It's a parcel the city has never quite known what to do with, and its future as a garden was thrown into doubt last week when City Councilman Eric Bever suggested the land be sold to a developer who is planning an adjacent project.
Red Mountain Retail Group wants to replace an abandoned medical building with a Walgreens and add parking and 14 town homes on land just south of the garden, between Harbor Boulevard and Charle Street.
The council agreed last week to rezone the property for the project, but it's not clear whether the developer wants the garden or if the council would vote to sell it.
Costa Mesa signed an agreement in 1974 to buy the garden plot for $43,000 in state park bond money. The owner at the time lived on the property and was allowed to stay during her lifetime, City Manager Allan Roeder said.
When she died in the late 1980s or early 1990s, city officials considered making it a pocket park, but they chose not to because of traffic on Hamilton. They the plan was for a skate park, but it was decided the parcel was too small with no room for on-site parking.
"Frankly that's why it ended up as a community garden, because that's about as benign an open space use as there is," Roeder said.
Since it opened to gardeners in 2004, people like Ethan Kolasinski have poured their hearts into it. He grew plants on his parents' Costa Mesa property until they moved away a few years ago, and — like the Redmans — he has only a concrete backyard.
Boasting vegetables, flowers and a large mutated cactus, Kolasinski's plot is a veritable tour of different plants and habitats all on its own.
There's a succulent and cactus area, and the grape arbor he built out of driftwood he found on the beach in Newport.
