A piece of private land in the ECAC where a large community garden might be a possibility is the 3.45-acre property at 2210 Millbank Street, owned by
Bhola and Radha Gupta. There is a ramshackle house on this lot that was badly
damaged by the tornado; I'm guessing it will be torn down. Prior to the storm, I had a conversation with
Mr. Gupta about renting the property for a nonprofit garden education
project a friend and I were hoping to start, and Mr. Gupta was enthusiastic.
However, my friend and I ran into difficulties getting necessarily permissions from
the city, which scuttled our effort. A community garden where the
produce wasn't being sold would not face the same problems we did, however. (Under Raleigh's current rules, you're allowed to garden in a residential zone, but you're not allowed to sell the produce you grow.)
Another thing that makes this property attractive for gardening is the
fact that it has its own working well, though I would note that the well
house was damaged in the storm. It is also a wide open piece of land with great sun exposure. But it does drain to a stream, so using organic methods would be essential.
It will be interesting to see what happens with this property now. There had been a proposal a few years back to have Habitat build some 27 townhouses there, but that deal fell through after the city raised objections to such intense development there. There were also issues relating to the tree ordinance.
Here's a link to the property tax information for the parcel:
http://services.wakegov.com/realestate/Account.asp?id=0033487&stype=addr&stnum=&stname=millbank&locidList=&spg=2
-- Sue Sturgis