After months of uncertainty about its future, popular youth and farming program Grow Dat Youth Farm will be allowed to remain at the City Park site it has occupied since 2012. The City Park Improvement Association, which governs the park, approved on Tuesday (Aug. 20) an agreement that will allow the group to remain at the site until at least 2030.
Just four months ago, Grow Dat was facing near-certain eviction as the City Park Conservancy — the nonprofit group that manages the day-to-day operations of the park — planned to build a road through the park that would have run through the farm as part of an ongoing redevelopment plan. But Grow Dat leaders rallied community support and a months-long campaign to save the farm ensued.
“Our leadership programs exist to give young people the tools to have hard conversations and to advocate for themselves and their community,” Julie Gable, Grow Dat’s co-executive director, said in a joint news release issued by Grow Dat and City Park. “We are so proud and grateful for the way these young people and our community have shown up, and for the productive dialogue we have been able to have with CPC to secure Grow Dat’s future as a farm and convening place for years to come.”
Terms of the agreement, revealed at the CPIA meeting, were negotiated between Grow Dat and the park over the last couple months. The group will pay City Park $25,000 annually for the use of the site, which is approximately a 48% decrease in rent. The initial agreement, which takes effect on Sept. 1 and runs until June 2030, includes a mutual option to extend Grow Dat’s lease for another five years. Grow Dat will host two public events per year on urban farming and collaborate with the park on the design and installation of pathways through parts of the farm.
Tuesday’s vote represents a complete reversal from City Park’s official position on Grow Dat’s future as of just four months ago, when park officials insisted they would not renew the long term lease after it expired in 2027. The initial decision not to renew the agreement was made under the leadership of Cara Lambright, former president and CEO of City Park Conservancy. Lambright has since resigned from the post and taken a job leading the Hermann Park Conservancy in Houston. She was replaced by Rebecca Dietz, former vice president and chief administrative officer for the City Park Conservancy.
“We appreciate the collaboration with Grow Dat and board support to develop this agreement and keep urban farming in the Park long-term,” Dietz said in the joint statement. “We value Grow Dat’s mission and the impact urban farms have on youth leadership development, native plant propagation, and improving food supply as well as its positive impacts on well-being in an urban environment.”
There could be some changes ahead for Grow Dat, however. Part of the agreement stipulates that the group may have to relocate its buildings to another part of the seven-acre campus where it is located if the City Park master plan process determines the move is in the best interest of the park. This could be in favor of a footpath or bike trail, but not a road. But Grow Dat will not have to relocate their fields, which it has worked to cultivate for over a decade.
“We feel good in the fact that we will have ample notice, which is up to two years and that will make a difference,” Gable told Verite News after the CPIA resolution passed. “We believe that is something that is maybe far off in the future and that we will continue to build trust with them and have a really good working relationship.”
The community outcry over the proposed road resulted in a series of meetings held by Grow Dat to encourage residents to share their hopes for the future of City Park as well as the formation of a new community group, Friends of Grow Dat. The group formed to lobby for the preservation of the farm so that Grow Dat staff and youth participants could continue to focus on carrying out the mission of the farm and program.
Callie Rubbins-Breen, co-executive director of Grow Dat, said the group has paused the series of meetings, called “People’s Planning Forums,” for now but will summarize findings from the sessions and share them with City Park leadership and the public.
The row over the future status of Grow Dat caused so much community outcry that City Park decided to extend its process of gathering feedback on its initial plans for the park by six months. The park’s master plan was originally supposed to be finalized by December 2024.
After the CPIA board meeting, Dietz said the park plans to relaunch its public engagement efforts for the rest of the master planning process next month. Although the conservancy is aiming to finalize the master plan by June 2025, she said that the process could be extended further to ensure it has as much community input as possible.
“We want to make sure that this park is for the community,” Dietz told Verite News after the board meeting. “We want to make sure we have as many voices at the table as possible and we will take as much time as is needed to make sure that this plan is informed by the public.”
This story is developing and will be updated.
CORRECTION: A previous version of the misstated the amount Grow Dat was previously paying in rent. In fact, Grow Dat will be paying less in rent than they previously had been.