It’s called a public park, but, ironically, the public is barred from entering the small grassy space on North Side without buying a city permit.

Heavy, decorative metal fences and locked gates surround Gabriel’s Freedom Park, a triangular plot of city land at 3100 Meadowbridge Road in Highland Park.

The barriers to entry have been in place for at least 10 years at the park named for Gabriel, the freedom-fighting slave who was executed for organizing an uprising in 1800.

While all city parks are closed after dark, this is the only one that is off limits when the sun is shining, according to Tamara E. Jenkins, a spokeswoman for the city Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities.

Now the city has taken steps to make the space even more off limits.

In the past two weeks, the city has removed benches and changed the locks on the entry gates, leaving only a centerpiece pole with signs forbidding drug activity and loitering in the space no one can enter.

The action bars a much praised, crime-fighting group, the Richmond Guardian Angels, which previously had special permission to use the park and did so for three or four community programs a year.

“For at least four years, we’ve had a key to the gate so we could open it for events. We’ve also picked up the trash and looked after the park,” said Jo White, co-founder and leader of the group that conducts safety patrols and works with police and civic groups for community betterment.

That key no longer works, she said. “We can’t go in.”

The Guardian Angels were locked out after Mayor Dwight C. Jones, park officials and the area’s council representative, Ellen F. Robertson, met Dec. 9 with two elderly women who live near the park and complained about its use.

Ms. White said she was not allowed to attend the meeting, which Ms. Robertson confirmed.

Tommy Cox, who co-founded the Guardian Angels in 2010 with Ms. White, believes that the lock change stems from a food distribution event volunteers from Saint Giles Presbyterian Church held in the park before Thanksgiving.

Mr. Cox, who, like Ms. White, is a member of the predominantly white church, used the key to open the park for the church program. One of the women who met with the mayor was furious, Mr. Cox said.

Mr. Cox said he talked with one of the women and she complained “about strange white people” being there. He said she also vowed to see to it that the park was not used again.

The upshot of the meeting: From now on, the Guardian Angels, like everyone else who might want to use the park, will need a city stamp of approval, Ms. Robertson said.

According to the city’s website, permits for an event must be sought at least 30 days in advance and can cost a minimum of $15 an hour and as much as $850 for a day’s use, depending on the program.

Ms. Robertson promised that a community meeting would be held to explain the rules about the park’s use with interested parties, including the Guardian Angels.

In 2004, Ms. Robertson won council approval of legislation that provided $50,000 for the fencing, benches and other items in a follow-up to community efforts. She said she was carrying out the community’s wishes.

Ten years ago, neighbors described the park as an open-air drug market and wanted to block people from congregating there.