LexFarm Preps Pitch for Community Farm on Busa Land

As LexFarm prepares to submit its community farm proposal for the Busa Land, the group is seeking online support with its 'Pledge to Build the Farm.'

  For a few years now, artists have turned to the internets to fund their outside-the-box projects. As crowdsourcing has proved an effective way to rally support, the method has sprouted from the fringe to the mainstream and beyond.   Here in Lexington, these principles of modern day patronage have made their way from art agriculture. As LexFarm, which has long sowed the seeds of preserving a longtime family farm as a community resource, prepares to submit its community farm proposal for the Busa Land, the group is seeking online support with its “Pledge to Build the Farm.” According to LexFarm’s website, the group will submit its proposal for a community farm next Monday, June 3. In the meantime, those who wish to pledge to support the …

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Farming in the Face of a Future Uncertain (Photos)

In what's probably his penultimate growing season on the family land, Lexington farmer Dennis Busa reflects on the past, present and future of his family’s farm.

  It’s a grey and rainy Friday afternoon down on the farm and Dennis Busa is replacing an old tractor's worn out bolts with some shiny new ones. It's a fairly ordinary task but, in some ways, it reflects a larger change taking root here in East Lexington. Busa Farms is in transition in ways that have nothing to do with the weather or growing season. This historic farm is readying for its journey from its old, familiar family-owned status to an uncertain future as a “community farm” owned by the town of Lexington. In what's probably his penultimate growing season on the family land, Lexington farmer Dennis Busa spoke to Patch about the past, present and future of the farm. A Brief History of Busa Farms Busa Farms, an 8-acre parcel in East …

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For the Busa Land, Community Farming’s Another Year Away

But an Agricultural Committee could be in the immediate future.

  Over the past several weeks, the Board of Selectmen have heard from a lot of concerned residents concerning the state of a request for proposal to operate a community farm on the town-owned Busa Farms parcel in East Lexington. At their Sept. 24 meeting, the selectmen's took some time to try and answer public concerns and re-evaluate an RFP regarding the farm. Ultimately, the board saw the need to wait another year to complete the RFP and expressed the desire to create an Agricultural Committee to study the avenues for either a for-profit or not-for-profit organization to take over the farm. Public Comments Addressed The selectmen began by detailing all the questions they have received regarding the farm and its future, queries like, What…

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Busa Land: Officials Soliciting Comments on Draft RFP

Feedback will be accepted through Sept. 21.

Lexington’s Board of Selectmen has drafted a Request for Proposals (RFP) for leasing the Busa Farm property for agricultural use, and is socliciting comments on the RFP until Sept. 21. Those comments should be sent to selectmen@lexingtonma.gov, and questions should be addressed to the Selectmen's Office at that email address or or 781-862-0500 x208, according to a press release from the town. The town purchased the Busa Farm property on Lowell Street back in 2009 and, earlier this year, officials opted to move forward with a plan to keep the land largely in agricultural use, with a smaller portion reserved for affordable housing. Playing fields were also part of the consideration, dating back to the original proposal to use Community …

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Patch Facts

Five Things You Need to Know Today: Aug. 27

Lots on the selectmen's agenda, Mass Ave paving and more today in Lexington.

1. Mass Ave Paving Planned: Weather permitting, crews are scheduled to pave the stretch of Massachusetts Avenue from the Route 128 bridge to Worthen Road, requiring a roadway closure for the full day, beginning at 7 a.m.  The town hopes to complete the paving today, before moving on to Lincoln Street (from Worthen to Lincoln Field) and other road resurfacing projects, according to the town website. 2. BOS Back in Action: In its only meeting this month, the Board of Selectmen meets at 7 p.m. tonight at Cary Hall and its agenda includes a liquor hearing for a new business on Waltham Street and the next steps in the community farm RFP for the Busa Land, among other items. 3. Back to School: Today's the first day back for teachers in the …

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Housing Limited to Half of Lowell Street Stretch of Busa Land

Selectmen delineate half the length of Busa Land streetscape for four units of affordable housing; details about housing design and community farm still TBD.

