Two warring neighborhood groups in a dispute over an apple orchard in Palmer Park came to a truce Thursday, as the Detroit City Council gave them one week to reach a compromise.
The Free Press reports the order to compromise came two days after council members James Tate, Kwame Kenyatta and JoAnn Watson passed a resolution urging the city to remove some 500 apple trees planted by a nonprofit because of complaints by residents on Pontchartrain Boulevard that they were not informed about the trees and that the trees would bring rodents and dust.
"All this vacant land in Detroit, and they want to put it in our neighborhood," said Eric Sabree, deputy Wayne County treasurer for Land Management, who lives on Pontchartrain and lodged some of the complaints. "We didn't move here to be next to a farm."
But Rochelle Lento, a board member of People for Palmer Park, said the group publicized and held several meetings in advance of the planting, which started in late April.
Tate, who chairs the Neighborhood and Community Services Committee, said rather than making the council decide, the groups needed to come together and figure out what to do. The groups agreed, citing the desire not to have neighborhood strife.
