[NYTr] Judge Rejects Suit by L.A. Urban Gardeners
 
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 00:29:32 -0400 (EDT)

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AP via Findlaw - Jul 27, 2006
http://news.lp.findlaw.com/ap/o/51/07-27-2006/a801000987779d1a.html

Judge Rejects Suit by Los Angeles Urban Gardeners

(AP) - LOS ANGELES-Families whose fight to keep an urban garden from being 
developed into warehouses drew the aid of celebrities including Daryl 
Hannah lost their court challenge when a judge upheld the $5 million sale 
of the property, rejecting their claims that the price was below market 
value.

"They will not buckle. We fully intend to appeal," Dan Stormer, an 
attorney for the gardeners, said outside court after the ruling Wednesday.

Superior Court Judge Helen Bendix rejected the argument in their lawsuit 
against developer Ralph Horowitz and the city over a 2003 deal that sold 
Horowitz the land, which the city had earlier seized from him through 
eminent domain. The gardens were started after the city scrapped plans to 
build a trash-to-energy incinerator there.

Horowitz sued the city, which settled by selling the property back to him 
for just over the $4.8 million it had originally paid him.

The 14-acre (5.6-hectare) greenspace sits in a gritty industrial area. For 
about 14 years, it was worked by about 350 mainly poor, Hispanic immigrant 
families who grew everything from bananas to edible cactus.

In their lawsuit, the gardeners argued the price was far below the fair 
market value of the land and the sale was a "waste" of potential benefit 
to citizens.

In May, a judge agreed to evict the gardeners, leading to demonstrations, 
tree-sitting protests by activists and celebrities and dozens of arrests. 
A bulldozer began uprooting the garden plots on July 5.

Bendix noted in her ruling Wednesday that developing the site could create 
more than 200 jobs and that the agreement called for Horowitz to donate 
some land for a park.

       
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