Gardeners’ goal grows

Rooters for a Community Garden in South Laguna convinced the City Council to waive the fees for a required temporary use permit.

The community garden will be planted on a parcel at Virginia and Eagle Rock ways that was previously cultivated by community members.

Neighbors will be notified by mail of the permit hearing.

The out-of-town owner of the parcel has given the applicants permission to use the lot for one or two years, South Laguna resident Morrie Granger said.

He would have preferred the city give the garden a pass on the permit, since the use was not new.

But City Manager Ken Frank said that the additional vehicle traffic, a proposed tool shed on the property and the possibility of residents opposing the garden, made a permit hearing necessary.

“A lot of people with their own gardens don’t have space for pumpkins that grow 10 feet long and 10 feet wide,” said nursery owner Ruben Flores. “I would do everything to help bring this to fruition.”

The request for the waiver was not on the agenda, but the council voted unanimously to include it rather than put it on a subsequent agenda, which might delay planting in time for edible summer crops.

However, vegetables and fruits take a lot of water, and Mayor Pro Tem Elizabeth Pearson said she couldn’t support the proposal when the city is asking residents to cut back on water use.

She asked if the applicants would consider instead a “water-wise” garden like the one in front of the Laguna Beach County Water District offices on Third Street.

They declined.

The gardening will be done in raised beds, known as “square-foot beds,” with a specified water flow, Flores said.

Former Mayor Ann Christoph said a water meter will be installed and the South Laguna Civic Assn. would pay the bill.

Pearson also said waiving fees for this project would obligate the council to waive fees for similar projects.

A plan has been prepared for the South Laguna garden that includes a design for a tool shed and a low fence to keep children in, not out, said Bill Rihn, South Laguna Civic Assn. president.

“We see this as a community project,” Rihn said.

“We’d like the city to be our partner.”