Why this matters:
Located in one of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods, New Roots Community Farm is a key cultural asset that has served as a sanctuary for refugees, many of whom have been able to find grounding there after surviving life-altering violent conflict.
For months, a bitter land dispute over a community garden in City Heights has pitted refugee farmers who’ve grown crops there for years against the community nonprofit managing the garden.
Last week, some farmers of the New Roots Community Farm and their allies got some answers to their questions about who has the authority to control access to the farm.
The answer is none of the parties currently involved — not the City of San Diego, which issued a permit allowing the farm’s original developer to use the land despite not actually owning the property, and not the City Heights Community Development Corp., which currently manages the farm after taking it over in 2020.
That revelation came from City Attorney Mara Elliott, responding in a letter to New Roots farmers who were told to leave the farm in January after they refused to sign lease renewals when their agreements expired in December. They say they requested proof the City Heights CDC had a legal right to manage the property and didn’t get it.
They had sought that proof since last fall, when farmers found out the City Heights CDC didn’t have a lease on the land.
City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera, whose district includes the farm, blamed “an unfortunate administrative error” made years ago by the city of San Diego for causing the land dispute. He’s referring to 2008 when the city approved a permit for the International Rescue Committee to build the community garden on the property. That permit described the land as city owned.
City Heights CDC was one of two nonprofits that supported the “beautiful work” being done at the farm and “did what they could with the resources they had to create a special environment that made many people very happy for many years,” Elo-Rivera said in a statement to inewsource. “These organizations did this work under the good faith belief that the City of San Diego had the authority to grant them access to the land that was being farmed.”
Elo-Rivera went on to say the farm shouldn’t suffer because of the city’s error years ago.
“At the end of the day, our focus should be on the farmers and I am committed to doing what I can to ensure they are provided an opportunity to continue growing food and building community in the way they love doing.”
Read City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera’s full statement
“For over-15 years, the New Roots Community Farm has been a point of community pride as it has been one of the best examples of what makes City Heights such a special place. People from all over the world, of different faiths, religions, and cultures finding a little bit of peace, comfort, and security in the garden. They’ve shared resources and recipes, tilled the land and told stories of the lands from which they came, and built friendships that tore down the walls of linguistic and racial differences.
All of this beautiful work was supported by two local nonprofit organizations. First, the International Rescue Committee and then the City Heights Development Corporation. These organizations did what they could with the resources they had to create a special environment that made many people very happy for many years. These organizations did this work under the good faith belief that the City of San Diego had the authority to grant them access to the land that was being farmed. As a City, we should be grateful for all the good the farm has produced and apologetic about the City’s mistake.
As First Lady Michelle Obama said when she visited the garden in 2010, ‘It’s a model for the nation, for the world.’ The City of San Diego’s unfortunate administrative error in 2008 does not and should not erase all the good that has happened at New Roots Community Farm. At the end of the day, our focus should be on the farmers and I am committed to doing what I can to ensure they are provided an opportunity to continue growing food and building community in the way they love doing.”
For years the farm has been cultivated by refugees from around the world and lauded as a cultural asset, including by the City Heights Community Development Corp., the nonprofit which took over management of the farm from the International Rescue Committee in 2020, and has overseen the farm’s promotion and finances ever since.
But when farmers found out last fall that the City Heights CDC didn’t have a lease on the land, friction ensued. They solicited the help of the Tenant Councils of San Diego to help them seek information about current and past agreements regarding the farm and to help them navigate their concerns with the nonprofit.
In December, farmers wrote emails to City Attorney Elliott with allegations that the City Heights CDC was charging farmers to cultivate the land and making them sign plot agreements without itself holding a valid lease on the property. They also said that it was unlawful for the nonprofit to threaten one of its longest standing farmers, referring to Fatima Abdelrahman, with eviction without proving legal claim to the land which they believed to be city-owned based on the original agreement the city signed with the IRC.
In response to the farmers, Elliott wrote that the city doesn’t have any legal agreements permitting anyone to use the land and lacks authority to issue any. Most of the farm is located on land owned by the Hubner Building Company, a company that dissolved in the 50’s and whose successors are unknown. A very small portion of the farm is on an adjacent parcel, owned in part by another company and in part by the city, but the city-owned portion of the property doesn’t include any of the farm, Elliott said.
Who owns the property is largely irrelevant when it comes to the question of whether the farm can exist on the property. The entire farm is located on land for which the city holds a public street easement “for a potential future alignment of the Chollas Parkway,” Elliott said, noting that “a community farm is not an allowed use of a public right of way.”
Elliott also noted that the IRC didn’t sign the agreement transferring the farm’s management to the CDC.
An attorney for the City Heights CDC has previously said the organization is in “good standing” with the city without explaining how the organization came to that conclusion.
Asked again to clarify in light of Elliott’s findings, the City Heights CDC’s attorney directed inewsource to the city. A city official declined to comment. The nonprofit has also attempted to get San Diego Police to enforce trespassing on the property. But the trespass order was filed using a private residence’s address across the street from the farm, not for the property itself, a San Diego police dispatcher confirmed.
City Attorney Elliott directed farmers to reach out to the San Diego Police Department to file any criminal complaints as well as to Elo-Rivera regarding their concerns.
It’s unclear what Elliott’s letter will ultimately mean for the farm. Elo-Rivera’s office did not offer inewsource any concrete remedies for how the farmers will be able to continue their work, but said that he “will work with community members to support efforts to ensure these beneficial spaces continue to exist” in his district.
For the farmers who have been locked out, the news from the city attorney didn’t bring elation. Speaking in Arabic through a translator, one of the farmers, Natalena Kantieka, said it hurt.
“Why are they treating us like this then, if they have no authority?” she said.
