Everett neighbor questions public funds for Lowell garden

Published 11:11 pm Friday, October 9, 2009

EVERETT — It seems like a win-win situation.

A Lowell man offered to let neighbors use two acres of his land as a neighborhood garden.

Some neighbors happily obliged, donating hours to grow a crop of vegetables, some of which fed women staying at the Everett Gospel Mission.

Now the volunteers who run the garden want the city to give them an $8,000 grant to help with the project. At least one Lowell neighbor, however, is peeved the city may give public money to improve private land — a first for Everett.

Sharon Nelson, a long-time Lowell resident, said few people know about the garden, which is at the end of a private driveway. She also is concerned neighbors didn’t receive adequate notice of the grant, even though Lowell’s neighborhood civic association put in the application.

“I would deeply love to have $8,000 in grant money from the taxpayer to improve my p-patch,” she said.

The term “p-patch” refers to a community garden.

Any of Everett’s 19 neighborhood associations may obtain city money to carry out projects to benefit the community, enhance the neighborhood or foster better neighbor connections. The city offers a grant of up to $8,000 to neighborhoods for projects, including those that promote open space or community health, said Wendy McClure, coordinator with the city’s Office of Neighborhoods. The Bayside Neighborhood, for instance, received a grant to improve its community garden. That project is on land owned by the city and nearby Kimberly-Clark Corp.

The city is considering four such applications, including another request to turn private land into a neighborhood garden at 23rd Street and Lombard Avenue.

The city is now examining how to make the arrangement work, she said. Other communities, including Seattle, lease private land for community gardens. For Everett, the question will be how long of a lease is reasonable for public investment.

“This is really about community involvement and participation,” McClure said. “It’s a way for people to invest in their community by getting involved in a neighborhood.”

After city staff and a citizen committee make a recommendation to the mayor, he’ll pass the grants on for consideration to the City Council.

“We’re not looking to vastly improve the land,” said Shane Gillis, Lowell Community Garden committee chair. “We just want to make it accessible so people can use it as a p-patch.”

The site, owned by 89-year-old Elwin Anderson, has been fallow for 50 years and is threaded with canary grass. The volunteers could use a few thousand dollars for gravel to improve access and to rent a small tractor to mow and till the land, he said.

“Once we get it cleared, we’ve received promises from the food bank and Volunteers of America to grow food,” Gillis said.

Despite initial indications the land wasn’t fertile enough to farm, the neighbor’s initial crops have flourished.

Lowell’s neighborhood association “may have made procedural errors” at past meetings, said Jackie Minchew, chair of the Lowell Civic Association. He’s since tightened up how he runs meetings, he said. If there are legal concerns about taking public money for private land, they’ll work to help solve them.

“We have tried in every instance to do what’s best for the neighborhood,” Minchew said.

Still, Minchew said the city has indicated they may not approve the grant or may approve less for the project.

“If it’s granted to us, we will use it because this is a good project,” he said. “If not, we’ll continue the project without the money.”

Debra Smith: 425-339-3197, dsmith@heraldnet.com.