Community garden ripped out over property dispute
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Sacramento (KOVR) — A Sacramento community garden is growing discontent in one downtown neighborhood.
A property dispute at “The Creamery” housing development has opposing sides even digging up what others had carefully planted.
“We got ripped off,” Creamery resident Ron Albu said. “We paid for this because we were told this is what we were getting.”
From his living room window, Albu’s seeds of frustration have now blossomed into outrage.
“They literally ripped all the plants out,” Albu said.
His home overlooks the community garden at the center of the property dispute. This week, neighbors recorded video of workers destroying plants and vegetables. They called the police. The community garden is now more of a community dirt lot.
“It just feels, not very nice that someone did this without even telling us,” Creamery homeowner Julie Hersh said.
Hersh had 36 plants destroyed. “Lettuce, chard, peas,” she said.
The plants were destroyed as part of an unresolved property dispute. The builder had marketed the community garden space to new home buyers, only people who bought have since learned that part of the garden space legally belongs to a business next door.
A stake in the ground now represents the property line splitting the garden, marking a divide where people had gathered together.
“And it could have been handled so much better,” Hersch said.
Half of the garden is now gone. A place where a community grew its roots has been ripped out.
“It’s just changed,” Albu said.
CBS13 contacted the builder and the next-door business owner for this report and both declined to comment. Neighbors believe this community garden dispute will eventually be settled in court.
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