Construction debris raining on Schuylkill River Park Community Garden

Water, sunlight, and construction nails have been showering the plants at one of Center City's most popular community gardens. Among the blooming flowers, tomatoes, and herbs is the occasional two–by–four sticking out of a plot of soil.

So far, the nails and other construction detritus has resulted in closures, meetings, special committees, and input from a lawyer. On Monday, after another meeting, a solution was reached. It involves a task force.

The problem began when Dranoff Properties and contractor Intech began construction of One Riverside, a 22-story residential tower at 210 S. 25th St. The Schuylkill River Park Community Garden is its immediate neighbor to the south.

As the tower went up, so did the instances in which nails, hardware, and building material ended up taking flight and landing on the community garden below.

Last Tuesday, the Center City Residents' Association board, which manages the community garden, voted, 14-2, to close the area until further notice. The closure started Friday night.

Stanley Krakower, a lawyer who advised the association to close the garden, said the group had a responsibility to protect its constituents.

"You don't let gardeners plant their tomatoes while there are occasional two-by-fours falling in the garden," Krakower said.

But some gardeners thought the board overreacted.

Al Kelman, a gardener whose partner found a length of two-by-four in their plot, said, "That doesn't mean stuff is falling every day."

"It's not like we are being bombarded," Kelman said.

The plots are leased to gardeners for up to six years before they have to be turned over to the next person on the waiting list. Currently, 45 people are on the waiting list for one of the 86 plots.

And for many gardeners, being denied access to their plots was a major loss: time away from their garden that could never be made up.

"It's a sad situation and I think I can say every gardener is so disappointed," Lillian Cohen said while tending to her tomatoes last week. "This becomes so much a part of everyone's lives."

Even the city got involved.

In the week leading up to the garden's closure, the Department of Licenses and Inspections twice examined the building and found no violations, L&I spokeswoman Karen Guss said.

As construction progresses and the building becomes more contained, "you're less likely to find a condition where you would worry about something coming off an open floor," Guss added.

But CCRA board president Chuck Goodwin said that just because the building is up to code doesn't mean it was entirely safe.

"I think the feeling of the board was, 'What choice do we have?' " Goodwin said.

Amid the backlash that came with Friday's closure, the CCRA granted the community garden's steering committee access over the weekend to water plants. In an email to gardeners, the CCRA said it would compensate lost garden time in the next season.

On Monday afternoon, CCRA came up with another solution, this one from Intech. The contractor proposed fencing off the plots closest to construction during working hours, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays. The rest of the garden will operate as usual.

The closure would be in effect until September, when the danger of flying nails would be over.

Gardeners warmed up to the proposal, which must still be approved by a CCRA task force.

lfeiner@philly.com215-854-5915@lauren_feiner