Philadelphia Land Bank purchased 35 garden parcels once tangled up with privately held tax liens at sheriff’s sale in August. The purchases are part of a plan orchestrated by garden advocates and some city council members to transfer abandoned land now used for agriculture to gardeners or nonprofit land trusts. “We’re talking about community gardens that have been in the hands of the community for 20-plus years, where neighbors have created a garden oasis in the middle of blight,” said at-large City Councilmember Kendra Brooks, one of the architects of the plan. The next step is for the land bank to transfer the garden lots “into the hands of the community,” either to third-party land trusts or groups of gardeners organized as nonprofits, Brooks said.
Source: PlanPhilly; 10/20/2025