City parks and recreation put garden plot term limits on hold

The Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Department has four locations where people can rent small patches of land to plant a garden. The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board has recently been reviewing a proposal to place term limits on those rentals.

“How long can you be a steward of a garden plot?” asked Hosea Mitchell, the chair of the Charlottesville Planning Commission and member of the advisory board. “Because we think that maybe other people want to to get involved because once you get a garden plot right now you pretty much got it until you say I don’t want anymore.”

Mitchell said people showed up at meetings to protest the idea and so the idea is on hold for now. He said there many reasons given for why the idea needs more thought.

“You think about crop rotation and things like that, it takes a little while to cultivate the ground to get a garden plot to do what you made the investment to have it do,” Mitchell said. “We’re going to give it a little more thought just to be respectful of all the work that other people have put into the garden plots.”

An email was sent on May 13 to existing users of garden plots.

“The rules being debated will be around registration and specifically potentially term limits,” reads that email. “We encourage everyone to come down to hear the debate and let the board hear your comments.”

According to the minutes of the April 17, 2025 Parks and Recreation Advisory Board meeting, the idea is for a five-year term limit.

The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board discussed the matter at their meeting in May. (meeting info)

“As part of the ongoing renovation of the garden plot areas, we have identified that our current Garden Plot Rules and Regulations are outdated and in need of revision,” said Parks and Recreation Director Riaan Anthony in an email before the meeting. “The existing rules—available at Charlottesville Garden Plot Rules and Regulations—were last formally updated many years ago and do not reflect current operations, pricing, or best practices.”

The idea is now on hold following the May meeting.

To learn more about the garden plots, visit the city’s Parks and Recreation site.

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