Brownfields
Success Story
Festival Beach Food Forest
Austin, Texas
East Austin is changing. Separated from downtown by a major interstate,
the area has a troubled history of segregation, disinvestment and a
lack of resources. Today, the city's rapidly rising population is making
property in the area more desirable—at the risk of displacing the existing
community that has been there for generations. City planners, local
organizations and residents needed to find a way to bring old and new
members of the community together.
The Opportunity
When the city announced plans to redevelop the Edward Rendon Sr.
Park at Festival Beach, residents from nearby neighborhoods started
gathering informally to talk about what the park could become. The
conversation turned to food production.
Local resident Jodi Lane was part of these early discussions: "We realized
that we could connect as a community by utilizing public parkland near
an existing community garden and senior center to produce food that is
free for the taking, and in doing so, reinvent the Commons. A food forest
would protect and enhance the natural beauty, tranquility and ecological
health of the parkland, while also making fruit trees, edible plants and
medicinal herbs part of the daily experience of neighbors and visitors,
with no fences to exclude anyone."
After a considerable effort by local advocates, the City Council
unanimously approved plans to use two-thirds of an acre of Festival
Beach parkland as a pilot for the food forest. But before construction of
the forest could begin, the city wanted to make sure that the land was
safe as a source of grown food. That the park's shallow groundwater-
bearing zone is near a gas station and the interstate was a particular
reason for concern.
The Assessment
Awarded a Brownfields Assessment Grant from the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency the City of Austin completed a Phase II
Environmental Site Assessment, which concluded that there were no
exceedances of regulatory screening levels for contaminants in the soils
and groundwater. The food forest project could move forward without
further environmental assessment and cleanup.
oEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA Grant Recipient:
City of Austin
EPA Grant Type:
Brownfields Assessment
Former Uses:
Public Parkland
Current Use:
Public Food Forest

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The food forest brings the community
together to tend the land, learn how to
harvest and eat straight from the ground.
The Redevelopment
A local nonprofit stepped forward to become the fiscal sponsor of the
Festival Beach Food Forest and helped procure federal grant funding.
Volunteers and partnering nonprofits secured additional donated
materials and provided the labor for the excavation and planting of over
100 fruit and nut trees. The City of Austin Neighborhood Partnering
Program provided funds to help construct accessible trails, signage
and benches.
In designing the food forest, planners took lessons from permaculture,
an approach to landscape designs and livelihoods based on indigenous
wisdom, modern technologies and observation of the natural ecosystem.
Lane says, "We dug swales to capture the precious water we get in our
dry Texas climate, and then used the excess soil to create a mound or
'berm,' We then planted cover crops and fruit and nut trees in the berms.
It's an edible landscape, resembling the riparian zone of a riverbed that
helps sequester water to feed the plants and regenerate the soil at the
same time."
The Challenges
When the city began outreach efforts to plan for the redevelopment of
East Austin, it aggravated many long-standing local residents, whose
efforts to get city support for parkland improvements years earlier
were unsuccessful.
Activists from a local community-based organization were the
first to envision the Festival Beach Food Forest. Grounded in their
neighborhoods' heritage and inspired by the possibility of renewing
relationships with the land and with each other, they gathered
neighbors and allies in support of edible landscaping, accessible to
one and all. Early on, members recognized that long-term accessibility
was threatened by patterns of gentrification arising in East Austin. By
locating the forest at the base of an independent living facility for seniors
and people with disabilities, the coalition saw the opportunity to focus its
impact in one of the only places in East Austin where the City of Austin
has a long-term commitment to providing affordable housing.
Lane says, "It took us a good three years gaining the trust of the diverse
neighbors and local organizations. Hosting respectful and inclusive
community engagement events in community centers and backyard
potlucks and earning the eventual endorsement of the neighbors and
local leaders were crucial for the project."
The novelty of the food forest concept in Austin presented another
challenge. There was some pushback because the city did not know how
to classify the forest. The team had to insist on its vision for the forest,
its trees and plants, and its lack of fencing. Having some flexibility in the
code or policy fosters innovation.
The food forest is now so mature that it
blocks the view of the interstate and
city beyond.

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The Benefits
In what had been a field of Bermuda grass for many years now stands a
forest with iush soil and colorful cover crops producing free food, a space
for community celebrations and accessible pathways that local residents
and seniors can use to visit the park.
The shift in the idea of what constitutes public space is also valuable.
People generally tend to view parkland as the city's property. When,
really it is common space meant for the residents of that community.
Now, thousands of people have come to steward the parkland.
The forest offers educational opportunities as well. Herbalists and
foragers lead walks and talk about the different plants. Volunteers,
community members, students and young people who have never
engaged in farming or gardening learn how to harvest, make medicinal
teas and eat straight from the ground—an impactful experience.
The benefits to the ecosystem of the area are many. Trees mitigate
particulate matter and help improve the air quality and heat island
effect in the area, which is warmer than its rural surroundings due to its
proximity to the highway. Now, even during the hottest Austin summer
day at the "pecan circle" in the center of the food forest, one feels a
dramatic difference in temperature. Pollinators, beneficial fungi, Texas
native prairie grasses and other wildlife species are contributing to the
regenerative health of this special piece of parkland.
The Future
Project planners are gearing up to petition expansion of the plot by an
additional three acres—and the forest is getting attention far beyond
Austin's city limits. Requests for information have come from as far as
Germany. "People want to know how we built the forest," Lane says,
"from the permitting process, logistics and financials to the permacuiture
techniques and community-engagement processes."
Leaders of the food forest are actively engaged in developing and
documenting their model and vision of an inclusive Commons—a
diverse, mixed-income, multi-generational and ecologically thriving
neighborhood center. The food forest concept is an ancient one, drawing
on indigenous practices of caring for the land and people. The team is
interested in creating a model in which this wisdom finds solid ground in
the city-making process of Austin and inspires other burgeoning cities to
do the same.
Neighbors and allies support edible
landscaping, accessible to one and all.
it We realized that
we could connect
as a community
by utilizing
public parkland
to produce food
that is free for
the taking, and in
doing so, reinvent
the Commons. jj
Jodi Lane,
Co-Founder arid Volunteer Lead,
Festival Beach Food Forest
For more information:
Visit the EPA Brownfields website at
www.epa.gov/brownfields or contact
Denise Williams at 214-665-9749 or
Williams.Denise@epa.gov.
CPA 560-F-20-172
Mas 2020

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