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The town of Queen Creek is looking at developing a policy allowing Queen Creek nonprofit organizations to use town-owned land and property to better facilitate their outreach efforts.

The item was up for discussion during the June 3 Queen Creek Town Council work session and council gave the proverbial nod for staff to move forward with developing ordinance language for the pending policy.

Queen Creek Councilman Craig Barnes says the time is now for the town to facilitate volunteer help for town operations, events and promotions.

"It would save the town millions of dollars," Councilman Barnes said of the town using nonprofit organizations for events and promotions. "Most holiday (events) are done in other towns with some kind of nonprofit, but Queen Creek would rather spend the money and pay for it, which doesn’t make sense to me."

Councilman Barnes says nonprofit organizations provide a valuable resource for residents who are tussling with the down economy.

"Especially right now in this economy there are still people losing their jobs," he said. "They come to the nonprofits for help ... that helps the citizens of the community therefore those people stay in town and see a strong community."

Councilman Barnes says if the nonprofit organizations are not given an opportunity to flourish within the town of Queen Creek, it would be a huge loss to the future development of the community.

"I don’t know what the resistance is," he said of fellow councilmembers questioning tenets of the initial proposal during the June 3 work session. "We have such a chance to make a difference in people’s lives. There is a resource there and it needs to be used and we are not using it."

The amount of land and property that could be available for lease by Queen Creek nonprofit organizations was not available by press time, according to Marnie Schubert, the town’s spokeswoman.

Town Manager John Kross introduced the item to council noting requirements for the possible town policy. Requirements such as property criteria, annual reports and terms of tenancy were explained.

"It is quite unknown the broad impact of this," Mr. Kross explained to town council. "We don’t know what requests might come forth."

Although Mr. Kross says the town has not received many requests for long-term lease agreements over the years that trend may be changing.

According to the June 3 town staff report, the town, in recent months, has been contacted by groups representing nonprofit agencies requesting long-term lease agreements with the town for use of town buildings or land.

"These discussions have resulted in informal requests for below-market lease agreements of either land and/or buildings owned by the town," the report states.

Queen Creek Councilman Jeff Brown asked, during the work session, how many groups could possibly come forward seeking town land and/or property.

"How do you figure out who gets that square footage?" he asked.

Mr. Kross said that right now, as it was presented in the staff report, the determination of who gets the square footage and for how long would be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Gordon Mortensen, who was voted in unanimously by the council as Queen Creek’s vice mayor June 3, says there were a lot of things he liked about the initial proposal.

"We are seeing and helping them," he said of the town looking to help Queen Creek nonprofit groups.

Queen Creek Councilman John Wootten agreed.

"It will give us a tool to make that decision," he said during the work session of what an established long-term leasing agreement could do for the town of Queen Creek.