Back in April, a bunch of young idealists asked some tax collectors for help turning an inner-city forest into a farm.

On Saturday, a big hurdle was cleared when members of the Landslide Community Farm became owners of the first five lots in what they hope will become an agricultural oasis overlooking Fifth Avenue where the Hill District and West Oakland meet.

Their parcels are among 434 tax-delinquent lots that officially changed hands that day, the first in what the city hopes will be a bumper crop of deals seeded by its buyback of old tax debt.

The five lots, where homes were long ago burned or buried by landslides, are among thousands that were financially interred by tax debts the city sold to a private company. That company, Capital Asset Research Corp., proved an impediment to redeveloping city land, until Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl engineered a $6.5 million buyback of the old debt.

		Listen in Rich Lord speaks with Claire Schoyer and Elijah Matheny about plans for a communal inner-city farm

Would-be farmer Claire Schoyer, 22, knew nothing of that in April, when she and friends moved to Allequippa Street and started eyeing the depopulated stretches of land that run from the corner of Fifth Avenue and Kirkpatrick Street toward Oakland. She only knew she wanted to help create a communal, urban farm.

"Our idea is to have members of the community come down, help us farm the land, and they'll be able to get a share of the produce," she said. "Pittsburgh is ideal for this, because we're one of the few large cities with a lot of greenspace in an urban environment."

She and friends approached the city treasurer's real estate arm, and asked about land around mostly abandoned Beelen and Brenham streets. They learned that some parcels were slated for the auction block at a May 11 tax sale.

They got a tutorial in the complicated process of buying tax-delinquent property. The city constantly evaluates parcels that are subject to unpaid property taxes, chooses land that might have value, tries to find and warn owners and then auctions it off.

For a decade, it had to contend with Capital Asset, which bought old city and school district tax debt for $64 million in the late 1990s. Naturally, the firm wanted to collect the debt. When the city asked it to waive the debt for parcels that could be redeveloped, it often said no.

Because Capital Asset parent company MBIA Inc. is getting out of the tax lien business, Mr. Ravenstahl's administration was able to buy back the right to collect the old tax debt for one-tenth of what the city originally sold it for. Now the city decides when to waive or reduce the debts.

"By repurchasing these tax liens, we've been able to give people the power to take back their communities, lot by lot," said Mr. Ravenstahl.

There's still a process that buyers have to go through.

Ms. Schoyer and 11 friends went to the May 11 tax sale -- the first after the tax debt buyback -- with a limited budget.

The auction "was very tense," she said. "Most of the people sitting around were in suits. They were developers."

The suits snapped up property after property. Then the future farmland went on the block.

"We were like, 'Please don't buy our lots!' " she said. Luckily, her fellow would-be farmers were the only bidders. "Then we were out in the hallway, dancing, cheering, calling people."

They had to pay $12,000, reflecting the tax debt accumulated in the last decade, but didn't have to cover the older delinquent taxes. They also had to pay off $5,000 in old water bills. The sale became final Saturday.

"Without the city's help, we were not going to be able to get those lots," Ms. Schoyer said as she and friend Elijah Matheny, 25, walked Beelen's tree-strangled, half-collapsed back end.

They're ready to start testing soil, felling trees, and building terraces and raised beds. They're studying permaculture, a growing method that, Mr. Matheny says, "keeps on producing and takes care of itself."

Currently part of the Thomas Merton Center's Sustainable Living Project, they are also creating a nonprofit organization that will be able to receive donations.

The farm is likely the most exotic purchase emerging from the tax debt buyback.

Three-quarters of the 434 parcels the city put up for auction on May 11 were subject to tax debts bought back from Capital Asset.

Some were sought by private developers or community groups, others by homeowners seeking to turn abandoned lots next door into side yards.

The treasurer's office says that it's not selling the homes of poor people. It has payment plans for people in tax trouble.

"The owners [of the auctioned properties] don't want them, or the owners are dead," said Mary Lou Tenenbaum, a city real estate manager. "They're vacant lots."

The city doesn't net much from the sales, said Treasurer Rich Fees, but expects to benefit in the long run. "It puts properties back on the tax rolls so that you have a steady source of income from these properties that sat abandoned for years."

The next tax sale is Friday in the City-County Building, with 400 properties on the block.

Ms. Schoyer and her collaborators are eyeing a crescent-shaped strip of properties around Beelen Street, but they're not up for auction yet. That's OK because they have plenty to do.

"Hopefully, by next spring, we can have a pretty big garden," she said.