An endangered community garden

By Xavier Cabrales, President, Walnut Grove Community Garden

We, a small group of gardeners, opened the Walnut Grove Community Garden/Farm in the summer of 2007. Since Mount Vista homeowners own the common area upon which we planned to put the garden we FIRST secured the consent and permission of the Mount Vista Homeowners Association (MV/HOA) Board of Directors. At the direction of the board, a poll of the homeowners in the MV/HOA was conducted which revealed 90% approval of our proposal.

At that time, we did not know that the Oakmont Village Association (OVA) through its Architectural Committee (AC) exercises broad controlling power over all common area within Oakmont, even that owned by individual homeowners. As owners of the common area we have the duty and incur the expense of maintaining the property, but we’ve sadly learned the unfair truth that we have all of the owner’s duties and responsibilities, but no rights of ownership for the how the common area is used.

The garden is situated in a secluded area. It is not visible to any of the Mount Vista neighborhood homes. The garden itself uses perhaps about one-third of the whole parcel. The other approximate two-thirds is dotted with several walnut trees, shrubs and grasses. There is a copse of trees and a creek bed dividing the garden area from the residential area of Mount Vista. We invite you to come to Mountain Vista Circle. Take the paved walkway which curves down to the creek bed and then up to the garden area and you will see that it is a remote area entirely separated from Oakmont residences. It is an ideal area for an Oakmont community garden! Please come see for yourself.

We proceeded actively and openly to develop the garden. As early as 2007, the OVA knew of our garden’s existence because our press releases appeared in the Oakmont News inviting other Oakmonters to join our garden. By 2008 we were advertising in the Oakmont News about our participation as a community garden club at the Oakmont “New Residents” receptions. Furthermore, in December of 2008, Walnut Grove Garden/Farm applied to OVA and had been approved and sanctioned as an organization with the OVA. This was announced at the monthly OVA board meeting in December, 2008, and also in an announcement in the January, 2009, Oakmont News. No one told us our garden needed additional approval from the AC.

We invested time and money to improve the remote vacant lot and created a beautiful, productive garden. We grew produce for ourselves and our neighbors and contributed excess produce to a food bank for the needy. We did this openly and we believed that we’d followed every rule and guideline to the tee. We were not aware we needed to get approval of our garden from the AC. For two years we openly developed this garden and nobody from OVA or the AC or any other official Oakmont entities informed us of this.

Then one day in September, 2009, our garden was abruptly closed down by the AC. Mid-harvest, we were banned from entering the garden. We complied. It was closed, they said, because of a complaint from a homeowner and because proper approvals from the AC had not been obtained. About three AC members came to the garden and spoke to the two gardeners who just happened to be present. Those gardeners said they felt they were treated harshly and abrasively. From that day forward, all of us were banned from the garden by the AC.

After the ban was imposed, we worked to gain AC approval. We were given one list of demands after another. Finally after the last new list of demands, in June 2010, we appealed to the OVA to overrule the AC ban. The OVA refused to do so, but their attorney, Malcolm Manwell, did offer to mediate the dispute between the AC and us. On June 28 we had a mediation session and Mr. Manwell decided that only two significant issues of concern remained: 1) Whether the garden needed to comply with the Americans with Disability Act (ADA), and 2) Whether CalTrans approved the access from Highway 12. After the session, the OVA attorney enlisted the pro bono attorney who had been assisting us to research the ADA issue, and he undertook obtaining CalTrans approval. Our attorney immediately wrote and submitted to Mr. Manwell an opinion letter concluding that there was no ADA problem. And the OVA attorney contacted CalTrans.

At this time, the CalTrans issue has remained unresolved; when it is resolved, we expect the “green light” to once again enter our garden and resume our hobby.

It has been one long, difficult year since the abrupt garden closing last September. We have felt lots of frustration and some anger. Nevertheless, we have worked diligently to resolve the AC’s concerns and to gain AC approval. Yet the AC continues to impose additional road blocks. Recently the same complaining home owner filed another complaint with unfounded accusations. She sent pictures of the garden showing that tall weeds had been removed from it. Indeed they had! The MVA/HOA has a duty to remove tall weeds because they pose a fire hazard. When Mr. Manwell, the OVA attorney, received the complaint, he immediately assumed the worst about us and shot off an accusatory letter to our attorney letter demanding that she get her “people under control.”

How sad it is…how unnecessary the politics…it was just a garden. We watch sadly (from a safe distance!) as yet another growing season comes to an end.

Yet we gardeners maintain optimism. We are patient folks. We deeply desire to continue our gardening and to harvest the gifts of the earth. We would appreciate your support. Please come see our garden. And please express your support of our garden.

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