Development on Community Garden Land in NYC

**"Zach Youngerman" z*@earthpledge.org**

I've been going over the Sept 17, 2002 Memorandum of Agreement between Attorney General Spitzer and the City of New York and I'm trying to understand the Garden Review Process that is established for development of a community garden.  The process seems to be mostly a list of criteria for determining the value of the community garden. After this has been done, the plan must go through the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act "SEQRA" and "ULURP" and any other appproriate statutory procedures. I know nothing about these subsequent land use processes so I don't know what provisions they have. Meanwhile the Garden Review Process has nothing that seems to say if such and such happens, the community garden will persist and the development will be aborted. My question is, does the Garden Review Process ensure that a healthy community garden will be preserved, say because it provides information needed in "SEQRA" to block development, OR is it basically a "shame on you" to the developper, showing how beautiful the land is s/he's destroying, but in essence putting no regulating mechanism on the development.? Basically, does it have any teeth to stop development, or is it just a formalizing of the process by which a developer kicks out gardeners?

Thank you all, and East Coast Gardeners enjoy this week of 1 part sun: 1 part rain.

Zach

Intern | Green Roofs Initiative
Earth Pledge Foundation
122 E. 38th St.
(212) 725-6611 x 236
www.earthpledge.org

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