A project to build an urban farm on the roof of a parkade on East Georgia Street has been put on hold and will likely be relocated.

Two weeks ago the Courier wrote about a project to create a rooftop farm that would employ residents of the Downtown Eastside. Work was to begin on the farm last weekend, but was postponed because the property owner asked for a $100,000 bond in case of damage.

Architect David Wong said the initial project was meant to be a simple rooftop garden where Chinatown seniors could enjoy activities such as tai chi. Instead, he said, the project was hijacked along the way and became a full-blown working farm.

Wong said he first came up with the idea for the garden.

"Two or three years ago I got together with a bunch of professionals with roots in Chinatown and we decided we wanted to help revitalize the area and create a legacy," he said. "Our plan was to build a socially progressive community and the crowning achievement was going to be the rooftop garden."

But, Wong said, other groups came on board, including Building Opportunities with Business (BOB), which in turn brought in United We Can, a non-profit that offers recycling services using binners.

"We don't know what happened but the next thing we know, the project has turned into a farm to employ people from the Downtown Eastside," he said. "This was never supposed to be a make-work project, but if that had happened along the way it would have been a bonus."

Wong said he doesn't know why the city approved a $100,000 grant to United We Can's SOLEfood initiative, which was to be responsible for creating the rooftop farm.

"None of the agreements were in place and the engineer hadn't signed off on the building," he said. "We're very unhappy with the way this was handled."

Shirley Chan, chief executive officer of BOB, said Wong was credited for coming up with the idea and was involved the entire time. The Courier heard about the project after a call for volunteers to help build the farm was placed online two weeks ago. The Courier interviewed three people for the initial story, including a staff member from the city, and no one mentioned Wong or a Chinatown connection.

"I don't know how he can see it that way," Chan told the Courier during an interview last week. "We worked together to take an underused facility and create something worthwhile. This had to be a collaborative project because no one person could pull this off."

Chan said neither BOB nor United We Can has the $100,000 needed for the bond, so the project is looking for another location and the farm will become a reality. The first SOLEfood urban garden was planted in an empty lot at the corner of Hawks Avenue and Hastings Street last spring. Chan said it has been a huge success.

"There's nothing that says anyone was excluded from this project," she says. "We wanted this project to strengthen relationships between Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside."

sthomas@vancourier.com