NYC Community Gardeners Might Have New Protection in the Fight Against Development
Designating community gardens as ‘Critical Environmental Areas’ could give neighborhoods a seat at the table when developers move in.
By Greta Moran
Civil Eats
Feb 7, 2022
Excerpt:
“I’ve often said, ‘You bulldoze a community garden, you bulldoze a community,’” said Raymond Figueroa, Jr., a Bronx-based community organizer and president of the New York City Community Garden Coalition, which fought to save the Coney Island garden for two years. “Community gardens are more than landscaping amenities; they’re significant vehicles for community development, sustainability, and productivity in a way that is self-determining.”
And yet, garden land tenure in NYC is “very precarious,” adds Figueroa, who spends a lot of his time strategizing around this issue with a handful of other garden organizers.
A few years back, Figueroa had a lightbulb moment. After combing through “volumes and volumes of technical manuals and policy” in search of ways to protect New York’s community gardens, he came across what he was looking for: a designation known as Critical Environmental Areas (CEAs). It provides heightened regulatory protection under the state’s Environmental Quality Review Act, potentially triggering a full environmental review and greater public input in decisions impacting the land at stake.
