Eliot Spitzer
Attorney General of New York State

Environmental Protection Bureau
September 2002

Listing of Gardens by Neighborhood

The specific terms of the agreement are as follows:

• 193 community gardens under the jurisdiction of the Parks Department (86 gardens), Department of Education, formerly known as the Board of Education (100 gardens), or non-developing City agencies (7 gardens) will continue as community gardens in the City’s Green Thumb program.
  
  
• 198 community gardens under the jurisdiction of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) will be offered for transfer to either the Parks Department or a nonprofit land trust organization (at nominal cost) for permanent preservation.
  
  
• 114 community gardens will remain under HPD jurisdiction and are subject to possible future sale or development by the City. However, these gardens can only be developed after a new "garden review process" that requires the City to offer alternative properties (if available) to the affected gardeners, and to provide information about the garden to the gardeners and elected officials before land use decisions are made. (The garden review process is discussed in more detail below.)
  
  
• 38 community gardens on lots slated for development with projects that have already completed (or nearly completed) the City’s land use review process (ULURP) can be sold or developed by the City without further garden review. Of these 38 gardens, 22 are either currently inactive, will be fully or partially preserved as part of the development, or will be relocated to a new site. The development projects will result in the construction of more than 2,000 units of housing.

• The Temporary Restraining Order that has, since February 2002, prevented the City of New York from selling community gardens is lifted.

• The agreement can be enforced by either the Attorney General or the gardeners.

The Garden Review Process will require the developing agency to notify the gardeners when it proposes the development or sale of a garden lot and to provide a list of alternate City-owned properties to which the gardeners can relocate if they so choose.

The developing agency must also submit a "Garden Review Statement" with any application or request for disposition of a garden lot that includes:

1. a description of the proposed project;
   
   
2. a description of the site and the existing GreenThumb garden located on such City-owned land;
   
   
3. the list of alternate garden sites, if any
   
   
4. a statement of whether the gardeners have accepted any alternate garden sites from the list;
   
   
5. the address (including block and lot) of each affected garden lot;
   
   
6. the date that the garden lot was first leased or licensed by the GreenThumb Program;
   
   
7. the name, address, and telephone number of the Gardener of Record;
   
   
8. a copy of the most recent GreenThumb registration form prepared and submitted to the GreenThumb Program by the Gardener of Record;
   
   
9. copies of at least two photographs of the existing garden; and
   
   
10. the two most recent GreenThumb site visit forms as prepared by a member of the GreenThumb Program staff.
    

Listing of Gardens by Neighborhood