New housing will occupy no more than half of the stretch of the town-owned Busa Land along Lowell Street and that had been under consideration for as many as eight new units. In a 3-to-2 vote on Monday, July 30, the Board of Selectmen decided the property would hold four units of housing on a strip of land not exceed half of the frontage along Lowell and only as deep as the least practical need.  The nay votes belonged to selectmen Hank Manz and Peter Kelley. Manz would have preserved more of the Lowell Street frontage to allow more flexibility on the housing plan, while Kelley hoped to limit footprint to one-third of the land along Lowell Street. In later discussion, the selectmen and Town Manager Carl Valente took up a series of …

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Patrick Ball

11:05 am on Friday, August 3, 2012

Indeed it was a complicated vote. To add a little more context, Hank actually changed his vote to vote in favor of the amendment after originally voting against. What appeared to change his mind was that the chair -- whose vote I'll admit that I did not hear -- announced that the board was 3-2 against expanding from one-third of the frontage to half. Hank then said he would vote iin favor of …   more ›

Patch Facts

Five Things You Need to Know Today: March 28

Town Meeting takes up Center Zoning, BULPC to be dissolved, new HD channels and more today in Lexington.

1. Center Zoning on Tap Tonight: In the second night of 2012's annual Town Meeting, the Center Zoning articles -- Nos. 35, 36 and 37 -- in the warrant will be taken up tonight.  2. Bye, BLUPC: One of the items on the Board of Selectmen's agenda for its pre-Town Meeting meeting is to dissolve the Busa Land Use Proposal Committee. Earlier this month, the selectmen decided on a community farm and affordable housing as uses for the town-owned Busa Farms parcel in East Lexington. 3. More HD Options for RCN Customers: According to a March 27 press release, RCN Boston is adding seven new HD channels to its lineup. They are: QVC HD (channel 603), MSNBC HD (channel 652), HLN HD (656), TV Land HD (669), GSN HD (673), MTV2 HD (674) and Bloomberg HD (…

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Week in Review: March 18 to March 24

A look back at the week that was in Lexington.

Monday was the day many had been waiting for: The Board of Selectmen decided about a use for the Busa Farms property and moved to move forward with a request for proposal to operate a community farm on the town-owned parcel in East Lexington. Later in the week, Patch caught up with Recreation Director Karen Simmons to get the recreation reaction to the selectmen’s decision not to include a playing field on the nearly eight-acre parcel. Simmons said they’ll keep looking for land elsewhere in town, and consider some out-of-the-box ways of improving utilization of existing playing fields. Our Best of Patch Readers’ Choice poll this week sought your favorite place to work out in Lexington, and Get In Shape for Women edged out Fitness Together…

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Recreation Reacts to Busa Land Use Decision

Playing fields are not in the future plans for the town-owned Busa Farms property.

The Board of Selectmen’s decision Monday night to move forward with plans for a community farm on the bulk of the Busa Farms property and affordable housing along Lowell Street left no room for playing fields on the almost-eight acre parcel. While disappointed, recreation supporters haven’t spent the past few days sulking. Rather, they’re already moving on to the “out-of-the-box thinking” they anticipate must be done to meet the recreational needs of the Lexington community, particularly as it pertains to playing fields. “Tuesday was another day,” said Director of Recreation Karen Simmons on Wednesday afternoon. “You get knocked down, you get back up and start looking.” They’re looking for land, yes, but there’s a limited availability of …

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A Farming Future for the Busa Land

The Board of Selectmen officially decided Monday, March 19, to pursue a community farm on the bulk of the town-owned Busa Land.

For several generations now the Busa Land in East Lexington has been a working farm, and its newish owner—the town of Lexington—doesn't plan on upsetting the status quo anytime soon. The Board of Selectmen officially decided Monday, March 19, to pursue a community farm on the bulk of the almost 8-acre parcel, which the town purchased for a little more than $4 million in 2009. The remainder of the property will be used for affordable housing, but the size and scope of that project is yet to be determined. Earlier this month, the Board of Selectmen had designated uses for the property as open space and affordable housing, as is required under the Community Preservation Act, which was used to purchase the Busa property. On Monday, the …

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