By Gretchen Webster
WESTPORT — As the growing season draws to a close, gardeners at the community plots adjacent to Long Lots Elementary School often use one word when contemplating the future — “hope” — but in a starkly different context. Some are “hopeful,” others are “hopeless” about the prospects for another growing season.
Members of the Westport Community Gardens know, whatever happens as a new school and athletic field are built on the Hyde Lane property, their gardens will not remain as they now are, at least during the several-year construction period. The site of the two-decade-old gardens is planned as a staging area for construction equipment.
The 8-24 land use report issued by the Planning and Zoning Commission in January for the new Long Lots Elementary School calls for setting aside a piece of the property for the gardens — eventually. But without a final site plan for the new school and field, it remains uncertain where the gardens might be located or whether it would be a suitable spot for gardening.
At a recent private meeting requested by Lou Weinberg, director of the Westport Community Gardens, a few things were accomplished, but there was almost no discussion about a future location for the gardens, according to Weinberg. Paul Lebowitz, the Planning and Zoning Commission chairman, and First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker both attended the meeting. Also present were several members of the gardens’ steering committee, Weinberg said.
What was decided, Weinberg, Lebowitz and Tooker agreed after the meeting, was that:
- The gardeners will be permitted to work in the plots for the rest of this year’s growing season, which ends in November. But they are allowed on the property only before 7:30 a.m. or after 4:15 p.m. on school days because of new security rules that ban outsiders from all town school properties when classes are in session.
- If places can be found to relocate the gardens’ plants and trees, gardeners will be allowed to move them during winter’s dormant period.
“I fully believe that any other town in America would protect, preserve and celebrate a property like this … This place is magic.”
Lou Weinberg, Westport Community Gardens director
According to Lebowitz, there was no mention of a future location for the gardens until, at the very end of the meeting, Tooker spoke to Weinberg about the town-owned Baron’s South property off Compo Road South. A site on the property near the Westport Center for Senior Activities was suggested by officials as a place to relocate the gardens under initial plans for the new Long Lots.
In a comment issued Wednesday, Tooker said, “We discussed many topics, and I took the opportunity to reiterate my willingness to work with the gardeners to move them to Baron’s South.”
Lebowitz said, after the meeting, that as a land-use commissioner he wasn’t sure why he was invited to the meeting since a future location for the gardens was only briefly mentioned, but not discussed. But he believes it is past time for the gardeners to plan their future somewhere else. “It truly is their choice,” he said.
The use of the garden property as a staging area for construction equipment “has been known to the gardeners since the 8-24 report was approved in January,” Lebowitz said. “They’ve known that this is their last growing season.”
Even if a suitable location for gardens is found on the Long Lots property after the new school and field are built, it will be at least two years, and likely three, before the project is finished. So the gardeners will have to start all over anyway, he said. Plus, they will continue to have limited time to garden on class days under the security rules governing access to school properties.
“The clock is ticking. It is absolutely the gardeners’ decision on the future location of the gardens … The gates will go up on the site, and it will become a construction zone. And that’s it. It’s over.”
Paul Lebowitz, Planning and Zoning Commission chairman
“What they do know is that they will have to start from scratch” no matter where the gardens are located in the future, Lebowitz said. And if the gardeners focus on procuring a new location before next spring, they can resume gardening much sooner than if they wait several years for a portion of the Long Lots property that may or may not be suitable.
Weinberg is sad and angry about the plight of the gardens, particularly when the recent meeting with Tooker and Lebowitz did not result in any long-term solution.
“I was not given any guarantees about a future location,” Weinberg said. “The only guarantee I was given is this whole place will be destroyed,” he added on a recent afternoon, sitting on a bench in the garden surrounded by blooming flowers and ripening vegetables.
He hopes at least part of the Long Lots Preserve can remain through construction of the school and afterward. The preserve, a tract of land next to the community gardens, was established to help subdue invasive plants and encourage the growth of native species.
Both the community gardens and preserve have been supported through the years by donations from environmental organizations in and outside of Westport, he said. The gardens also won in the “Sustainability” category of the 2023 “Best Community Garden” competition, sponsored by the American Community Garden Association. But the awards and donated money spent on the gardens seem to make no difference to town officials and others who want to move the gardens, he said.
