Community Garden Fights in the Tower District | ABC30 Fresno

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By ABC30

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Fresno, CA A community garden that's been in the tower district for just 2 months may soon be a thing of the past.

The Fresno police department has started cracking down on gardeners, saying that they're not supposed to be there.

The person who owns the property sent a letter, asking police to enforce trespassing laws. But, community garden organizers say they do have the owner's permission.

They claim the police department forced the property owner to write the letter because they don't like people loitering in the area.

Josh Trevino with community garden coalition said, "It's been constant the entire time we've been trying to have a garden here. They consistently come around and harass the people that are taking care of the garden and telling them that they're trespassing and they have to move on."

Randy Reed with the City of Fresno said, "If the property owner lets us know they want this property to be used as a community garden we're more than willing to work with them to make that happen."

Calls to the property owner were not returned.

A city official tells Action News they are working with him to try and keep the community garden going.