The Missoula City Council will decide in June whether to approve using $310,000 from the voter-approved 2018 Open Space Bond to help a nonprofit purchase a long-running, 8-acre vegetable farm in the Target Range neighborhood and keep it preserved as agricultural land for at least 75 years.
The nonprofit, called Trust Montana, is proposing to use the Open Space Bond funding to purchase Corner Farm, located on Tower Road. The farm used to be called Clark Fork Organics and was owned by current county commissioner Josh Slotnick and his wife, Kim Murchison.
The farm business is currently being operated as Trust Land Farm by local farmer Ellie Costello, but the property is called Corner Farm and is currently owned by Neva Hassanein.
Hassanein is proposing to sell the property to Trust Montana, which would then place the property in a Community Land Trust. Trust Montana would use the $310,000 along with community donations to buy the property for its appraised price of $720,000. Then, Costello would be given a 75-year ground lease to preserve it as local agriculture.
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The farm historically produces about 40,000 pounds of food in the form of organic vegetables per year, according to city open space program manager Zac Covington.
— David Erickson, david.erickson@missoulian.com
