Dallas cancels $200K plan to provide in-home garden kits to residents amid scrutiny

DALLAS - The City of Dallas is scrapping plan to provide in-home garden kits to residents.

The $200,00 proposal was originally set to be approved with no discussion until one city council member raised questions.

Dallas city staff promised to bring answers Monday to the many questions raised by the city council members about why the city would spend that much money to provide the kits to 250 residents in targeted communities.

Instead, the briefing turned into a cancelation.

Dallas City Councilman Chad West is the one who originally noticed the unusual proposal on the city's consent agenda, where it would have passed along with other routine items with no discussion.

Instead, he pulled the item for questions.

Bellcam Group, the company that would have received the $200,000 contract, did not have any images of the kits on its website.

The city later provided councilmembers with images of the kits.

They would range in price from $100 to $180.

At the city council meeting, staff was unable to provide basic information about an earlier pilot program like how much produce the kits had grown or how long residents ended up using them.

Each garden kit would have only provided enough materials to grow produce for six months.

A memo about the project did not specify what type of seeds would be supplied with the kits.