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The Macon-Bibb Land Bank Authority now has a “redemption right” to reclaim property if the new owner does not agree with their plans
MACON, Georgia – Editor’s Note: The video in this story was from the groundbreaking ceremony in 2017.
Philip Tutt looked forward to bringing his Southside neighborhood back to life.
The 83-year-old has been campaigning for years to have dilapidated houses and eyesores removed in and around Bowden Street where he lives.
In 2017, the promise of Georgia’s first agriculture, conceived as an emerging community around a collaborative garden, gave him hope. Now, after a $ 500,000 grant to create a desert oasis with fresh food, there are only a dozen raised beds, some community portraits, and shattered dreams left on two lots.
“I had a lot of collards there and one night someone came by, cut them all and took them with him,” says Tutt, who now looks after the community garden by himself.
The failure rate for community gardens has prompted the Macon-Bibb County Land Bank Authority to update their guidelines.
“Community gardens across the country last less than two and a half years,” said Everett Verner, executive director of the local land bank.
Authority member Sundra Woodford, who has done extensive work in the Lynmore Estates neighborhood, recognizes the challenges.
“Community gardens don’t work these days just so you know,” she recently told the board. “These community gardens, although they have honorable intentions at the front end … many of them are in disrepair.”
Gateway Heights Agrihood dies on the vine
Verner was enthusiastic about community organizer Danny Glover’s idea of building the Gateway Heights Agrihood in his grandmother’s neighborhood between Knott Street and Grants Chappell Alley.
When Glover applied for half a million dollars to ArtPlace America, he asked Frank Austin to become his fiscal representative. Glover needed a 501 (c) (3), and Austin not only had one, but was commended for building the Village Green Community Garden in 2014.
On that project, it later emerged that Austin was gardening on land he didn’t own and was told to stop, Verner said.
Verner and other community leaders welcomed Glover’s plan to revitalize the declining neighborhood, offer healthy food and a sense of community. The land bank agreed to help Austin purchase land in Southside.
Plans were to plant the community garden on a quarter acre on Bowden Street, create a larger farm nearly five acres in total, and renovate vacant homes.
The aim was to convert eight parcels into a “multi-story, multi-use structure that will house a fitness center, communal kitchen / pantry, healthy lifestyle restaurant using garden produce, at least 20 affordable apartments and more”. Retail space … ”, that’s the plan.
Glover imagined the “MAC Village”, which stands for Music Arts and Culture Village. Pictures and inspirational words were painted on several of the empty houses, even though they did not belong to the center.
As part of an agreement with the Frank Austin Center for Community Development, the land bank contacted the landowners to sell the land needed for the project. Ultimately, only two were able to be acquired, and it took the agency much longer than the 30 days stipulated in the contract to collect their $ 1,000 service fee for the acquisitions. After that, the land bank separated from the Austin Center.
Months after securing the scholarship, Glover worked on the gubernatorial campaigns of Stacey Abrams in Georgia and Karl Dean in Tennessee. In early 2019, he left Macon to work on a mayoral campaign in Denver, Colorado. He says Austin “hosted” him in March 2018.
“He completely cut off communications, stopped paying bills, and didn’t answer the phone,” Glover told the Center for Collaborative Journalism last year. “He cursed my dream.”
But Austin accused Glover of abandoning the project. The CCJ caught up with Austin in May 2020 when crews cleared land on the site just days before submitting the final report to ArtPlace America.
“Danny and I haven’t spoken in over a year,” Austin said in 2020. “That’s Danny’s vision. This is Danny’s project. From now on we have no plans to move forward. ”
Austin then hired Michael Riley as the centre’s executive director to complete Phase 1 of the project, which included the acquisition and clearing of more land and the establishment of the garden.
The preliminary budget was $ 10,000 for water and electricity, but no irrigation system was installed.
Tutt, who grew up on a farm, pulls a 60-meter-long hose from his property to keep the few remaining bundles of kale growing. He also holds the grass around the planters at 681 Bowden Street and maintains his own spacious back yard garden.
The second plot of land acquired by the center with an adjacent plot of land was cleared in spring 2020, but has now grown over again.
“You need a bush pig back there,” Tutt said. “It just keeps growing.”
