The politics of community gardens: This woman tried to create a green space, but got snarled in red tape

Thestar.com
Sept. 1, 2021
Jenna Moon

Walking around her northwest Toronto neighbourhood, Annisha Stewart couldn’t help but notice the large, unused plot of land just beyond the houses that line her street.

In the eight years Stewart lived in the area, she had never seen a proposal for the city-owned green space, which lies near Summerlea Park and alongside the Humber River. For her, the land could serve a greater purpose: a community garden, one carefully maintained so as to avoid any unnecessary food waste. One that could help her community’s high rate of food insecurity by offering fresh produce for area residents.

Though there is a food bank nearby, Stewart said she and other residents have had issues with receiving rotten or expired food. The food quality is “very disrespectful for me,” she told the Star. “(Just) because our income is lower doesn’t mean we don’t want or need the same quality of food as people who can afford to go purchase it in the stores.”

Getting the garden approved, however, is proving to be a thorny issue.

Stewart’s yearlong process -- email back-and-forths with the city and writing proposals -- came to a halt with the city’s conclusion that the land was too large for what Stewart envisioned and located in a floodplain, so they wouldn’t grant an approval.

A spokesperson for the city confirmed to the Star in an email that “Unfortunately, the size and scope of the proposal does not meet the City’s criteria” for the community-garden program, the spokesperson said.

“Staff recommended the resubmission of a scaled down proposal for consideration, and offered assistance in identifying another park location in the community with the necessary infrastructure in place to support a garden.”

Two-year-old Niqo Stewart bites into a cherry tomato that came ripe off the vine. Her mother, Annisha Stewart, has been trying for more than a year to put a large plot of land in her neighbourhood to good use.

The city also directed Stewart to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority’s (TRCA) Urban Agriculture program for its input. The TRCA said that the project wouldn’t require a permit from the authority so long as there were no structures erected on the floodplain. However, the authority is not responsible for approving community gardens, the city spokesperson said.

“Generally, the City does not install community gardens on flood plains, and additional approvals are required to assess the suitability of garden proposals for areas protected by the Ravine and Natural Features bylaw or regulated by TRCA,” the statement noted, pointing to an under-construction garden about two kilometres away as an option for future use.

The city has said that a revised proposal from Stewart for a garden that meets their criteria is also an option. Stewart said she reached out three months ago and has yet to hear back from city staff about the requirements she would need to meet for a revised plan, or to set a date for a meeting.

(The city has told the Star they are not aware of additional meeting requests. “However, the team would be happy to discuss this further with the applicants and will be reaching out to them directly to make arrangements,” a spokesperson said.)

Eight-year-old Nylah Stewart passes her mother Annisha some cherry tomatoes.

Stewart said that what sets her idea apart from other gardens is the focus on community members lending a hand to maintain the space. Often, gardeners will plant their crops at the beginning of the season, but busy lives often get in the way of caring for the plots, meaning healthy produce may go to waste, she said. Under the “collaborative model” Stewart has in mind, overseeing the plots doesn’t burden just one person: “I looked at ... what was done in other garden spaces around the city and it’s a model that works well.”

Community gardens have long been a fixture around some Toronto neighbourhoods, offering far more than just good soil for hobbyist green-thumbs in the city. The spaces have well-documented benefits: not only do they offer the ability for neighbourhoods to take control of their own food cultivation and eat locally grown produce, they have also been found to offer a boost to well-being for those that use them. Beautifying and maintaining unused green space also has been found to lower crime rates nearby.

Urban agriculture is relatively new, said Rhonda Teitel-Payne, a co-coordinator of Toronto Urban Growers. As a result, city policies haven’t caught up to the new processes or ideas people have for growing food in the city, she said.

Zoning is one common problem. “If they want to build something or create something, there’s no specific recognition of urban agriculture as an accepted use,” Teitel-Payne said. Meanwhile, development processes were created with high-powered building developers in mind -- they can afford the fees associated with assessments and applications and will recoup those losses when a building is finished, she added.

Nylah Stewart shows off a handful of freshly picked cherry tomatoes. Her mother, Annisha Stewart, has been trying for more than a year to put a large plot of land in her neighbourhood to good use.

While community gardens alone may not solve hunger or food insecurity, “what’s really important for people is to be able to have control over how they get food,” Teitel-Payne said. For some, the food they need and want may not be available fresh in stores, or affordable to purchase.

The barriers to access created by zoning restrictions in particular widens existing inequality, Teitel-Payne added. “A lot of the systems that are set up to help people often exclude people who are Black or Indigenous, and sometimes newcomers.”

Cities should shift perspective and focus on strengthening green infrastructure, said Petros Babasikas, director of the architectural studies program at the University of Toronto. “I think there is an issue with considering community gardens as always existing (on) a small scale,” he said. “There could be larger scales of gardens produced” as long as the city has assurances that they’ll be maintained.

Transforming a small corner of a public space into a thriving, lasting community garden could be a “really wonderful way” to unite people in cities, he added.

Eight-year-old Nylah Stewart brings mother Annisha Stewart fresh tomatoes from the garden.

What’s more, the existence of the floodplain shouldn’t be a barrier to developing a garden on the space, Babasikas continued. “There is a way to design at the edge of the water that should allow both a protective landscape and places for these gardens.”

For Stewart, the garden’s contribution to the surrounding community should be the biggest factor in approving the space. “It’s not going to be something that’s private,” she said, adding the garden’s main intention is to provide food for those who need it. Stewart foresees the garden would be utilized by others outside her neighbourhood who want to enjoy it.

Access to wholesome food should not be seen as a privilege, she said.

“It’s our birthright.”