Phoenix community garden seeks federal reprieve to avoid shutdown
Farmers on the 15-acre site received a notice to vacate the land, but supporters including Mayor Greg Stanton and Sen. John McCain are trying to persuade the federal government to let them stay.
Plots of produce cultivated by refugees, veterans and students that brighten a dusty lot on Phoenix's Central Avenue will have to relocate next week, unless Arizona leaders receive a reprieve from the federal government.
Gardeners are scrambling to leave the 15-acre PHX Renews site north of Indian School Road. Dozens of non-profits and individuals grow food and host programs there as part of a city initiative to activate vacant land awaiting development.
The project was always meant to be temporary, said Tom Waldeck, president and CEO of Keep Phoenix Beautiful, which runs the project. But organizers only recently learned from landowner Barron Collier Cos. that they would have to vacate by Feb. 15, he said.
A letter sent to Waldeck and the city says Barron Collier will soon transfer the land to the federal government as it settles litigation. A company spokeswoman declined to comment to The Arizona Republic.
Elected officials, including Mayor Greg Stanton and U.S. Sen. John McCain, have written to the U.S. Department of the Interior asking for an agreement to keep community groups on the land. A representative of U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake’s office visited the site Wednesday.
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Interior Department spokeswoman Megan Bloomgren said in an email Wednesday that the department is looking into those issues and plans "to work with all parties engaged regarding the future use of this site."
The agency previously declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation. By Wednesday afternoon, neither Waldeck nor McCain had received a formal response.
Time is running out for gardeners who said they were disheartened by the short notice to leave during the growing season. Others worry that an active community space will return to vacant land indefinitely.
“It's amazing,” said Susan Levy, communications coordinator for Native Health, which runs programs on the site. “And it’s going to go back to nothing."
Garden would go into federal hands
The PHX Renews land was vacant for a few decades at one of Phoenix’s busiest intersections. More than five years ago, Barron Collier worked with the city and Keep Phoenix Beautiful to allow gardening and other uses until it was developed.
The company originally took the land through “the largest and one of the most complex interstate land exchanges” ever completed by the Interior Department, according to a U.S. District Court order.
The federal government owned a swath of midtown where it operated the Phoenix Indian School for nearly a century. In the 1990s, the government made a trade with Barron Collier for wetlands the company owned in Florida.
Barron Collier also agreed to pay the government $34.9 million over three decades for the Phoenix land, according to the court order. The money funds two education trust accounts for Native American education.
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In a separate swap, Phoenix took most of Barron Collier's land for Steele Indian School Park. In return, Barron Collier got downtown land development rights for the Collier Center and "Block 23," the future site of a Fry's grocery store.
The federal government sued the company several years ago when it defaulted on payments. A settlement and the return of the land that's now PHX Renews is imminent, according to a letter from the company.
'A true community garden'
Gardeners are still hoping for permission from the Interior Department to stay.
The move would displace programs that target Native American health and wellness, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth, among others. Some gardeners and groups have already started packing up.
Much of the garden was built with mobility in mind, Waldeck said. Keep Phoenix Beautiful will pack and store items like raised planters for new locations.
Waldeck said announcements about new gardens are forthcoming, though none would be as big as the current site. The group needs volunteers to help move over the next several days, he said.
Others organizations are planning next steps. The International Rescue Committee expects to relocate some of its refugee farmers to other gardens, development manager Nicky Walker said. The organization also is looking for another lot of irrigated land nearby.
More than 50 refugees have used PHX Renews land to grow crops to eat and sell since 2012, Walker said. The site is unique for creating a space where refugees can interact with veterans, teachers, restaurateurs and other community members.
“It wasn’t just a refugee garden, it was a true community garden,” Walker said.
That exposure to new people has motivated nearby resident Ayesha Brauer to grow crops like arugula, chard and bok choy there for more than a year. She chatted with people from Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday as she tended to her plants.
Brauer said she was disappointed to hear she had to leave so quickly. She said she didn't know if she would invest the time to start over somewhere else.
“There’s a whole community of people here losing out,” Brauer said.