The Community Development Corporation of Utah strives to combat gentrification and give low- and moderate-income families the opportunity to buy affordable homes in the city. With ownership comes pride, equity, the chance for a better life.

Wasatch Community Gardens plans and coordinates community gardens while preserving vital green space. It allows urban residents to put food on their tables and stay in touch with their neighbors and their agrarian roots.

Each nonprofit serves a similar clientele and a vital community purpose in the city, where the prices of land and housing are rapidly rising and open space is at a premium.

We support both efforts. And we're sorry to see their goals clash.

A small lot in Central City is ground zero in what could be a bitter dispute, but is better described as a dilemma, because there are no hard feelings, no bad guys involved.

For 25 years the quarter-acre plot at 555 S. 400 East has been a community garden. It began as a grass-roots effort, just a few neighbors getting together to set a few plants, lean on their shovels, talk about the weather. Over time, fruit trees blossomed, arbors were added, a raspberry patch matured.

Wasatch Community Gardens got involved in 1994, providing insurance, distributing plots and delivering educational programs at the 4th East Garden. Each year 25 families and individuals maintain plots while many more enjoy the garden, which has sprouted as a community gathering place.

But this growing season could be the garden's last. The property owner, who graciously donated the valuable land for so long, finally put it up for sale. And unbeknownst to one another, the CDC and the urban gardeners each submitted bids.

The CDC, if this were a scenario with winners and losers, was the winner. That will mean an affordable townhouse for five low- to moderate-income families in the heart of the city. But it also means the end of the garden, the end of an era. Maybe.

The groups will work together to find another Central City site for a garden, or for townhouses. Here's hoping everybody wins.