Community gardens and urban farms could be valuable tools to help improve Buffalo's distressed

neighborhoods, speakers from several local groups told Common Council members this afternoon.

Advocates are prodding the city to take early but key steps aimed at making it easier for

people to create community gardens and pursue urban agriculture. The measures would include

setting up a "diggable database" to help aspiring gardeners and farmers pinpoint land that has

been cleared for planting.

Other steps would involve creating a model lease based on agreements used in other cities

that address a variety of unique issues. Supporters also want assurances that neighborhood

gardens and urban farms are taken into account as long-delayed efforts move forward to

overhaul Buffalo's antiquated zoning codes.

Among the speakers at a City Hall hearing today was Mark Stevens, whose family made

headlines last year in a struggle to create an urban farm on Wilson Street, not far from the

Broadway Market.

The farm is continuing to expand, Stevens reported today. He's convinced that urban

agriculture and neighborhood gardens are assets that can help revive "dying communities."

"Hopefully, the vision for the City of Buffalo becomes pro-community gardens, and it also

sees how urban farming fits into that at just a little bigger level," said Stevens.

Listen to Stevens talk about efforts to promote urban agriculture:

A task force has been working for 20 months on a multipronged strategy for promoting

gardens and urban farms. Many groups are involved, including Grassroots Gardens, a nonprofit

organization that oversees about 70 community gardens.

Group president Kirk Laubenstein is a legislative staffer to Niagara Council Member David

A. Rivera, who sponsored a resolution that was recently approved by lawmakers. The bill

endorses efforts that would promote ornamental gardens, vegetable gardens and farms.

Council Majority Leader Richard A. Fontana agreed that gardens can make a positive

difference in neighborhoods. But he warned that when they're neglected or abandoned, they can

be ugly messes. Fontana dubbed them "gardens gone bad."

"I like them a lot, but they have to be done right," said Fontana.

Advocates concurred that oversight is an important element as efforts are stepped up to

promote more gardens throughout the city.