The city is buying Fertile Ground’s garden, but won’t make any changes for now

The city of Olympia plans to buy a downtown garden maintained by a local nonprofit with no immediate plans to change what happens on the property.

The Commons at Fertile Ground promotes urban sustainability and has a garden, fruit trees and an eco-friendly meeting house on about a third of an acre at Ninth Avenue Southeast and Adams Street Southeast.

Earlier this month, the City Council approved a deal to buy the land for $315,000 from a private landowner. The Commons then will lease the land from the city, according to Chris van Daalen, a member of nonprofit’s board.

Terms of the lease have not been finalized, van Daalen said.

A related, for-profit bed and breakfast, the Fertile Ground Guesthouse, is on an adjacent property that the city is not buying.

Karen Nelson, president of The Commons board, said that now that the garden’s future is secure, she wants to invite more groups to use the land.

The Commons started leasing the property from its owner in 2010. The current lease ends this month and the owner wanted to sell.

“We were concerned that if a developer bought it, they could build a giant office building next to our little bed and breakfast,” van Daalen said. “Our options were either buy it ourselves or find someone else who shares our values.”

Supporters of The Commons tried to buy the land but couldn’t raise the money. Meanwhile, the city was looking for land for neighborhood parks, including in downtown, said Paul Simmons, director of the city’s parks department.

“Our preference is to keep going with what’s already there,” he said. “The fact that there’s already community activities there, we want to maintain that.”

But changes could come eventually.

The city’s purchase agreement says the property could be used for “economic development, housing, and recreation” purposes. Simmons said the city will not use money restricted to parks on the purchase to keep its options open.

This story was originally published July 28, 2018 at 3:33 PM.