There's a noticeable absence of the sounds of hard work that once echoed around the Soo Line Community Garden in Minneapolis. This once-polluted garden plot is one step closer to a comeback. 

"It was heartbreaking, it was devastating to people," said Jessica Kochick, president of the Soo Line Community Garden Board.

Leaders are still feeling the effects of the 2024 shutdown after the state found contaminated soil. The garden that provided food and community connection since 1991 was suddenly gone.

"They did some soil testing and discovered contamination in the soil and the Park Board deemed it unsafe to continue," Kockick said. "We managed to stop development of the garden, but at the same time it now, it has to be closed?"

After fighting back against a planned bike path and then pollution problems, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board's Committee on Administration and Finance recently approved the motion on its revival. The motion moves voting power to the full board for discussion in two weeks. All of this, in hopes to reallocate $275,000 in neighborhood capital levy funds from the halted Mall Park project over to Soo Line.

Funding would help gardeners come back to the spot temporarily while they'd plan to have a full remediation and full reconstruction in the long run.

"We are gardeners who are community driven," said Claudia Callahan, a Soo Line gardener.

And others describe it as "more than just a garden."

"It was kind of a dream in the middle of asphalt and all of these buildings," said Nazir Kahn of the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table.

"Nothing will match it, it's a very unique space," Kochick said.

Learn more about the Soo Line Community Garden online.