, homeownership and rental options, and land held by a community land trust to keep homes affordable in perpetuity, and potentially cooperative housing. The RWJF grant opportunity mentioned above would have funded an extensive community collaboration process around housing plans, but we intend to engage in such a process even though we did not obtain that grant.

• In addition to these three basic areas of conservation, food systems, and housing, there have also been exciting ideas raised in community meetings and elsewhere that may not fit neatly into these areas but that we are keen to hold space for, including: commercial space that could accommodate some small businesses, like a general store, neighborhood market, cafe, occasional food trucks, etc; a bicycle repair collective; and public gathering spaces of various kinds, possibly including a venue for musical and theatrical performances. While none of these uses are certain at this point, we believe it is important to hold space for scenarios that might serve the neighborhood and greater interconnection with the larger community (and be fun!!). 

 

We invite your input in several ways:

• Regarding the overall planning process, please stay tuned for a series of workshops on housing, food, and conservation prospects and how they connect to a future of health and regeneration in the community.  We are primarily hoping to engage the immediate neighbors and likely future stakeholders in the planning process, but other folks who care about this are welcome to join in as well.

• Regarding the potential for a collectively managed portion of the land, what would you have us consider regarding ways of co-creating and nourishing a healthy group process for collective decision-making and stewardship moving forward?  Do you have a favorite model of shared ownership and management?  We find ourselves initially drawn toward a community land trust (non-profit) model, managed by a sociocratic governance system.  For details about sociocracy, welcome to explore https://www.sociocracyforall.org/). 

• Are you or someone you know interested in helping with creek clean-up?  Removing invasive plants?  Planting native plants? Helping with prescribed burns?  Stay tuned for announcements about volunteer work parties and other opportunities to contribute to the process as you are willing and able. Or, are you a part of an organization that does this work and would like to partner on upcoming grant opportunities in areas of ecological restoration, youth development, skill-building, and the like? If so, please reach out!

 

We currently do not have funds budgeted for compensating people for participating in any of these processes.  We are keeping our eyes out for various funding opportunities. Several of the grants we have applied for would have provided such support.  It may be that as our plans for this endeavor get more clearly defined, and our partnerships solidify, that we will fare better in raising funds to support such an exciting, innovative collaborative project.

 

The ideas outlined above are a draft seeking your consideration and feedback. We are aiming to create an overarching and regeneratively focused “Guiding Plan” for this project in the very near future.  What are your initial thoughts when you read all this? What questions come to mind? What are some ideas for improvement? What is missing?  What excites you? How might you like to participate?  We would highly appreciate any feedback you are willing to offer, addressed to Bbfdreamsgnv@gmail.com.

 

Thanks for reading this lengthy update!  Best wishes to all.

 

Love,

Dan, Wis, and Tanya

 

P.S. Our website could use some additional capabilities. If you have read this far, you clearly care about this project and also have some time on your hands! If you have website (wix) development skills and would like to donate some time, please let us know!