SUN VALLEY : Gardeners, DWP Reach Tentative Deal

Representatives of a group of urban gardeners reached a tentative agreement Friday with the city Department of Water and Power that could allow many to continue raising produce, which they say is an essential supplement to their diets and income.

The agreement was reached just hours after scores of gardeners brandished cornstalks and squash in front of a DWP office to protest an ultimatum to pay more for water or vacate land they have tilled for 17 years.

After 3 1/2 hours of negotiations, both sides agreed on a proposal to be presented to the Arleta Community Garden Club--they hoped in time to beat a July 6 deadline. Both sides declined to release the terms of the agreement.

“It’s in their hands now,” said Dan Duffy, a DWP superintendent. “I truly hope this will be the resolution of this problem.”

The club has farmed a 5.5-acre community garden beneath power transmission lines on Canterbury Avenue in Arleta. The DWP discovered last year that the club has not paid for water used in the northern section of the garden since 1976.

Earlier this week, the DWP notified the club that unless it agrees by July 6 to pay for all future water use, it must vacate the property by Aug. 6. DWP representatives say five other community garden clubs that farm land on rights of ways have executed similar agreements.

“Whatever is being asked of them is being asked of all garden clubs,” said Sandra Tanaka, the department’s media manager.

Members of the garden club, bearing signs that said, “Don’t Squash Us” and “Grandma’s Garden Is Her Welfare,” marched past a DWP office complex on Arleta Avenue yesterday morning to protest the DWP’s earlier decision.

“We’re sending them a clear message they’re being unfair,” said Mel Vargas, the club’s 63-year-old president, during the demonstration.

The group of about 65 protesters marched quietly in a circle for an hour, some holding tomatoes, garlic bulbs and golden zucchinis to illustrate the need to raise such fruits and vegetables to feed themselves and their families.

Among the protesters was Maria Morales, a recreational therapist with a county mental health clinic in San Fernando, who regularly brings clients suffering from depression and psychosis to the garden for therapeutic purposes.

“It helps relieve some of the symptoms,” Morales said. “We’d have to go somewhere else and find another plot or another activity very similar for our clients.”