Many of Philadelphia’s community gardens are at risk of development because they’re not owned by the people who tend the land. A city plan in 2023 found that one in three active gardens and farms are located in areas with the “highest intensity of new construction” — including the area of West Philly where the Summer Winter Community Garden is located.
The West Philadelphia garden is a space where students work alongside elders — some of whom helped found the garden in the 1970s, Charnov said. The garden also donates food through the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s City Harvest Program to a community organization in Mantua, and the gates are open whenever a gardener is working inside, he said.
“It’s essentially a public resource to Philadelphians,” Charnov said.
For nearly two decades, Neighborhood Gardens Trust has leased the land from the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, Greenberg said. But while the land was owned by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, Charnov worried it could be sold to a developer.
“If it’s owned by the Redevelopment Authority, there’s nothing that says that tomorrow the Redevelopment Authority can’t just transfer that land to anybody under the sun,” he said. “It’s kind of an uncertain state.”