At Day Road Farms this week, a late but bountiful harvest was under way.

Karen Selvar could be found toting bags of ears from rows of corn. The farm stand was laden with fresh carrots and fall vegetables.

Amid the frenzy of harvest, few farmers had time to reflect on an effort bearing fruit at City Hall, one that will have a lasting impact on their livelihoods.

Wednesday night the council unanimously approved a resolution to create the first unified structure for managing the city’s 60-plus acres of public farmland.

In coming months, the city will select an agency – likely a local nonprofit – to coordinate the new management plan. The agency will be tasked with recruiting farmers, helping them develop management plans for each farm and negotiating long-term leases. It will also work with other nonprofit groups, schools and businesses interested in involvement with farming.

Along with the management plan the council, approved a set of recommendations from the mayor’s 90-Day Farmland Committee, which included a goal of tripling public land for agriculture and opening educational and recreational opportunities on the farms.

Council member Debbie Vancil said the vote showed the city is serious about promoting island agriculture.

“I’ve heard people refer to island farming as boutique farming,” Vancil said. “I think that’s a mischaracterization of what’s happening. We have real people growing real food for our tables.”

The management plan will end a piecemeal approach that has governed use of the land for seven years.

The city began collecting farm parcels in 2001 with the purchase of the 15-acre Suyematsu property on Day Road and the 14.5-acre Johnson property on Fletcher Bay Road. It has since added the Morales, Lovgren, Crawford, Bentryn and tree farm properties, all spread between Day Road and Lovgren Road.

Some farmers, including Akio Suyematsu and Gerard Bentryn, have held long-term leases on city-owned property. But many have come in to farm land as it has opened up, making agreements with other farmers to cultivate patches here and there.

Without stable leases – or in some cases, any leases – in hand, it has been hard for farmers to establish themselves on the land, said Ryan Vancil, chairman of Trust for Working Landscapes, a nonprofit agency that has worked with farmers and the city on lease agreements.

“Right now the farmers are, in a sense, taking a risk that they might not be on the land next year,” Vancil said.

In the summer of 2007, Mayor Darlene Kordonowy convened a 90-day Farmland Committee of local growers, Open Space Commission members and consultants to study ways of sustaining and promoting agriculture on city-owned land. The task force hammered out a series of six recommendations, presented to the council in May.

Among them was the goal of eventually securing 1 percent of the island as farmland for food production and community use. It also recommended the city work through the selected management agency to offer longterm leases on the land, with priority given to existing farmers. Meanwhile, lease-holding farmers would be expected to implement individual farm plans, foot the bills for ongoing maintenance, and pay fair market value for leases of the land after an initial startup period.

After vetting by the Land Use Committee, the council accepted the recommendation Wednesday.

Work will begin with the city issuing a request for proposals from agencies interested in coordinating the farm management plan.

Vancil said TWL plans on applying. Vancil was a member of the 90-day committee but recused himself from meetings when the creation of a management entity was discussed.

Farmer Brian MacWhorter, also a member of the 90-day task force, said the council’s decision was a victory for island agriculture. MacWhorter farms about five acres of city land on Bainbridge, along with plots in North Kitsap.

Bainbridge’s new management plan was a long time coming, he said, but should encourage farmers to put down roots. Farmers will have the stability to put up a greenhouse or plant an orchard he said.

“It’s going to bring farming back to Bainbridge Island,” he said.

There may be a delayed response to the plan from many farmers with most focused on the harvest.

At the cornfield Thursday, Selvar said she hadn’t had time to look over the resolution yet.

Betsey Wittick said she hadn’t had a chance to read it carefully yet either, but had mixed feelings on what the management plan would mean for the farms.

She said she understands that the city needs a more formal system for leasing land to farmers and that she would trust a nonprofit like TWL to represent farmers’ interests. On the other hand, she is concerned that a more structured approach could quash the sense of community built by years of farmers sharing the land with handshake agreements.

“It really forced us to work together,” she said.