Portfolio at NYU

Posted 11.20.03
Will the City Trade Gardens for Housing?
Community Voices Speak up for Community Gardens

By Heather Marie Graham

The Committee on Parks and Recreation held the first of an anticipated series of public hearings concerning GreenThumb community gardens yesterday. Though a settlement was reached on September 17, 2002 between the City of New York and the Attorney General's office, representing New York State, the public forum was opened to hear from different groups on the matter. The conflict arose from a movement to continue funding to maintain and even expand community gardens instead of turning those lots into housing developments.

The issue now is that the settlement essentially offers a compromise for both sides, rather than sweeping protection for the gardens. The public hearings are to address how to preserve community gardens while using city-owned lots to develop much needed housing.

Representatives from the Department of Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD), a spokesman for the Attorney General's office, The Trust for Public Land (TPL), and several community groups testified to the Committee about their hopes and fears concerning the fate of community gardens and the City's GreenThumb program.

The GreenThumb program is the country's largest urban gardening program, assisting nearly 700 public gardens in the five boroughs. The Department of Parks and Recreation has been administering the program since 1995. When the City began putting some of these gardens on the auction block for developers in 1998, the Attorney General stepped in to stop the sales and protect the gardens.

Kevin Jeffries from HDP testified that the settlement put the community gardens in four categories. The first category put 193 gardens, under the jurisdiction of several city agencies, into a "non-developing" block. They will remain as community gardens without the threat of development. The second group of 198 gardens is to be held for permanent preservation to be administered by either the Parks department or private not-for-profit land trusts. The third group includes 38 gardens that are subject to immediate development, while the fourth group includes 114 gardens subject to development under the "land use review process."

According to the Attorney General's representative, Chris Amato, the land use review process functions on a few levels: getting information about development plans to decision makers and the community, as well as to provide each garden effected with an alternate site within a half-mile radius of its current location.

Council member Helen Foster, representing a Bronx district, asked, rather than move a garden to an alternate location, why not use the alternate, vacant location for development? Raucous applause and cheering came from the audience. Amato said that under the settlement, there is no reason that could not happen.

Andy Stone of the TPL testified that his organization is looking to form three land trusts in New York -- one for Manhattan, one for the Bronx and one combining Brooklyn and Queens. The TPL is a national not-for-profit organization looking to protect public gardens. It bought 63 of New York's community gardens to save them from the auction block in 1999. The TPL wants to incorporate the proposed borough land trusts and transfer titles from all 63 gardens over the next year and a half. The TPL will provide funds for two years to provide staff for the new trusts and later serve as an advisor. Stone urged the City to make a long-term commitment to the GreenThumb program. "Without GreenThumb, we fear these gardens will fall through the cracks of city government."

The settlement is not a total victory for the life of community gardens. The provisions under the settlement are in place for only eight years. Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr., Chairman of the Committee on Parks and Recreation wanted to know why there was "No plan B." According to Amato of the Attorney General's office, within the allotted eight years the hope is that the City will come up wthl its own long-term plan for community gardens.

The other issue at hand is that the settlement does not provide for new gardens or their protection. Furthermore, a summary of the settlement points out, "If your garden is put into the Parks Department it does not mean you are preserved forever, this only occurs if your garden is a 'mapped' Parks site." Essentially, if a garden is unmapped and has not been set aside for permanent preservation, it could end up for sale in the future.

Holly Leicht of the Municipal Art Society (MAS) points out that for this reason the scope of the settlement is limited. She urged the city council to continue funding for the GreenThumb program and make a commitment to community gardens while also providing for affordable housing development. "What we advocate is livable communities. Livable communities need both gardens and affordable housing."