Fear the Reaper

Meet the woman slowly crushing Philly's urban agriculture dreams.

by Holly Otterbein

Neal Santos

Christina Kobland: Friend of bobolink, foe of farmer.

[ buzzkills ]

Last week, in a development that didn't exactly make the 6 o'clock news, the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education quietly withdrew a zoning variance request that would have let it host a composting facility. Urban farmers were bummed; Christina Kobland was not. Kobland had just won again.

Before becoming the scourge of urban farmers, Kobland was, of all things, a model for QVC, the TV home-shopping network. At 60, she still has the look: blond, svelte, a dazzling smile.

Four years ago, armed with a bachelor's degree in zoology and a love of animals, Kobland re-created herself as a conservationist-for-hire, opening her own business, Native Return, which specializes in helping communities cultivate native plants and, in turn, wild animals. Her clients have included Whitemarsh Township, PECO and Philadelphia's aviation division. As her company has grown, so, too, has her zest for wildlife preservation — to the point where it's pitted her against a group of people you might think she'd find a lot in common with: Philadelphia's urban farmers.

Kobland was one of the leading critics of expanded commercial farming at Manatawna Farm, opposed trails on a 33-acre plot in Whitemarsh Township, and was the helmswoman against the composting facility at the Schuylkill Center. And she'll be quick to tell you: She hopes to prevent similar operations in the future.

Kobland's efforts to squash urban farming projects began early this year, when Whitemarsh Township revealed plans to develop a 33-acre plot of land, known locally as the East 33, into nature trails and, Kobland claims (and the township disputes), gardens. Kobland, who once sat on the township's environmental advisory board, worried that the supposed gardens would hurt animal habitat and created a petition and website, east33.org, to fight the project. When township supervisor Bob Hart announced in September that the development might "never come to pass," Kobland declared success.

Then, this summer, she became embroiled in the hottest zoning showdown of the year: the Manatawna Farm debacle, which pitted the Nutter administration, Planning Commission and urban agriculturists against a group of neighbors and conservationists.

As part of its ambitious GreenWorks goal of establishing 12 new urban farms by 2015, the city planned to offer five acres of Manatawna Farm, a 76-acre plot in Roxborough that is part of Fairmount Park, for urban produce production. The farm, four miles from Kobland's home, currently contains community gardens, hay fields and untouched woods. Her problem wasn't with the agriculture itself, she claims, but the meadowlarks, foxes and turkeys that she says would lose their habitat.

"It would be wonderful to take truly urban areas downtown — vacant lots, asphalt — and convert them into farms," she says. "But what they wanted to do here, it wasn't really urban farming."

She and other critics, including animal-rights activists, neighbors and local students who grow hay there, went to Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., whose district encompasses the farm. Again, Kobland won. Jones penned a bill banning commercial farming and expanded gardens at Manatawna, which the mayor signed in November.

Parks Commissioner Michael DiBerardinis, whose department fought for the farm, sees its critics as having acted selfishly: "Quite frankly, I think people didn't want change. ... We were creating habitat. The individual interest of those folks beat the public good."

Kobland not only got her way, but maybe laid a trail for others to follow. When the city floated a plan to expand commercial farming elsewhere, at Fox Chase Farm, it was shot down again — though Kobland had nothing to do with it this time. Councilman Brian O'Neill introduced a zoning bill very similar to Jones'.

"They say, 'Go somewhere else.' How many times have you heard that?" asks DiBerardinis. "But I'm not deterred. The mayor's sustainability goals are worthy enough to keep pursuing."

Easy as it might be to dismiss Kobland as just another NIMBY, she's driven by an intense passion for the environment. She speaks lovingly about every animal she encounters, whether it's the world-traveling bobolink or her dog Lexi, and becomes noticeably unnerved while speaking about hunting. She simply doesn't see farming as part of those ideals; she believes that the environmental movement has been co-opted by urban agriculturists at the expense of wildlife preservation, and that she is fighting the good fight.

Just last week, Kobland enjoyed her most recent triumph. Following the Manatawna and East 33 battles, she voiced her objection to the proposed composting facility at the Schuylkill Center (of which she used to be a board member), which would be run by the company Philly Compost. Again, her concern was that wildlife habitat would be lost. Many of the same people against Manatawna joined her in preparation for the Dec. 22 meeting of the Zoning Board of Adjustment to determine whether to grant the Schuylkill Center a needed zoning variance for the facility.

But last week, the Center silently withdrew its variance application.

Lee Meinicke, president of Philly Compost, denies that the project was halted because of opposition, citing a current lack of funds. The Schuylkill Center, which could have pursued the variance anyway, declined to comment. Kobland says her success has nothing to with the fact that she once served on the Center's board: "My motives are very simple and pure. I'm fighting for the value of animals."

That may be, counters Meinicke, but the results are still damning. "To me, the global warming issue trumps everything. These folks have chosen to put their energies in [wildlife]," she says. "I want to put food closer to where we eat. ... If we can't fix that, we're all toast."

What's Kobland's next move? Among other things, she hopes to move the Urban Farm Girls operation off the Schuylkill Center. They kill groundhogs, she says.

(holly.otterbein@citypaper.net)