Waltham Council, Mayor At Odds Over Farming Co-Op License: Report

WALTHAM, MA — The Waltham City Council remains stuck on a fence regarding a fence.

That’s the key issue that prevented the council Monday from approving a land-use license for Waltham Fields Community Farm, the Waltham Times reported.

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The farm, a nonprofit agricultural cooperative, has long raised and harvested crops on city-owned land. Now Mayor Jeannette McCarthy wants to formalize the relationship with a proposed three-year license.

Under the agreement, the lease terms would be nearly identical to those between Waltham and the coop over the past year. But McCarthy added a request: The farm, which tills ground between Beaver Street and Waverley Oaks Road, needs to repair a fence surrounding the property.

However, the mayor and several councilors disagreed Monday about who should pay for the repairs and how much it should cost.

The meeting adjourned without a decision on the license approval, and follows negotiations between the city and the farm that have taken a year.

To read the Waltham Times coverage, click here.