Talk of parking lot spurs renewed garden interest

Petition supports renewal of Pearl St. plot

By Mio Moser | Manor Ink

Livingston Manor, NY – The timeworn community garden on Pearl Street in this hamlet hasn’t received much attention after losing its primary constituency and its full-time caretaker. But with preliminary talks of turning the space into a parking lot to ease congestion downtown, some residents have found new interest in the old garden. A petition to reinvigorate it has since been started, garnering over 150 signatures.

The plot, purchased by the Town of Rockland in 2006 after three significant floods, was left empty until Lisa Lyons of Morgan Outdoors requested that the space be converted into a garden, organizing volunteers and coordinating upkeep. The garden soon had many volunteers, and grew from primarily an educational plot for Livingston Manor Central School to serving the clinic next door and members of the community.

A teaching resource

“The garden was started by community volunteers as a place where community residents paid a nominal fee to grow their own food,” said Lyons. “Over the past five years, it was used as a teaching garden for elementary school students at LMCS. Second and third graders prepared the beds and planted vegetables and herbs in the spring.” She continued, “In the fall, students would return to harvest what they had planted. Some of the produce was used in food science classes to prepare recipes that were often shared with the younger students, and other produce was brought to the neighboring family clinic on Pearl Street for patients and staff to share.”

But, she said, although the garden was encouraged by town leadership, its presence was never formally codified. “Though the two-block walk to the garden offered great exercise and fresh air for the children, it was always hoped that one day there would be a garden on school grounds.”

The Pearl Street garden fell into disrepair after the school received a grant from the Cornell Cooperative Extension to build a new garden directly on school property. Lyons moved her business to Hurleyville shortly thereafter, and the garden has not yet found a new purpose or primary advocate.

“It was a good place to grow crops, and it was pretty,” said Hope Schwartz, a neighbor of the garden, and organizer of the petition, who has lived in Livingston Manor for over 70 years. “It was really fun, and it helped families put food on the table.”

Parking spaces versus floods

The conversion to a parking lot was first proposed to ease traffic and parking congestion in downtown Livingston Manor, along with a suggestion to shore up signage to the new, under utilized parking lot behind Peck’s Market. Rob Eggleton, the Rockland Town supervisor, said, “We don’t currently have a plan to turn the neglected community garden into a parking lot. It was suggested to fill a need for more parking and requires more research into things like how many spaces it can provide, possible fences to keep the neighbors happy and what type of surface, whether that be blacktop or something to allow water absorption similar to what was done at Catskill Brewery.”

With flooding being an real issue in Livingston Manor, Eggleton acknowledged the problems of surfacing with a traditional asphalt, which would significantly lower water absorption rates. Asphalt might also prevent water from running off into the Little Beaver Kill, while also increasing flooding danger to adjacent properties.

The state Department of Conservation has not evaluated the parking lot plans, but states in part, “In general, the environmental concern with impervious surfaces is reduction of infiltration of water into the ground and contribution to higher stormwater runoff, and increased pollutant loads. All of these can degrade water quality.” They continue, “It appears the threshold of the project in question is below the requirement of obtaining coverage under the DEC construction stormwater general permit. Given the reported history of localized flooding, the local municipality is encouraged to consider appropriate stormwater management practices, such as those identified in DEC’s Stormwater Design Manual, to minimize or even decrease stormwater from re-development of this parcel.”