Community Garden Proposed for City-Owned Site
A community garden would bloom on city-owned property within a year under a plan being drawn up by a group of residents.
The property is north of Bastanchury Road between Malvern Avenue and Euclid Street. The city agreed last week to lease it to Dan Manassero, owner of Manassero Farms, for two years.
After the first year, however, one acre of the 5.4-acre plot might be turned into a community garden under a proposal by a nonprofit group headed by Fullerton resident Roger Wilson. City Council members have given Wilson’s group a year to come up with a plan.
Wilson said he eventually would like to use the entire 5.4-acre site, known as the Bastanchury Greenbelt, as a community garden where people could rent 20-foot-by-20-foot plots to grow flowers, herbs and vegetables.
Wilson said such gardens are in high demand. Other cities have set up successful community gardens that are so popular that they have three- to five-year waiting lists, he said.
City officials said Manassero will grow and sell a variety of vegetables at the Bastanchury Greenbelt, which was donated to the city several years ago on the condition that it be used as a park. He will pay $9,000 to rent the land.
City Councilwoman Jan M. Flory said she would support allocating the funds necessary to set up the project.
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