North End volunteers decry loss of hard-won community garden for housing

Go to Sunset Cultural Garden in Hamilton's North End during warmer months, and the odds are pretty good you'll find a volunteer there.

It's a kick in the ass.- Dave Stephens

Residents planted and maintain some 2,000 native plants there. They turn the sod and pluck the weeds. They even helped lay 12 stones bearing a dozen languages, each with poems about sunsets.

In the next year or two, all this will likely be gone. Pending city council approval next week, the city will declare the spot at Strachan and Bay streets surplus. Then it'll find a developer to build residential units there.

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The issue pits the community-building efforts thegarden represents against the city's growing need for affordable housing.

The volunteers can transplant the garden across the street. But they'll probably have to start all over again, said Candy Venning, a volunteer who also owns Venni Gardens.

"This is the culmination of my professional and personal life rolled into one," said Venning after a planning meeting Tuesday. "I am very attached to it."

Sometimes people sit and have their lunch from Hutch's across the road.- Sandra Hudson

Dave Stephens, a North End Neighbours board member, is more blunt.

"It's a kick in the ass."

The city needs the land at 38 Strachan St. W. and 344 Bay St. N., said Jason Farr, Ward 2 councillor. It needs a place to temporarily house residents of Jamesville and 500 MacNab. CityHousing Hamilton (CHH) plans to rebuild and renovate at those twosocial housing properties, and residents need somewhere to stay.

The winning developer could build units to house displaced residents, Farr said. When that's done, it canbecome fair market housing. The city can use leftover proceedsto fixNorth End roads and sidewalks.

Besides, the North End will have plenty of green space, Farr said. The garden will move across the street, and a new plan for the west harbour includes several hectares of new parkland. The land is also near one of Hamilton's largest swaths of green space Bayfront Park.

It doesn't always work to plan around community gardens anyway, he said. Volunteers lose interest and gardens go to seed.

Venning's group is in no danger of that. About 50 volunteers work on the garden, which started in 2014, she said. She and her husband often stop to pick up garbage and pull weeds.

The garden group raised $22,000 to make it happen. In fact, $10,000 came from Farr.

In 2014, Farrheld a participatory budgeting exercise. Citizens voted to spend $10,000ona Chinese garden. The Chinese garden organizers joined forces with Sunset CulturalGarden.

Now the garden has two large planters and eight benches. It's a spot on a local garden tour.

"People take photographs of it," said volunteer Sandra Hudson. "Sometimes people sit and have their lunch from Hutch's across the road."

The biggest issue, they say, is that they weren't consulted. Damin Starr, who donated$2,000, worries it will discourage future volunteers.

"The disappointment lies in the idea that those who have engaged are no longer affirmed by that process."

Farr said there were years of public meetings about the Setting Sail secondary plan, which permits low density residential there. He also held public meetings five years ago about this property, he said.

Chad Collins, Ward 5 councillor and CHH president, said the land used to have houses on it. After that, it was dormant. "We've cut the grass a million times."

"It's important tothe residents that we represent who live in Jamesville to try to find the best suitable option."

Council votes on March 29.