ADDRESS: Northwest Corner of 14th and Q Streets,

Sacramento, California 95814

PROPERTY SIZE: 0.44 acres

FORMER USES: Residential, community garden

CURRENT USES: Vacant

PROJECT BACKGROUND:

The Fremont Community Garden is located in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Sacramento. The property was once a collection of

residential structures built between 1880 and 1920. Although it was purchased by the state for the 1960 Capitol Area Plan, a community garden was established on the property in the mid-1960s by local residents and workers. The former Ron Mandella Community

Garden was a garden for more than 30 years serving as a central gathering point for gardeners, residents, children, and state workers on

their lunch hour. The property was designated for housing in 1978, but remained undeveloped. In 2001, the Capitol Area Development

Authority (CADA) initiated residential development of the property. The announcement of the garden being converted to residential use

created a schism in the community. In 2002, the CADA, the City of Sacramento, and the State Department of General Services committed in perpetuity to retain 100 percent of the community garden square footage. In spite of this, an environmental site assessment

revealed that the soil was contaminated with aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), lead and pesticides – creating another obstacle for the

community’s effort to preserve the garden and central gathering place.

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

• Removed and disposed of 1,700 cubic yards of contaminated soil and

replaced with clean soil suitable for gardening

• Preserved and enhanced an historic central community gathering place

• Leveraged approximately $423,000 for cleanup and redevelopment efforts

OUTCOME:

The redevelopment of Fremont Community Garden has commenced, and with its own funding and additional funding to be provided by

the City of Sacramento, the developer of the adjacent Fremont Mews development, the general public, future community gardeners, and

a range of local businesses, an enhanced community garden is taking root on this former brownfield. The new garden will feature a

number of environmentally sustainable features including an all-organic requirement, various technologies to recapture rainwater and

channel it into the soil below the garden, etc. The garden will include 50 garden plots, (including four Americans with Disabilities Act

(ADA)-accessible plots), ADA compliant walkways, compost bins, two orchards, public art, two entrances, decorative shrubs, and two

bocce ball courts. When the garden is complete in the fall of 2006, CADA will transfer ownership of the property to the City of

Sacramento, where it will become part of the city’s Community Garden Program.

Preserving a Community Garden Takes Root

In a Former Brownfield

brownfields at-a-glance

FREMONT COMMUNITY GARDEN

Capital Area Development Authority, CA

Cleanup Grant

EPA-560-F-06-229

August 2006

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit the EPA Brownfields Web site at http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/ or call EPA Region 9 at (415) 947-8000

EPA GRANT RECIPIENT: PROJECT PARTNERS:

The Capitol Area

Development Authority

received a $200,000 EPA

Brownfields Cleanup grant.

City of Sacramento, Parks and Recreation Department,

Rembold Properties (15th & Q Limited Partnership),

Fremont Community Advisory Committee, California

Department of General Services, Sacramento City

Council, Local Businesses

For additional data and geographic information

for this and other Brownfields Grants, please

visit EPA’s:

Envirofacts - www.epa.gov/enviro/html/bms/

bms_query.html

Enviromapper - www.epa.gov/enviro/bf

Construction underway at Fremont Community Garden.