The Jersey City Independent "

Share/Save

Jersey City is making it easier for organizations to start community gardens on vacant land, with the City Council unanimously passing revisions to the city’s Adopt-A-Lot law at Wednesday night’s meeting.

The biggest change to the program is the expansion of the types of city-owned land that can be used to include open space shown to be in need of improvement as well as vacant lots.

“The amendments will facilitate urban agriculture, community building, food security, environmental education and healthier residents,” the ordinance fact sheet reads.

The Adopt-A-Lot revisions are part of the city Planning Division’s broader urban agriculture push. They were originally brought to the council along with changes to the city’s chicken and beekeeping laws last month; both ordinances were withdrawn at the time due to what seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of the chickens/bees bill. Although city officials told JCI at the time that the chickens/bees proposal would definitely be reintroduced, that has yet to happen.

City spokesperson Jennifer Morrill says the Adopt-A-Lot changes are one aspect of the city’s “Sustainable Jersey City” initiative, which will also include the creation of a Climate Action Plan, the measurement of the city’s municipal carbon footprint and addressing food insecurity in Jersey City.

“We will be seeking silver level certification from Sustainable Jersey, a certification program for all New Jersey municipalities who wish to become leaders in the path to creating sustainable communities, in an application we will be filing in April,” she says. Under the Sustainable Jersey program, municipalities receive technical support and training and are eligible for grant money once they become certified.
 
“The mayor is committed to enhancing the quality of life for residents by these initiatives,” Morrill says. “We feel that the Adopt-A-Lot program will clean up ugly vacant lots, and also park land that is in need of great improvements, letting residents grow and sell fresh produce.”

Under the law, nonprofits and community groups can lease a vacant lot from the city for $1 per year, provided they do gardening there and abide by the rules of the lease, which include attending an educational workshop, providing some public access and participating in an annual Green Your Block program.

Community activist and former City Council candidate Rolando Lavarro spoke on behalf of the measure in his role as assistant director for Grants and Sponsored Programs at New Jersey City University (NJCU).

“The opportunity for community groups to work with the city and the university, as well as to start community garden projects, can alter the face of the community,” he said, noting that NJCU was in favor of the ordinance, which could be used to clean up “blighted spots” in the city. 

Lavarro also pointed to the educational opportunities at hand, including research on soil testing, a “community’s sense of health-related issues and obesity” and whether “eating habits may change through these community garden initiatives.”
 
Richard Williams of Jersey City Green Team, an organization concerned with sustainable city living, also spoke in support.
 
“I feel strongly that we need more community groups and ways to come together, and gardening seems a wonderful way to do it,” he said.

But as Williams pointed out, the city’s Adopt-A-Lot program should be the starting point for discussions about urban agriculture here, not the end point.

“Not every [empty] lot is owned by the city,” he pointed out. “Some developers [may be] very keen to have people come garden on their lots. We should get the conversation going.”

You can check out the lease language and download an application here.

Photo of the Brunswick Community Garden by Jon Whiten