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Resistance
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Title: Berkeley gardener told to uproot his plants
Source: Contra Costa Times
URL Source: http://www.contracostatimes.com/localnews/ci_11381675?nclick_check=1
Published: Jan 5, 2009
Author: Doug Oakley
Post Date: 2009-01-07 05:40:58 by farmfriend
Ping List: *Agriculture-Environment*     Subscribe to *Agriculture-Environment*
Keywords: None
Views: 288
Comments: 16

Berkeley gardener told to uproot his plants

By Doug Oakley
Staff writer
Posted: 01/05/2009 07:23:28 PM PST

Gary Rosenberg says he is just trying to practice what city leaders preach: He is trying to practice sustainable living by using as few resources as possible.

But instead of giving the Berkeley man an award for growing his own fruits and vegetables, recycling and composting, the city slapped him with a $3,000 fine.

He also faces more fines of $3,000 a day if he doesn't tear down his rooftop greenhouse or submit a $4,000 nonrefundable zoning fee to legalize it. And he needs to get rid of the outdoor rooftop gardening operation — which is all in plastic pots — and trim his trees over six feet tall. None of his gardening structures were built with city permits.

Even if he pays the fee to legalize his urban gardening operation, he has to go through public hearings and it's not a guarantee he will be approved.

"We're going to shut him down," said Berkeley Code Enforcement Supervisor Gregory Daniel. "You can't build a 12-foot addition on top of your house and say it's a greenhouse and not comply with building codes."

Daniel said while the fines may sound harsh, the city wouldn't have known about his operation if he didn't let his compost get out of hand. It was attracting flies and rats and the neighbors complained, Daniel said.

What's more, he is putting his tenants at risk by setting a structure on a flat roof without thinking it through, Daniel said.

"I explained to him that even if you want to start this whole political consciousness movement about rooftop gardening, go about it legally because that's the way you are going to get the support of citizens and the city," Daniel said.

Rosenberg has since removed the compost and trimmed his trees. But he said he's not going to remove the rooftop garden or greenhouse without a fight. He said he is perplexed that the city's official policy, Measure G, states that the majority of food consumed in Berkeley should be produced locally to help reduce greenhouse gases, yet the city harasses him.

All the materials he uses for gardening and which he used to build the greenhouse came from city trash. He makes soil from coffee grounds he gets from Peet's Coffee and food waste from the Juice Bar Collective and the T-Rex Barbeque.

Rosenberg claims that by next summer he will be growing enough food to feed 15 people on less than the $100 he invested.

"I got rid of the compost pile," Rosenberg said. "I cleaned up as well as I could. But they said I can't use my roof.

"I put a brand new roof on and got a permit for it. I can't see (how) what I'm doing is affecting anyone's life negatively. It's not like I'm converting a garage in the hills to an illegal rental unit. I'm doing this in plain sight."

Rosenberg called the city's action on his trees in the front yard "selective enforcement" because "80 percent of the houses in Berkeley have trees over six feet tall."

Rosenberg said he has 60 letters of support from his neighbors.

Interviews with a couple of his neighbors elicited positive responses.

"It don't bother me, man," said a neighbor who lives across the street who declined to give his name.

"Everybody in the neighborhood praised him for building that greenhouse. He's doing something for the environment. What's wrong is they let him build it, and then they make him tear it down."

The man pointed out that the city's corporation yard, which draws city employees and inspectors on the way to and from work every day, is down the street from his home. If they had a problem with it when he was building it, they should have stopped him then, the resident said.

Alex Mendelsohn, who lives in the neighborhood, said she likes Rosenberg's greenhouse.

"To see that go up helps us all realize you can grow food in pots on rooftops in all sorts of places," Mendelsohn said.

"I understand that the city needs the revenue, but the planning process can be very difficult and expensive. This guy is growing food up there. Other people can look at it and say "hey, I can do that too!'" Subscribe to *Agriculture-Environment*

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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 9.

#9. To: farmfriend (#0)

...he has to go through public hearings...

Public hearings are not only stressful but an enormous waste of time that could much better be applied to constructive works. Just increases costs and discourages innovation.

Note that the enforcement officer's attitude is to shut down any non-complying operation rather than work out something that acceptable and maybe even better than originally proposed.

Roof-top gardening is the only way to go, especially in urban centers because of exposure to extra sunlight and is "out-of-bounds" to plant-uprooting pets and ground=based, migrating pests. Such gardens are best on two-story or high buildings to avoid shading by trees. In addition to gardens, roof-tops should have sundecks; people would be able to get the necessary vitamin D and be a lot healthier.

It's often the case where regulation transgression is of no consequence to most people, but all it takes is one dispeptic complainant to get government bureaucrats, with time on their hands, to disrupt an innovative, experimental improvement/undertaking. That's why we have everything-grinds-to-a-halt depressions which force governments to purge the system of initiative-inhibiting bureaucrats. Most of the bureaucrats are not only a nuisance but totally redundant because anyone genuinely aggrieved can take the matter to court.

Tatarewicz  posted on  2009-01-08   21:48:50 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


Replies to Comment # 9.

#11. To: Tatarewicz (#9) (Edited)

Note that the enforcement officer's attitude is to shut down any non-complying operation rather than work out something that acceptable and maybe even better than originally proposed.

This seems to be the norm with the left. Fascism is their mainstay.

Edit: and I agree with you, urban gardens need to be promoted.

farmfriend  posted on  2009-01-08 22:05:59 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


End Trace Mode for Comment # 9.

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