The plot of land at 555 S. 400 East has served as a community garden since the early 1980s. It was a grass-roots effort at first - a few neighbors getting together to set some plants, lean on their shovels, talk about the things that neighbors talk about. Years passed, arbors were added, fruit trees blossomed, a red-raspberry patch matured on the quarter-acre lot loaned by a benevolent landowner.
In 1994, the Wasatch Community Gardens got involved, providing insurance, doling out plots, conducting gardening programs. Each year 25 urban families grow wholesome, organic vegetables for their tables, and keep in touch with their neighbors and their agrarian roots.
It's green space, open space, the kind of place that urban planners dream about and politicians preach about. But unless Wasatch Community Gardens can raise $250,000 by March, this year's harvest will be the last.
The landowner decided to sell last year, and the property was purchased by the Community Development Corporation of Utah, a nonprofit organization that does the city a world of good by building housing for low- and moderate-income families. Fortunately, the CDC was able to find another place to build, and offered to sell the land at cost to the non-profit community garden group.
Fundraising efforts are under way, and Wasatch Community Gardens has applied for a much-needed grant from the city's Open Space Advisory Board, administrators of a $5 million open-space bond approved by city voters for precisely this purpose in 2003.
But, unfortunately, the bylaws governing the bond issue prohibit the city from paying more than fair market value for land, and an appraisal performed on the plot last year came in under the asking price. We hope that a new appraisal being conducted by the city will determine that the asking price for the parcel is now fair, and the City Council will smile upon the proposal.
If not, then Wasatch Community Gardens will need to seek other grants or tap private benefactors. And should the group fail, another patch of open space, and another community gathering place, will be lost.
