Jun 15, 2009 6:37 pm US/Central
Dispute Sprouts Over Suburban Vegetable Plot
WILLOWBROOK, Ill. (CBS) ―
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The relationship between a group of Willowbrook gardeners and the man who owns the plot they're working on has soured.
CBS
A group of women in a Willowbrook neighborhood decided to turn some empty land into a charitable garden. The gardeners originally got permission but now things have soured.
As CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports, separately, the people on either side of the misunderstanding make a lot of sense – a noble cause on one side, a property-owner trying to sell a $400,000 lot on the other.
The 2,500-square-foot vegetable garden is growing into a full-fledged controversy. Owner Kenny Cohen of Burr Ridge is trying to sell the vacant patch of land that neighbors have transferred into a mini suburban farm.
And Chris Biltstein said Cohen promised she could work the soil for a garden whose rewards would be donated to the local food bank.
"It's one of those things someone asks you hey can I plant some vegetables and you don't think anything of it," Cohen said.
"It's our property and they've basically moved in," Cohen added.
In the process Biltstein recruited a network of volunteers who paid $125 each to seriously work the land.
"They all bought into this just on the promise of what the garden holds," Biltstein said.
A plumber gave Biltstein's group of gardeners a spigot, another man tilled the land and a carpenter built a small shed to store tools.
"What I don't understand why she needs to have a huge fence work table on my lot," Cohen said.
Cohen has said the vegetables can stay, but all the other items he calls unsightly, from the work kiosk to the fence, have to go.
But Biltstein says that would basically kill the garden's support system.
"You can't grow vegetables without support," she said.
"We want to go on record: We support the cause of feeding the hungry and growing vegetables. I think that's wonderful," Cohen said.
Biltstein and company say they won't remove the items. Cohen says he doesn't know what to do next.
And we thought gardening was one of those relaxing pastimes.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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