GENEVA — You’ll have a hard time finding Maryland Street on the city’s northeast side — even with a Google Maps search.
The application pinpoints it to a span between Doran and Kirkwood avenues, off East North Street. However, that doesn’t put you in the right place, as Flint and April Hall of Geneva found out when scouting three parcels of vacant land they hoped to purchase from the city.
Turns out Maryland Street likely only exists on paper, but in theory it connects to Crystal Street, another city street that doesn’t dead-end as much as it transitions into weeds. However, it does lead people to a community garden run by the nonprofit BluePrint Geneva.
Behind the garden is city-owned land that the couple wants to purchase to develop a hobby farm, a commercial greenhouse, garden space, and — eventually — a single-family caretaker home.
The couple is offering $4,000 for the parcels, and a public hearing will be held on the potential sale at City Council’s Aug. 5 meeting at 7 p.m.
The three lots are among several the city has identified as serving no public purpose; thus, they’re available for purchase.
As it stands, the city continues to mow most of the three connected parcels the Halls want to buy.
“We’d pick up maintenance and take it from there,” Flint said.
For the Halls — Florida natives who moved to Geneva in 2021 and fell in love with the city — it’s a chance to put the lots on the tax rolls while putting the land to productive use.
Their garden at their Oak Street home is busting at the seams, they said at the site of the parcels on a recent, smoldering-hot summer day.
“We are big proponents of food security and learning how to grow your own food,” said Flint, an independent graphic designer.
“We both grew up with grandparents who were avid farmers,” added April, a nurse who works remotely at a patient-monitoring company. “We’re (as a country) getting away from this.”
While the couple dabbled in growing food in Florida — without much success — they’re amazed at how well things grow in the Finger Lakes region.
“We do have a lot of gardens and share a lot with our neighbors,” Flint said.
They look forward to what they can yield from the proposed 1,500-square-foot commercial greenhouse they want to build on the site.
In their pitch to the city, the couple said they plan on partnering with local nonprofits to provide produce for food banks and/or organizations providing free meals to low-income residents in Geneva. They also plan to set up a small free farm stand in front of the property. Flint said a small farm is likely the best use for the land, which sits next to Marsh Creek.
“We are not developers,” they emphasized in their purchase offer. “We are locals that want an opportunity to develop the subject property as a hobby farm to serve the needs of our community through food donation, as well as food-growing workshops.”
The couple said the city, in particular Acting City Manager Taylor Youngs, has been helpful in guiding them through the purchase-offer process. Youngs said she could not comment on the merits of the project at this time because of the public hearing Aug. 5.
Youngs did say City Council will discuss the sale proposal at the meeting.
“If Council determines it wishes to move forward, it would then vote on the resolution authorizing the sale of the property, likely at the September meeting,” Youngs said Monday.
She emphasized that approval of that resolution would not finalize the sale.
“Rather, it would authorize city staff and the city attorney (David Hou) to begin preparing the necessary agreements and closing documents associated with the transaction,” she said. “Those documents would then be completed in accordance with the terms approved by Council.”
The parcels are adjacent to a planned Habitat for Humanity development to the east of the land the Halls want to purchase.