Land use controversies in Santa Fe are usually about
bricks-and-mortar projects – apartments, Wal-Marts, having a Chipotle
restaurant in the Railyard instead of vacant space, buildings that
aren’t flat-roofed or tan, or a big assisted living facility.
But now we’ve moved into new territory – 3½ acres of fertile
land, with rows of organic sunflowers, greens and other vegetables, and
a little stand to sell produce from along an open-space walking/biking
path.
Poki Piottin’s beautiful urban farm that he says makes no more
than $10,000 a year hasn’t fared any better at City Hall than building
plans of profiteering land developers.
Piottin, who has been cultivating his Gaia Gardens with
partner Dominique Pozo for five years on old farmland along the Arroyo
Chamiso in midtown Santa Fe, is calling it quits.
Gaia Gardens just
can’t get it right with the city code enforcers.
Among the things that, at least for now, City Hall can’t
abide is his little produce stand that is best reached on foot and or by
bicycle.
As Piottin points out, some homes around town have weekly yard
sales and get away with retailing in residential neighborhoods, while
he can’t operate his three-mornings-a-week stand selling freshly picked
produce.
His farm is located in an area that, at least in its parts
backing up to the big arroyo and the city trail, retains more than a bit
of its old rural character. Piottin also has been called on the carpet
for having too many school kids visit to learn how food is grown.
Digging down into the technical murk, Piottin’s problems
seem in part related to the fact that he rents instead of owns the
garden site, with one city official suggesting Piottin may have been
eligible for some kind of “homeowner permit” for his activities.
And the garden is facing an uncertain future from the
property’s owner having a foreclosure action filed against him, yet
apparently showing no interest in selling the land to Gaia Gardens and
an associated nonprofit.
The City Council has been trying to encourage just what
Piottin has been doing and it appears that some kind of pro-urban
farming measure has been in the works for more than a year – but now
it’s too late for Gaia Gardens.
Piottin says he doesn’t blame the Land Use staffers who’ve
cited him, since they have to enforce the codes as written.
He says
he’ll be giving away the produce that he and his partner raise through
the rest of the 2015 growing season.
City higher-ups have stepped into other situations, like
finding street parking for a small business. It just seems crazy that
the combined forces of the city bureaucracy and elected officials who
talk the talk about sustainability and buying local couldn’t find a way
to make Gaia Gardens a welcome part of Santa Fe.
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