Earlier this year, Dearborn announced that residents could create community gardens on city-owned vacant property in their neighborhoods.

While on the surface that seemed like a nice move by our city leaders, it appears city lawyers baked in so many conditions into the required permit that at least a couple of residents in one neighborhood were afraid to sign the document needed to begin a garden.

This resident sent Deepsaidwhat.com a detailed e-mail about their experience with the city when they went to inquire about whether city officials might consider amending the garden permit. Their concerns with the permit centered around several areas including these:

1. The person who signs the permit is responsible to compensate the city for whatever dollar amount it takes to restore the property to its original condition.
2. The permit is revocable at any time and for any reason.
3. Perennial crops are forbidden (e.g. no strawberries raspberries. blueberries, blackberries, or perennial herbs and flowers that attract pollinators, such as butterflies and bees)

Building a community garden takes a lot of time and effort, which is why this resident, an avid gardener herself, was reluctant to sign her name to the permit in its current form.

Her story about the experience she and her neighbor had with our city when they inquired about a community garden begins below.

Earlier this year, my neighbor down the street heard/read about permits available for residents interested in starting community gardens. To inquire further, she was put in touch with a person in the city’s neighborhood services department. She has several years experience gardening and is living next door to a vacant lot (there was a fire in the house that was there and the city later came and removed the remains of the house).

My neighbor was on board to sign the permit and move ahead, however, the permit appeared too risky and she decided against signing it. I heard about her desire to do this project, several months later, and I, also an avid gardener with an interest in community gardens, was interested in this project, too. I was enthusiastic about going ahead with a garden here until I too saw the permit.

In a nut-shell, I appreciate that Dearborn is, at least, allowing community gardens here and that Dearborn seems to be in step with a trend that is happening on a regional and national scale. I think greater self-sufficiency, appreciation for where things come from and how they are grown, experiential learning, and business ventures that, instead of providing a product, teach people how to do and make things themselves are elements that will be more prevalent in the future.

Full disclosure: I love gardening. I also appreciate teaching people how to help themselves. I do not see myself remaining in Dearborn much longer due to the economic climate, but my neighbor, her husband, and their sons, will be remaining here, and I suspect many of the other young families on this block will too.

Earlier this summer, I contacted the same person my neighbor did in the city’s neighborhood services department on behalf of myself and the neighbor that initially wanted to start the community garden here. Given my interest and experience with gardening, I felt confident enough to speak up about our concerns with the permit. The person I spoke to was very encouraging but it was clear to me this person had no idea the actual energy, effort, time, etc. spent interfacing with neighbors, getting to know people, collaborate with them, etc. to facilitate a thriving COMMUNITY garden.

That’s fine – I don’t expect a city employee to know all of this. But I was hoping that the city would consider altering the permit slightly to create rules that would lend themselves to the success of the garden.

The issues I had with the permit were:

1. It is revocable at any time and for any reason/the city does not have to state the reason (e.g. we could be gardening at any time and be told to pack up)
2. We would have 10 days to pack up if told the permit is revoked (this window, for restoring the land to its’ original condition may seem generous but it is really not a lot of time given how large and extensive the garden may be)
3. The permit is annual in nature – it does not seem worth it to cultivate the land, invest money and sweat equity, organize neighbors, etc. for a garden that is only annual
4. We cannot plant any crops that are perennial (e.g. no strawberries raspberries. blueberries, blackberries, or perennial herbs and flowers that attract pollinators, such as butterflies and bees)
5. And, finally, it is the person who signs the permits responsibility to compensate the city for whatever dollar amount it takes to restore the property – whomever does this would, at least, have to pay for resodding or whatever charges (I don’t know what these could be) the city may come up with. Also, I do not want to be held accountable for any pre-existing conditions on the property.

Clearly, I do not feel confident getting neighbors to make financial and emotional investments in the garden with such a shaky, risky permit and I think it would take more than a year to establish relationships with neighbors and achieve a flourishing garden.

Per the city employee’s suggestion, I wrote to Mayor O’Reilly in June with my concerns and explained that I think it would be good for Dearborn to encourage community garden projects by tweaking the permit so that it acknowledges the investments residents would be making, especially the person who signs the permit and accepts complete legal responsibility of the property.

A few weeks later, I was contacted by the person in the neighborhood services department. This person asked me to explain my concerns and offer suggestions. I did so in an email that was a few paragraphs long – this message would probably take someone no longer than 15 minutes to read, I wanted to be clear about what my concerns were and why. Soon after, I was contacted by a city attorney and the city employee. They wanted to set up an hour long meeting to discuss the permit the following week. Though I was uncertain what more I could say, because I had tried to be as clear in the email, I agreed to the meeting and was appreciative for their responsiveness.

My neighbor (the one who originally inquired about the garden) and I met the city attorney and the city employee in the law conference room. Suffice it to say, the lawyer seemed bothered by what we had to say, she had not read my email and blamed me (“my email was too long”), implied that I wanted a garden for myself (I have my own garden and if I wanted one for myself, I would not bother to inquire about securing a permit that would lend itself to getting novice gardeners involved), and used leading questions (“how come you two are the only ones that have a problem with this permit?”). Meanwhile, the city employee reminded us that the Mayor’s wife supports community gardens.

I appreciate that residents can speak up. I also appreciate so many things about Dearborn (the libraries, continuing education classes, city services, police, etc.). I understand that the city has more important, pressing matters at hand too and that the property is, of course, under ownership by the Dearborn. I think the permit does an excellent job of protecting the city, I just had questions about whether it could be broadened to acknowledge the investment participating neighbors would be making by partaking in such a project.

When my parents moved here from Detroit, it was to find a safer neighborhood where they could raise their children. As I noted, I appreciate so much about Dearborn, but I had thought the city would’ve handled my inquiry in a different way . . . even if their response was, “we don’t know about this right now”, rather than approaching us as suspect.

I’d like to know what other residents think about the garden permit requirement and whether they think it would be okay to sign the permit. Unlike the other couple community gardens here, we learned that ours would be on a “buildable lot” (e.g. the city wants to sell the vacant lot eventually). Perhaps, there could be two different permits for buildable and non-buildable properties? Either way, I’d like to know what other residents think.

Thank you.

A gardening fan

This entry was posted on Friday, September 3rd, 2010 at 6:54 am and is filed under Around Town. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.