Boston PFC Unanimously Approves Two Roxbury Community Garden Land Transfers

BOSTON -- May 19, 2022, Boston Public Facilities Commission transfers four Roxbury parcels to garden nonprofits for $200 each. The commission voted unanimously at its May 19 meeting to approve two separate land transactions, both presented by Shani Fletcher, assistant director at the Mayor's Office of Housing. The first granted United Neighbors of Lower Roxbury Incorporated a tentative developer designation and intent to sell for unnumbered parcels on Melnea Cass Boulevard and Windsor Street, land the group has gardened for several decades, with plans to add accessible raised beds, fruit trees, an irrigation system, and a community plaza. The second authorized final conveyance of 21 and 23 Winthrop Street to the Trustees of Reservations, who have held a tentative designation since July 2021 and secured a $50,000 Grassroots program award to build out a 6,000-square-foot site featuring garden plots, a rain garden, native plantings, and a fence section commemorating the history of the Black Panthers on the site. Fletcher noted the transfers would relieve the city of roughly $800 in annual maintenance costs and return land held in city inventory for up to 23 years to productive community use.