[Community_garden] Due Process (St.John's United Church Community Garden)

[Karen Jones]

Hi Dorene, 
                 I have been following the story of St.John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden with interest. We have been going throughmuch the same thing here in Winnipeg where the city has no Open Space Policy or no Parks and Recreation Department. In addition our city councillor has openly allied herself with the Development Corporation which looks at our garden as the site of new housing. You can't blame them, that is their mandate. They do not have a mandate for land use planning and our municipal government has left us out in the cold  through designating us a 'community planning area' which has only a mandate from programme planning and guess what? Housing is considered to be programme planning. How convenient. Housing is important, but not at the expense of every other variable which contributes to healthy resiliant human environments. This Development Corporation which has given us so much grief is simply acting on a prompt from the long arm of Ottawa (our federal capital) which has determined that housing must go in, at all costs. 
	So..... we live in a democracy and our only hope is DUE PROCESS.
In Winnipeg we have a document called 'Plan Winnipeg', it derives from the Winnipeg Charter Act which incorporates our city. It contains principles of development and land use. One of these principles is Sustainability. Our garden is zoned C.2 (commercial) (don't ask), so if the development Corporation wants housing on that land they will either have to get it re-zoned to Residential or ask for a conditional variance on the commercial land. At any rate, both of these moves would be open to public hearings. We expect to lose any public hearing because our councillor has taken her stand with the Corporation. But we will appeal any developmental proposal to the Court of Queen's Bench and we will probably lose all along the way. But any application for planning once approved must be implemented within a specificied time. We believe that we can force them to miss that deadline and have to go back and start all over again. At which case, we will be there opposing them again. 
My advice, go out and buy a $600 suit, a $200 pair of shoes and take on the tone of voice of a travelogue narriator. If you are angry, and you probably are, do what ever you can to moderate it so that it doesn't scare people. Don't let go of it though, you are right to be angry, and anger can be a creative force. But really moderate it because it does scare people. 
So.... my advice, beyond get a big suit to meet the big suits you meet....
1) find a municipal planner or clerk at city hall who will explain process to you so you know what to expect.
2) become really familiar with Zoning By-laws in your city, insofar as it effects your garden.
    If your garden is zoned residential now, I must warn you that things will be more difficult
3) find a high profile supporter in Federal Government
4) media, media, media
5) this HACC probably acts like an 'authority' in your area, my money tells me they have no legislative authority. Call them on it. Find out who funds them and start complaining. Go above their heads. They don't run the show. They are not the final authority.
6) Give us some contact names and numbers. I for one will call them and say 'what in the heck is going on in Phoenixville? Your city is getting an international name for being careless about healthy urban environments.  Shame, shame.  
I think you are making a heroic effort to save your garden from development and I think you deserve a medal for doing so. I believe that pressure like this on not just Community Gardens, but public open space in general, will never cease because land is a limited, un-renewable resource. It will mean eternal vigilence. Please take a look at this video.     http://www.blessedunrest.com/video.html    I wept when I first saw it. This 6 year process for us has been terrifically emotionally draining.  I thought that we were alone.  We  are not alone. I hope it gives you some comfort to know that you are doing the right thing and you are not alone. 
Thank you for sharing your story with us and let us know who we can phone, write a letter to or any other way we can be of help. We want to help your garden and the gardeners in it. Possibly we cannot do much. But I was at a public appeal against putting a strip mall in a green space and we won not because we were right (which we were) but because we wore them away just like a drip of water can wear away a granite rock. There have to be alot of drops of water and they have to be continual.      Karen Jones
                    West Broadway Horticultural Society