City of Stratford Reaches Agreement With Franklin Drive Community Gardeners

The City of Stratford has reached an agreement with gardeners at 45 Franklin Drive that will allow 
them to continue to use the City-owned community garden for the 2026 growing season.

A new six-month memorandum of understanding (MOU) allows the gardeners to operate the 
community garden in a safe, inclusive and co-operative manner, with general oversight by City staff, 
while the City undertakes a broader public engagement process. 

BACKGROUND
The City owns the lands on which the community garden operates. For many years, the City leased 
these lands to a garden club for $25 per year to operate a community garden. Unfortunately, the City 
did not have a proper guiding policy or adequate oversight in place for the operation of the garden.

Following recent concerns raised to the City, the lease with the garden club was terminated. It is 
important to note that the decision to terminate the lease was an administrative decision made at the 
CAO level — it was not a decision made by Council.The City has heard from several community members about concerns regarding the fairness of how this City asset has been managed, and we want to be clear: this is a shared responsibility, not the fault of any single individual.

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT PROCESS
The City is committed to conducting meaningful public engagement about the operation, use, and 
governance of community gardens over the coming months. Residents will have opportunities to 
share their input throughout the summer, and a proposal for moving forward will be brought to City 
Council for consideration in the fall of 2026.

This process will help ensure that this valuable City asset is managed in a transparent, fair, and 
community-centred way.

The City would like to sincerely thank the gardeners who provided their input, and worked with us to 
move this forward. Your dedication to this community space is appreciated, and we look forward to 
working together to build something even better.