Busa Farm’s Future Finally In Focus

It’s been a long time coming, supporters say, but after Monday’s Board of Selectmen’s meeting, LexFarm is a clear step closer to operating a community farm at the Busa Land.

More than four months after the request for proposals was submitted and four years after the land purchase was approved, LexFarm has been selected as the organization to lead a community farm into the future on the Busa Land in Lexington.

That decision was announced publicly on Monday, July 29. LexFarm will be back in front of the Board of Selectmen probably sometime in September, when they’ll seek approval of a 10-year lease for the land.

A nonprofit that grew out of a group of residents who wanted to save an old family farm, the Lexington Community Farm Coalition—more commonly known as LexFarm—has been the driving force behind preserving the Busa Land in agricultural use since before the land was purchased by the town in 2009.

Now that the organization has officially won the bid to operate a community farm on the land, supporters say they’re eager to turn the page to a future filled with possibilities.

“We look forward to a productive lease negotiation process and starting a community farm next year,” Janet Kern, president of LexFarm’s Board of Directors, said at the selectmen’s meeting on Monday.

Imagining a Community Farming Future

It’s been more than four years since the land was purchased using Community Preservation Act Funds. In the meantime, there was considerable debate about how to break up the parcel, as the community considered agricultural, housing and recreational uses for the land.

Ultimately, the bulk of the property was devoted for use as a community farm, and now LexFarm has been selected to deliver on that vision.

Monday’s public announcement was the latest, and perhaps clearest step forward in the journey into an uncertain future. But it’s a step toward a vision supporters believe can be realized thanks to LexFarm’s careful shepherding of a wider community’s hopes and dreams for the Busa Land.

LexFarm won the bid, in part anyway, on the basis of its future plans for the Busa Land. Among those ideas include educational programs as a centerpiece, and recreational opportunities including linking up with ACROSS Lexington.

For more on LexFarm’s proposal click through the PDF posted above.

“All of these ideas are really going to come about not because of LexFarm, but because it’s the community’s farm and the community has interest in becoming involved, and LexFarm will be the facilitator for that,” said Kern. “We will be both stewards of the land through the lease and good growing practices for the farm, but the care of the community that surrounds the land is really the things that is going to make it a successful community farm.”