This year, the Turku City Council will decide on the fate of the city’s oldest allotment garden. The decision-makers want apartment buildings in Kupittaa.
Is there Turku repeating old mistakes and destroying a culturally significant part of the city? Or is the city allowing for supplementary construction close to the city center?
The tenants and defenders of Turku’s oldest allotment garden experienced a stinging loss in December last year. After the vote, the city government approved a new draft master plan to make the site of the city’s oldest allotment garden suitable for residential use.
Now gardeners ’leases are coming to an end After two years. The master plan proposal is expected to be approved by the city council later this year.
“Values emphasized by the city, such as sustainable development and ecology, have no bearing on decision-making,” Kupittaa Group Garden Association President Eija Meriluoto says.
The city has been coveting the zoning of the land it owns for construction for decades. The idea of ending the allotment garden business first arose in the 1990s.
At that time, parking spaces and the expansion of the adjacent K-Citymarket were planned for the site. Eventually, the city decided to continue the allotment garden business, and tenants ’leases were extended until 2020.
Turku’s oldest allotment garden is located right next to K-Citymarket.
Again, the fate of the allotment garden came to the fore about ten years ago in the context of the city’s renewal program. At that time, the construction on the site was justified by the tramway policy, according to which in the second construction phase the track would run next to the site. The construction of the second phase tram line is now a distant future.
“So it’s no wonder that the basis for building on the site has changed from tram to public transport,” says Meriluoto.
First, the city proposed that the entire garden be moved farther from the center to Korois, where a place was planned for a new allotment garden. The city even did tests to relocate the old cottages, but the idea was abandoned.
Photo from the early years of the allotment garden in Kupittaa. In the background is the tower of Turku Cathedral.
Member of the City Council Jaakko Lindfors (left) regards the relocation of the garden as a mere advertising speech.
“Moving a colony garden is impossible. It is obvious that if this allotment garden is destroyed, this will never be recovered, ”says Lindfors.
Author Tiina Pihlajamäki published a nonfiction last fall Lost Turkuwhich goes through the symptoms of Turku ‘s disease, ie the valuable buildings that were destroyed in the way of construction.
He recognized how closing the Kupittaa allotment garden would be a repetition of the same mistakes. Pihlajamäki set out to defend the allotment garden, although he has no connection to it.
“How could a few concrete houses be more valuable than the city’s oldest allotment garden? I was angry and thought that this should not happen again and again, ”says Pihlajamäki.
Johan and Elin Gröndahl sat in garden chairs in 1938.
The city commissioned a survey asking, among other things, about the fate of the allotment garden in 2019. 76 percent of respondents wanted the garden to be preserved. Since 2020, more than 8,500 autographs have been collected at the address requiring the preservation of the garden.
Pihlajamäki wonders how the value of the allotment garden is not seen in Turku in the same way as in Helsinki. The capital has nine allotment garden areas, and the preservation of allotment gardens is part of Helsinki’s strategic choices.
“A number of principled choices were made in the master plan, one of which is to stick to the large green areas of which the allotment garden areas are part,” the Deputy Mayor for the Urban Environment Anni Sinnemäki (green) reported in the HS case.
Read more: The seller of the allotment garden cottage can earn almost six-figure money in Helsinki – The economist considers it unfair that the land is rented to cottagers at a price of 1.50 euros per square meter
Bees also live in the Kupittaa allotment garden.
Allotment garden In Turku, the abolition has been driven mainly by the ruling coalition. Representatives of the SDP and the RKP also voted in favor of the abolition in the city government.
Deputy Mayor Ville Valkonen (Kok) says the city has a shortage of plots with good location. When the Kupittaa Allotment Garden was established in 1934, the garden was located on the outskirts of the city.
“Urban development is an ongoing assessment of areas. Turku is growing, and the city’s strategic goal is to condense the city’s structure by supplementing construction, ”says Valkonen.
He emphasizes that the allotment garden would not necessarily be replaced by construction, but by a park, for example.
According to the current plan, the whole plot would not be fully built up, but at least a third of the area would be kept as a park.
Proponents of the garden say the small park would not preserve the results of decades of work in the allotment garden.
“If the garden disappears, the history of ordinary Turku residents will disappear. The allotment garden was once established for the less well-off city dwellers. So it is the history of the disadvantaged part of Turku. Isn’t that as valuable as the history of the slightly richer ones? ” Tiina Pihlajamäki asks.
Turku The museum center issued a statement on the allotment garden in 2015. According to it, the Kupittaa allotment garden has significant cultural and historical value as Turku’s first allotment garden.
“The Kupittaa allotment garden should be maintained in its current location and its original shape and structure should not be changed,” the statement said.
The allotment garden has about 280 old apple trees, the oldest of which were planted in the 1930s.
The majority of the cottages in the allotment garden are old and in poor condition.
Turku the city has sought to profile itself in recent years as a pioneer in sustainable development. The city was one of the first to carry out a city-level assessment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. According to the city’s strategy, it aims to innovate and grow in an ecologically, socially and economically sustainable way, thus creating holistic and sustainable well-being for its residents.
Proponents of the allotment garden say the allotment garden’s eradication plan is in stark contrast to the city’s declared goals.
The city aims to make the city a more comfortable and healthier place to live as a living environment. In addition, the city seeks to safeguard biodiversity through practical measures.
“The mowing of the allotment garden fights against Turku’s goals related to sustainable development and climate. Besides, the city has more land than it needs, so there is no real need to destroy the garden, ”says Jaakko Lindfors.
Deputy Mayor Valkonen emphasizes that the planning of the allotment garden for other uses is based on the job proposal, and no strong contradictions with other goals of the city were found in the preparation of the office.
“Condensing the urban structure will help to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality, for example,” Valkonen emphasizes.
Discussions the fate of the allotment garden have caused positive change. In recent years, more activities suitable for outsiders have been organized for the Kupittaa allotment garden.
In the past, allotment garden operations have been considered warm inwards, and allotment garden associations in Helsinki have also been encouraged to open up.
In Turku, the idea that the allotment garden benefits only a small part of the city’s residents has been used as a reason to abolish it.
Eija Meriluoto says that the co-operation partners of the allotment garden include the summer café of young entrepreneurs of the Turku 4H Association and the kindergartens of Sateenkaari Koto ry.
“The garden is not closed but open to everyone. You can enjoy the city nature here at any time,” says Meriluoto.
Almost 300 apple trees grow in the allotment garden.
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