After six years of being a neighborhood amenity, agricultural classroom for city kids and valued member of the Old Fourth Ward Business Association, the Truly Living Well garden is being exposed for what it really was all along — a placeholder. According to the O4WBA, the urban garden's valuable acreage between downtown and Boulevard is definitely destined for redevelopment, and changes elsewhere in the neighborhood mean that Truly Living Well can't afford to stay in the area.
On its Facebook page, the O4WBA recently informed followers of the garden's imminent closure and shed more light on the reasons behind the changes. The Hilliard Street parcel that's hosted the garden's vegetable beds and outdoor classrooms is owned by Wheat Street Baptist Church, which had a development project lined up for the land circa 2007 — until the market collapsed and the plans were shelved. The market has obviously rebounded, and the church is moving forward with their plans.
Exactly what those plans entail isn't yet clear.
Truly Living Well, as business association leaders explained, "was brought in as a temporary use for the vacant land, to keep it in active use for the benefit of the community and to discourage squatters, illegal dumping, etc.," the post reads. Truly Living Well "is relocating, per the agreement they entered into when as they agreed to create the garden. The unfortunate part is that TLW wasn't able to find other vacant land nearby, but land is now so valuable in the O4W (finally) that a low-intensity use such as an urban garden is no longer viable."
The one positive is that the garden will remain involved with the Boulevard Food Co-Op, whose mission is to "make healthy food, urban agriculture and nutrition education accessible to reduce hunger and improve health in the O4W." According to the O4WBA, garden leaders will soon need help with their move from Hilliard Street and fundraising activities; they advise anyone interested in helping to keep an eye on the garden's Facebook page.
· Old Fourth Ward Business Association [FB]
· Blooming Land Values are Tough on ATL's Urban Farmers [Curbed]