Attorneys for the Chelsea Gardens Foundation want to bring the City of Norwich in as a party to a neighbor’s lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop work at the botanical garden site in Mohegan Park.

Attorneys for the foundation and Butternut Drive resident Charles Evans appeared before Judge Leeland J. Cole-Chu in New London Superior Court Monday for the first time in the suit that claims the initial cutting of trees on 6 acres is harming wetlands and creating a public nuisance.

At the judge’s request, the parties conferred for about half an hour to discuss whether they could resolve the dispute before returning and asking for a future hearing date. Cole-Chu asked the parties to continue talks and return to court with a status report on Aug. 20.

After the private conference, Attorney Keith R. Ainsworth, representing Evans, told Cole-Chu the claim that the project is harming wetlands still stands, while attorneys Richard J. Pascal and Jeffrey McDonald, representing Chelsea Gardens Foundation, said no trees were removed in wetlands areas. The initial tree-cutting was completed at the end of May, they said, and no work is planned in the immediate future.

But when Cole-Chu asked whether the foundation would agree to a “quiet period” of no work while parties attempt to resolve the dispute, Pascal said he would not want to sound as if the foundation were agreeing to any requested injunction.

Pascal said the city owns the property, 80 acres of Mohegan Park bordering Wilderness and Judd roads, and also has authority over the wetlands permits that were issued to the foundation in 2013. They remain valid through 2017. Outside the courtroom, he and McDonald said they would explore including the city in the talks.

During the court session, Pascal told the judge that the lawsuit was a surprise to the foundation. He said plaintiff Evans has been “hostile” in public opposition to the project — voicing objections through the news media and on lawn signs — but the foundation had no indication that a lawsuit would be filed.

The Chelsea Gardens project has been progressing slowly and quietly for more than 20 years. The Norwich City Council initially approved a lease with the foundation in 1994, and the group has been raising money, obtaining grants to pay for preliminary engineering and design work ever since. A master development plan was approved in May 2013 by the city Inland Wetlands, Watercourses and Conservation Commission and the Commission on the City Plan with no opposition.

Opposition did mount this spring, however, when the foundation began the first phase of the project, including tree-cutting in areas planned to be the main driveway and parking area, a ticket building and bathrooms. The foundation next plans to advertise for a landscape design firm to design the initial gardens.

c.bessette@theday.com

Twitter: @Bessettetheday