Tampa Heights Community Garden Wins OK from City

Tampa Heights’ dream of a  moved a giant step closer to fruition on Thursday when the Tampa City Council approved it as part of an agreement with the Tampa Heights Junior Civic Association.

A grand-opening celebration is being planned July 23.

“It’s great to see it getting to this point,” said Jim Hartnett, vice president of the community’s “senior” civic association.  “We can get ready for fall planting.”

Tampa Garden Club member Kitty Wallace, who has been working on the project for more than a year, attended the council meeting and was jubilant afterward.

“We’re excited. We’re celebrating,” she said, adding the agreement won’t be official until the second reading is approved July 14. But since there was no opposition or concern expressed today, she’s confident it will sail through.

The  groups are collaborating with to create the garden on 16,800 square feet of land at 605 E. Frances Ave.  The property is being leased from the city. Community organizers envision it as a place where neighbors and generations can come together to work, socialize and grow organic vegetables. It’s part of a broader effort to revitalize and rebuild the sense of community in Tampa’s first suburb.

“Part of the reason why this garden took so long is all the paperwork,” Hartnett said. A community garden was mentioned in the Neighborhood Plan approved by residents on a Citizens Advisory Committee in 2002; a concerted effort to establish the garden has been under way for about a year.

The plots – 4-by-8-foot raised beds for individuals, 16-by-20-foot communal garden beds, and an area for Metropolitan Ministries’ clients to grow food for the homeless shelter – have been laid out on paper, Hartnett said.

“Nothing has physically gone in there yet. We’ve been waiting on this agreement,” he said.

Residents can rent plots for $35 a year. Plans also include a pergola in a shady area of the mostly sunny site along Interstate 275; a butterfly garden; benches; a tool shed, and a wheelchair-accessible path. There will also be raised beds – table style – for intergenerational gardening, so older folks don’t have to stoop.

Wallace says garden club members will help teach people who aren’t familiar with gardening, and serve as mentors.

In May, garden organizers cleared another big hurdle when the city modified the permitting process for community gardens. That cut the $2,000-plus fee to about $200.

The property is near the , a former church being leased from the city and currently undergoing renovations by volunteers. Young people in the junior civic association plan to claim part of the garden, where they’ll grow produce to sell for fundraising.

“It’s really going to be a great community asset there,” Hartnett said. “There’s going to be great synergy.”