Brown administration says no to locally grown vegetables, grassroots development on a string of vacant, city-owned properties on the East Side.

Drive down Fillmore Street between Sycamore and Broadway and you’ll see boarded-up buildings, dilapidated homes, and ubiquitous empty lots. By anyone’s estimation, it’s a rough neighborhood. But walk into 812 Fillmore, and you’ll find dozens of shoes neatly paired in the entranceway, and a warm, welcoming living room filled with children doing their homework, cooking and playing. This is the home of Mark and Janice Stevens, a couple who moved from a farm in Wyoming County to the East Side of Buffalo last year.

It’s not common around here to hear of a family moving from the country into the city; for decades our population has flowed in the other direction. But the Stevenses are trying to make their new home a little bit more like their old one. Last year, they put in a bid to the city to purchase nearly two acres of adjoining lots on Wilson Street, which runs parallel to Fillmore, behind their home. They wanted to develop the land into an urban farm where they would grow fresh fruits and vegetables for their family and surrounding community. Their bid was denied. They were told by the City of Buffalo’s Department of Real Estate that Habitat for Humanity had plans to develop homes on the land.

It was then that David Franczyk—president of the Common Council, Fillmore councilmember, and resident of the same neighborhood—took up the Stevens’ cause. “That’s all fine and well, but a plan should not be a straightjacket,” Franczyk says of Habitat’s intentions to build there. “There are 14,000 lots in the city with another 10,000 houses coming down. We’re not going to build on all of them.”

Franczyk set up a meeting between Stevens and John Hannon, director of the Department of Real Estate, and got Hannon to reconsider the bid. Last month, Franczyk drafted a resolution urging the Common Council to support the sale of these lots, which was passed. But progress has once again stalled because the Council can only go so far. Approval must come from elsewhere in City Hall. “That neighborhood except for the Broadway Market, just has corner stores where you can’t get fresh food,” Franczyk says. “Let’s work with them and try to help them do it. Don’t look at the hole in the donut.”

Brian Reilly, commissioner for the Department of Economic Development, Permit and Inspection Services, says Buffalo must stick to its 2004 comprehensive development plan and must be consistent. Also, he says, the words “agriculture” and “farming” don’t exist in the city’s existing zoning code, written in the 1950s. (Mayor Byron Brown charged lawmakers with updating the city’s zoning code this year. Reilly says it hasn’t been discussed whether code could be created to encompass urban farming.)

Reilly says his first responsibility is to the billions of dollars that have been poured into Buffalo’s infrastructure over the decades. “We must reuse urban land to its highest and best use potential to get the best return on the infrastructure investments that the public sector has made over the years,” he says.

Ron Talboys, president and founder of Buffalo Habitat for Humanity, said the Wilson Street lots were in their sights to be developed in the long term, but he would be willing to cede the land so that the Stevens family could develop it. The first time he heard about the Stevens’ bid was this week and he was never consulted on the city’s interpretation of Habitat’s plans for that block. He has spoken to both Stevens and Franczyk this week and has expressed his willingness to come to the table. “We would be glad to sit down with the city to compromise,” Talboys says.

Even if Habitat is willing to release their claims on the land, Reilly says that doesn’t necessarily mean the Stevens family will be approved to buy it. The city works with other developers on land development projects, such as the Matt Urban Community Development Organization (whose Crescent Village project on nearby Sweet Street is currently on hold, thanks to the credit crunch) and NRP Group of Cleveland (which is currently working with Belmont Shelter on a plan to scatter 60 rent-to-own, suburban-style new-builds in the East Side’s Cold Springs neighborhood).

“We still have to ask ourself, ‘What’s the best use for 27 lots?’” Reilly says. “Yet again, we find ourselves having an unclear process. We want to be clear. We want certainty and predictability.”

Even just 20 years ago, the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood had full blocks of houses. Now, the neighborhood looks like jagged teeth, with one house for every three or four empty lots. The block of Wilson Street that the Stevens’ want to develop has three houses still standing on it, one which is boarded up. The two acres of land is currently encumbered with plastic bags, empty beer bottles, and deflated basketballs. Across from the lots are the backs of the houses and unsightly garages from the homes on Fillmore, including the Stevens’ barn-like garage, which already has a hay loft in it. “Farming is my dream,” Janice says.

