Storm surrounds Upland garden proposal

The garden project, initiated by San Antonio Heights resident and avid gardener Mary Petit in February, has caused quite an uproar among residents near the proposed garden location at 24th Street and Mountain Avenue.

Petit's community garden is intended to be used by local gardeners and families to grow vegetables, herbs and edible flowers to be donated to families in need.

"In my wildest dreams I never expected this type of reaction," Petit said. "I certainly expected questions and concerns and would have addressed them all or at least attempted to address them all."

The residents spoke at Monday evening's City Council meeting, citing concerns about possible increases in wildlife, people, traffic and noise from construction on the property.

The smell of recently dumped manure on the land was mentioned by every resident who spoke.

In response, the council agreed to send city officials to the site at 7 a.m. Tuesday to prevent the project from moving forward.

"They put in a big water main and have been doing grading without a grading permit," Mayor John Pomierski said. "You can't do something like that when you have all kinds of people on your property with traffic in and out without a conditional use permit. None of that was applied for."

Petit had been meeting with city officials concerning permit approval for the community garden.

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