Great news for the Ballard P-Patch: a loan has been secured to allow the gardeners to buy the 1.66-acre parcel from Our Redeemer’s Lutheran Church.
The P-Patch gardeners were able to obtain a loan from Verity Credit Union, and their fiscal sponsor/ land conservancy organization GROW Northwest formally purchased the land from Our Redeemer’s. GROW also owns and co-owns six other properties in Seattle’s P-Patch program.
The Seattle Department of Neighborhoods still manages the property, but it’s now much closer to being fully “saved” from development.
The Ballard P-Patch has two years to pay off their loan, and are still working on the $300,000 that will qualify the group for the full $1.25 million Conservation Futures Tax (CFT) matching grant from King County.
Another milestone will come this November when the King County Council is expected to vote on funding the Ballard P-Patch’s $1.25 million CFT request.
“We are so grateful to Jeanne Kohl-Welles and her staff, to our entire Washington State Legislative team, and to each and every one of our volunteers who have pitched in to make this seemingly impossible project a reality,” Ballard P-Patch co-chair Cindy Krueger wrote in an email to the garden members last week.
To help complete their fundraising, the Ballard P-Patch is holding a virtual 5K fun run Sept. 25 – 27. You can sign up to participate online, and donations can also be made anytime here.
Yeah, who needs housing in one of the most expensive cities in the US when you can have cucumbers.