The Stevens family has a vision to truck in dirt and compost, make raised plant beds and grow fresh produce, but they’re not quick to spin elaborate, long-term plans for the land. They’re keeping their plans simple for now. There are already two successful urban farms on the West Side of Buffalo that have knit their respective communities together. “There’s a better voice on the West Side,” Stevens says. “We feel a little lonely over here.”

Stevens says he doesn’t necessarily consider himself an activist. He’s a gentle man with a quiet determination who is willing to ride this as far as he can. Both he and his wife were raised with the philosophy that you can learn to do anything by reading books, doing research and giving it a try. “We’re Christians,” he says. “It’s part of our faith that if you get to know people and show them love, then grassroots change can come from there…I believe activism is by your own feet, not going and demonstrating. I’m just the type that walks out and gets things done.”

Since they moved in, they have been gardening in the lot next door, owned by their next-door neighbor Bob Sienkewicz, a former employee of Franczyk’s who also has a background working in demolition and housing development. He says the Stevens family is “probably the best neighbors you could ever possibly want.” He points out that Wilson is essentially an alley street and isn’t the most desirable place to build a house anyway. The produce the Stevens family has shared with him from the small plot is “absolutely phenomenal” and “as wholesome as you’re going to get.”

The Stevens’ rejection comes on the heels of Monique Watts, co-founder of Urban Roots Community Garden Center, being forced to get rid of the five chickens she kept in her Rhode Island Street backyard. Due to a 2004 amendment to the city code, precipitated by an increase in cockfighting, fowl are not allowed in the city. But Watts wanted her hens for good reasons: In addition to the fresh eggs, Watts’ chicken ate pesky insects, and the fertilizer tey produced was great for her gardens. In the past two weeks, Watts and her husband, Blair Woods, have met with lawmakers and have convinced the Common Council to reconsider the law.

Watts says she supports the Stevens’ fight to obtain the lots for farming. She sees similarities between their struggle and hers, in that “the city’s up against things that they haven’t dealt with in the past. If we can continue to educate our City Hall people, then a process can be put into place,” she says. “There is no process to deal with all these vacant homes and lots. It comes down to the fact that things are changing and City Hall needs to keep up.”

In the past week, the Stevens family has received an outpouring of support from strangers, even an attorney who offered to help them if things came to a head. Another supporter of the Stevens’ proposed farm is Rod McCallum, owner of Queen City Farm. When he bought his East Utica home two years ago, McCallum had a vision similar to that of Mark and Janice Stevens. He moved his family in last year and bought some privately owned lots that he plans on planting this season. But there are three acres of city-owned land on his block that he has his eyes on, too. McCallum is hoping that other city initiatives, such as Groundwork Buffalo and the Common Council Community Garden Task Force, will bear some fruit. “For the community development community, the idea of urban farming makes them swoon, but City Hall needs to catch up,” McCallum says.

Other cities like Milwaukee and New York City already have urban farms in place. Detroit is trying to jump on the bandwagon too. An April 2 article in the Detroit Free Press reveals businessman John Hantz’s plans to take hundreds of vacant lots and develop them into a large commercial farm. Detroit already has hundreds of community gardens, but this would be its first large-scale farm.

Sienkewicz sees the opportunity to develop urban farming in Buffalo as the chance to create something special. “You start bringing creative and innovative ideas to a city like ours and that’s what will attract people to the city. It helps develop a place,” he says. “Sometimes City Hall doesn’t think as much in a creative manner that they could.”

Reilly says that even if the Stevens family gets another “no” from the city, they shouldn’t scratch the idea completely. He suggests a garden project near the Central Terminal, working in conjunction with the Broadway Market. “We’re always committed to working with people about new and interesting land uses,” he says. “You went through the normal channels, we screened this, the answer is no, now let’s compromise.”

The Stevens family isn’t giving up the fight yet with so many people on their side. In the meantime, they’ll continue to shop for their produce at the Lexington Co-op and Wegman’s, but they’ll keep hoping for the day when their family can go behind their house and harvest it themselves. “As long as there’s a next step,” Stevens says, “I’ll take it.”