SEAL BEACH – Avid gardener Rhadie Kho on Wednesday watered corn, eggplant, lettuce and bok choy at Edison Gardens, a more than one-acre community garden in the heart of the tiny College Park West community.
Kho, 52, a College Park East resident, doesn’t have a plot reserved. Instead, he cuts a deal with some residents who are either busy or sick and cannot maintain their plots on their own. Kho takes care of their plants, and in return receives a sliver of space in their plots for his own plants.
Kho recently signed up for his own plot because his planting spot at home lacks space and sunlight, but was told the wait could take up to two years. He’s not happy about it.
“I’ll do this one (while I wait,)” Kho said. “I have two now. I need another one.”
There’s a bare patch of land right next to this quaint community garden that Kho could be planting on, but Seal Beach can’t get permission to use it for gardening from its owner, Southern California Edison.
The city has offered to make any financial arrangements necessary to get permission to plant on the empty land, but the utility company won’t budge. City Councilman David Sloan said he won’t give up on the dozens of residents who are waiting for their turn to cultivate Edison Gardens.
“Wait til you see the people walking around with their rakes and shovels,” Sloan told a SoCal Ed spokeswoman at the city’s meeting Monday night.
Edison Gardens has 125 plots – all are active but one – and turnover of the 12-by-24-foot plots is slow. More than 50 residents are on the garden waiting list, which has a wait of up to two years long.
Using the bare plot of land would trim down the waiting list quickly, but like Edison Park and Gardens, it’s owned by Southern California Edison. It sits under the company’s power lines, and the company is refusing even to negotiate an agreement allowing the city to use more of the land.
“The primary purpose of our right of way is open space in order to allow easy access for routine maintenance and emergency response to our facilities so we can continue to provide reliable service to our customers,” Jenelle Godges, a spokeswoman for the power utility, said in an e-mail to the Register. “From time to time, SCE will consider licensing our property for low intensity use such as open park space. Community gardens, unfortunately, do not fall under low intensity use.”
Godges said the request to expand would not be considered, even if the city paid for insurance. She said senior executives and departments made the final decision on the matter, with safety, liability concerns and costs associated with managing the gardens playing a factor in the company’s decision.
The city will continue to contact Southern California Edison staff to make sure it has conveyed how much value the park and gardens bring to the city, Kelsey said.
“If they could tell us what they would really need from us, I think that has been the most difficult (part),” Sloan said. “I think we’re willing to do just about anything.”
The city budgeted $10,000 for an expansion at the park this year. Sloan said he also had $20,000 in discretionary funds that he would like to use for the expansion.
“The city has attempted to provide insurance or other financial obligations as they see fit,” Sloan said, though he didn’t have a ceiling for how much the city would spend.
City Recreation Manager Tim Kelsey said the city would take whatever amount of space Southern California Edison could give them.
“I don’t see there being a shortage of people willing to garden,” Kelsey said.
Sloan said it was frustrating that SoCal Edison seemed so unwilling to even meet with the city, and Mayor Ellery Deaton agreed, citing a need for a sense of communal spirit.
“At least they could sit down at a table with us,” she said.
Contact the writer: aklein@ocregister.com, kablaza@ocregister.com