What hurts the most, Weinberg added, is the way many Westporters treated the gardeners during the sometimes heated debate over plans for the new school and its Hyde Lane campus.
For example, he cited these barbs directed toward the gardeners: “Gardeners value tomatoes more than children.” “The gardeners paid for their national award or they wouldn’t have gotten it.” “The community gardens are an exclusive club.” “The gardeners wield axes and shovels and could be dangerous to Long Lots children.”
“I fully believe that any other town in America would protect, preserve and celebrate a property like this,” Weinberg said, looking at the vibrant plots. “This place is magic.”
“We discussed many topics, and I took the opportunity to reiterate my willingness to work with the gardeners to move them to Baron’s South.”
First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker
Meanwhile, as planning for the new school continues, the gardeners keep working, holding an early fall work session last Sunday to clean up their plots and harvest vegetables and flowers from gardens that will soon be gone — permanently.
Megan Will, a community gardener for three years, said that since the gardeners “haven’t really gotten any official word yet” about the future of the gardens, “I’m hoping … It would be a shame to destroy all this.”
Elisabeth Rose, whose family has lived in Westport for three generations, said the town needs to pay more attention to interests of middle-age and older residents by setting aside a place that isn’t for either athletics or seniors only. There are also residents who don’t have yards, including apartment and condominium dwellers, who can only garden at a community site, she said.
“This town prides itself on being environmentally sound,” Rose added. “Everyone talks about the importance of being green and about sustainability. When I first heard they were going to take this away, I was shocked.”
Daryle Kowalsky, who said his family has donated a lot of equipment to the gardens over the years, was pushing a wheelbarrow alongside Steve Loranger as the men helped with the fall cleanup.
“We fought hard and tried to make the community know this is an important place,” Loranger said.
But no matter what public opinion is about the value of the gardens, their fate now seems certain, Lebowitz said.
“The clock is ticking. It is absolutely the gardeners’ decision on the future location of the gardens,” he said. “The gates will go up on the site, and it will become a construction zone.
And that’s it. It’s over,” Lebowitz added.
Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.
Sadness is the operative word here. I have had a garden plot for the last 12 (ish) years and from the start of this season I’ve been sad that I will not have that plot for at least the next two growing seasons, possibly more. I speak here as a gardener who loves his Plot 146 and the community around that plot. As such, it is my wish that the steering committee, the gardeners and the Town could sit down and discuss a reasonable plan to relocate some or all of the gardens to Baron’s South. Recreating the community in a new location will be difficult. Not trying will ensure its demise.
It is a shame that the future of Long Lots impacts the future of the gardens, but it is understandable that the two priorities impact each other. Let’s take a look at the plans and see how Baron’s South could accommodate the gardens.
If there was only a mechanism in place that would enable a group of concerned citizens, say 20 of them, to petition the town’s legislative and funding body to review the contemplated actions and plans. Wouldn’t that be nice?
It is indeed a sham….I mean shame.
Talk about crocodile tears. You’ve been the First Selectwoman’s water-carrier throughout the process. The time to have addressed this was early and you were very clear that isn’t what you wanted to do.
Now we hear nothing about the Baron’s South plan (it certainly wasn’t in the Town’s budget) but, let’s be honest, it was an insincere offering that didn’t make any sense, given the condition of the land. If it’s such a good site, create a new soccer field there. Because to move the gardens and preserve is to destroy the gardens and preserve.
You’ve done enough damage already, so maybe you should just sit down and shut up? Now is not the time to pretend that you bring any leadership qualities to the table, when you’ve otherwise been docile, encouraging RTM to rubber stamp the administration’s schemes.
That people who showed absolutely no interest in the property adjacent to Long Lots and made none of the effort to create something beautiful on that site are now treating this as some self-entitled land-grab is one of the most disgraceful things that I have observed in thirty years in this Town.
His comment is such a blood boiler !
The levels some elected officials have stooped to during this s.it show has been epic.
It is disgusting to force a community garden full of tax paying residents to the ghetto of barons south ! That poisonous disgusting dumpster filled land, because the town illegally chose to dump there.
Oh now they are wishing they had followed their own rules.. but they did not . So suck it up.
