
Council Member Alicka Ampry-Samuel/Image Credit: John McCarten/NYC Council
The bill will help protect community gardens and allow them to remain in the City. On March 29, 2020, Introduction 1652-A was enacted into Local Law 46 of 2020. Local Law 46 requires the Department of City Planning to reclassify tax lots currently used as GreenThumb community gardens on the Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output (“PLUTO”) database. The PLUTO database has information on the City’s tax lots. Currently, tax lots with GreenThumb community gardens are classified on PLUTO as “vacant lots.” Under Local Law 46, these tax lots will be reclassified under a new category that indicates that the lot is being used as a community garden. The law, sponsored by Council Member Alicka Ampry-Samuel, was proposed to protect community garden tax lots from being used for development.