Half a million “nothing bought”
ArtPlace America in Brooklyn, NY has spent the past 10 years promoting creative placemaking that positions art and culture at the core of communities. The $ 150 million foundation, federal agency, and financial institution collaboration closed late last year and it’s not clear if commitments for the $ 500,000 grant have been met.
The MoU with ArtPlace America lists Austin as the Executive Director of the Austin Smith Center for Development, but the Georgia Secretary of State’s website reveals that the company’s name was changed to Frank Austin Center for Community Development in 2015, and Austin Center for Community Development it is unclear why the old organization name is used in other documents.
The Secretary of State disbanded the Austin Center in September, according to its website.
In June, Center Director Riley filed a report with the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.
The report, filed on behalf of the Austin Smith Center for Development, said that Glover “was paid $ 65,220 to perform such jobs as community clean-up, clearing land, and preparing land for construction. Michael (Riley) stated that none of the work was done. ”
The alleged theft by filing a complaint was answered about two months later with another report from Glover accusing Austin of using $ 385,000 of the grant “for his personal gain.”
Both are active investigations, according to the sheriff’s office.
Verner and other community leaders who were once close to the project say the lack of follow-through tarnishes Macon’s reputation as a grantor.
“Taking half a million and ending up with 12 planters is tough and the money has gone somewhere,” Verner said this week. “Frank got half a million dollars and didn’t buy anything with the money.”
A quarter of the $ 500,000 was budgeted for salaries and a little more for land purchase and building.
Take back the land
The land bank is a conduit for the county to take tax evaders and abandoned real estate, put them back on the tax lists, and occupy them. When new owners fail to restore and maintain property, the rot is perpetuated.
Woodford said it was a problem, especially in neighborhoods prone to decay.
“Then nothing happens and the property remains or returns to that depraved state,” said Woodford. “And then there are community residents who look at us and say, ‘Well, the Landbank sold it to you, and now what?'”
The agency now has a “return policy” which gives new owners a timeframe to meet their obligations, or the property bank can reclaim the property. This also applies to apartments, not just gardens and vacant lots.
Rickelle Felton of McDonough came to the Landbank a few months ago with plans for a community garden on Hall Street, Fort Hill. She founded a Facebook group and wanted to pay tribute to her family by building the Leona H. Tripp Community Garden with the “common goal of becoming one with the earth and at the same time creating a farm-to-table experience for the entire community” .
The members of the agency wanted more security measures.
“Community gardening is a bad situation and people are losing interest in it,” Authority member Bruce Gerwig said at the meeting.
“If this property is completely neglected, there is still code enforcement,” replied Authority Member Tom Ellington. “I think we’ve all seen things Bruce is talking about, where we’ve seen community gardens that have been there for a while and then been neglected.”
Felton paused when she realized she might lose the lot if she didn’t maintain the garden two or three years later.
“I understand your concern, but if I say I’ll do something, I’ll do it,” Felton told them. “Nobody sitting in front of you can guarantee anything in three years. … If I spend money on something, I should own it. ”
She turned down the terms of a three-year right of withdrawal, left the deal, and later criticized Gerwig and Woodford on social media.
The agency’s chairwoman, Sylvia McGee, thought Felton was “a little unfair” as a test case, but understood the passionate positions of her colleagues.
“Something just happened and we’re doing our best to make sure that property we’re deducting taxes is fair and people are doing what they’re supposed to,” said McGee.
In future, the authority will set different conditions for the right of withdrawal depending on the project.
In the case of Felton, it was based on statistics Verner published on the failure rate of gardens over a period of three years.
“At three years old I’m satisfied,” said Gerwig. “It’s just not comfortable just checking the box and making sure seeds are planted.”
Looking back on the agrihood situation, Verner believes that this could have been successful.
The offer and design work was impressive.
“It’s a good plan, but it’s a multi-million dollar plan and they got $ 500,000,” he said. “What happened here? I don’t know. People should get paid doing the job, but they didn’t do the job.”
Liz Fabian, Senior Fellow for Civic Journalism, covers government agencies in Macon-Bibb County and can be reached at fabian_lj@mercer.edu or 478-301-2976.
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