There is an 8-24. ! It keeps the gardens in the vicinity of where it now sits, the last 20 years..
so it MUST go back there . Build 20 new ones, please do.
By all means rehab 1 foot of soil at barons as a bandaid !!! But as a permanent replacement ? Absolutely NOT !
Where in Baron’s South are you thinking the gardens could go, Jeff?
I have not seen the plans and would like to know what the options are, as would a number of gardeners I’ve spoken with.
Hmmm. As it relates to Baron’s South, the only community garden site “option” that has been publicly disclosed is on top of the enormous heap of construction fill which the town, in violation of the approved Senior Center expansion site plan dumped in what was once a tree dotted meadow about five years ago.
After getting caught, the town declared that the pile was merely “temporary” – as that term is defined in our zoning regulations.
To underscore this new position, the First Selectman actually stood in front of the entire RTM and assured it that the dump would be gone in, I think, 90 days.
Around the same time, under public pressure, the town also had the dump tested for contamination. The conclusion: no harm to the public – so long as the public hasn’t any contact with the soil contained therein.
Apparently, the breakdown components of DDT aren’t good for you.
At this point, the dump is most probably a zoning violation as the Senior Center has its CO. I say most probably because my inquiry with our Planning and Zoning department head about
this very question remains unanswered despite two followup attempts.
Whatever the case may be, I highly doubt the town is going to do the right thing and restore that meadow – unless, of course, the RTM steps in.
I wonder why the Town of Westport hasn’t filed for a CT Brownfields Grant to remove the toxic landfill from Baron’s South.
Certainly town officials are aware of the problem and the opportunity. Last winter the First Selectwoman okayed three applications for $4,000,000 apiece through the Southwest Regional Planning Association for properties under development by The Hamlet. (None of the applications was successful.)
It seems Mr. Wieser’s proposal is at least as important as the application for a private commercial development.
Morley, he doesn’t care. He knows it’s all poison. As I stated in my comment, great, town wants to spend our money on amending 12 inches deep soil at barons south to provide an interim space for the gardeners, that’s the least they can do , BUT ! It’s not a replacement. It IS an extra second garden. Jeff of course is singing tookers tune and sees it as a replacement !
For what reason ! We need more community gardens. We want both !
Jeffrey doesn’t even know what “shall” means. Do you really think he has the slightest clue where the Gardens would go? What an utter disaster of a RTM moderator.
It’s pretty obvious what must happen here.
The gardens must eventually, post long lots construction be re built( at the towns expense) according to the 8-24 to exist at that property.
I think creating a second garden to accommodate the existing gardeners with plots is not a bad plan, and is in fact the very least the town should do during this 3 year interim period, but with the explicit understanding that the gardens, now at the property adjacent to the school be recreated at the end of construction. This MUST happen. It cannot be a trade ! There will then be 2 gardens in our town which will be an absolute blessing. I have no doubt we will still see a waitlist for both.
There was always a wait list for a plot anyway so creating a second garden is a great idea.
So to be very clear, the creation of a second community garden. Not a replacement for the community garden.
As for barons south, according to an excellent and very thorough and transparent presentation given by John Suggs, about a year ago, it is clear that the soil there has been poisoned by the illegal dumping done by the town of hazardous materials and, consequently it is unthinkable to grow food for consumption on that poisoned soil. Plants have deep roots, those roots must never reach contaminated soil.
The remediation would cost an absolute fortune at Barons South.
The town would need to pay at enormous expense to dig out approx 12 inches of soil and replace it with new soil.
This smells to me like there’s still a body of people trying to bully the gardeners into a permanent move so they can “get their way” on that enormous field they want, and do not need ! That same field we are all going to have to pay for.
The maintaining of the gardens post construction, somewhere close to its current site is part of the 8-24.
Nowhere does that 8-24 mention the gardens moving to an alternative site permanently.
As such the only feasible option here is to either wait it out the 3 years or for the town to find a suitable second site for a SECOND community garden.
The destruction of this beloved garden will forever be the legacy of the 2023/24
town administration,
RTM,
BOE,
BOF,
PZC,
WPD
and all those gleeful residents who prefer turf fields over the last vestiges of Mother Nature.
To all, your legacy is no badge of honor. It is a disgraceful chapter in our history. May your children have the insight and courage you lack to clean up after you.