City Council committee advances bill to protect Philly community gardens from developers

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Community gardens are more than a source of fresh produce. Various studies have found they improve health and even reduce crime. However, they are under constant threat of losing the land they are on. Philadelphia City Council will vote this week on a bill that would protect community gardens from rising real estate prices and speculative developers.

The bill would authorize the Land Bank to have the first option to acquire vacant lots that go up for sheriff’s sale. Often, the lots have been vacant for years, and community members have cleaned them up to use as garden plots for surrounding neighbors. But with values rising rapidly in many Philadelphia neighborhoods, speculators have been snatching them up.

Jenny Greenberg, executive director of the Neighborhood Gardens Trust, estimated there are 200 gardens under threat from gentrification.

“The Land Bank’s ability to exercise priority bid at sheriff’s sale is crucial to bringing abandoned properties back into city control,” she said.

Greenberg said gardens bring many benefits to neighborhoods — a reduction in violent crime, cleaner air, better health — yet they have faced many challenges. Last year, City Council spent $1 million to clear tax liens on lots where gardens had taken root. That saved about 100 gardens, including Iglesias Garden in Kensington.

Board member Mike Moran said Iglesias Garden has brought his neighborhood invaluable benefits: “The peace and serenity that comes to the neighborhood by having that as a central point.”

But he said it’s a fragile asset.

“Nothing that we grow or build there has any permanence until we own the land. We can grow the most food or build the biggest shed, but if the land is taken up from under us, then what have we done?” he questioned.

“Without this legislation, we won’t be able to complete the work to protect dozens of community-controlled parcels from being lost to profit-driven developers.”