It took almost eight years, but a fruit orchard project the Garfield Park Community Council wanted to build on two East Garfield Park vacant lots, finally broke ground in mid-June.
Originally known as Fifth Avenue Eco Orchard, the council conceived the project in response to something it heard from Garfield Park Farmers Market customers – they liked getting locally grown vegetables, but they wanted to be able to buy locally grown fruit. As the concept evolved, the council decided to add flood mitigation elements. The city and the community group settled on two vacant 5th Avenue lots – one at 3024 – 40 W. 5th Ave., between Albany and Whipple avenues, and one a little further east, at 3001-13 W. 5th Ave., near the 5th Avenue/Sacramento Boulevard intersection.
Mike Tomas, the group’s executive director, said several factors caused the delays – most notably, it took two years to hammer out the agreement with the City of Chicago and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD). They also struggled to find a contractor to take on this project. But with those obstacles out of the way, Tomas said, they expect the orchards to be completed by the summer of 2027.
While the council came up with the concept, it became a collaboration between the city and MWRD. First discussions began in 2015, but the project didn’t truly get off the ground until early 2018, when the district gave it a $500,000 grant, and the city council approved another $500,000 in matching funds.
The orchards were always supposed to go somewhere on the Garfield Park portion of 5th Avenue. The two lots that the project team ultimately settled on were chosen because they were the least contaminated and because this is where flood mitigation would have the most impact.
In the fall of 2018, the council and the city held three community meetings where the concept was fine-tuned. As Austin Weekly News reported at the time, residents who attended wanted the gardens to include edible shrubs, a play space, walking paths and plants that are native to Illinois. Over time, community meeting spaces were added into the mix, as were pollinator zones for bees.
Original plans called for large stormwater detention tanks to be added on the ground, but the project team struggled to find a contractor that would be willing to do it.
“The city put it out to bid and didn’t get any bids,” Tomas said. “It was too big for a landscaping company to do, and too small for a big company to bid on. So, it was in that weird space, and it was hard for us to get the bids.”
They ended up reducing the stormwater mitigation measures to something more biddable – a combination of rain gardens and permeable paving to absorb rainwater, “bioswale” channels to capture runoff and green infrastructure to disperse water.
“It will still keep the rainwater on the site, but not at the amount of gallons [we’d have] if we put big cisterns in,” Tomas said.
As a result, he said, the project lost MWRD funding – but they got more room to plant trees.
“Over 30 fruit trees will go in, there will be more natural plants, more meeting spaces for residents, walking paths, kids’ play areas,” Tomas said.
He said contractors are currently putting in utilities and concrete. In August, residents will have an opportunity to decide what sort of fruits and nuts will be planted, as well as what sort of features they want to see in the community meeting spaces and the kids’ areas.
“We don’t know the final tree selection because we want residents to give more input,” Tomas said.
The goal, he said, is to do some planting in the fall, and some more planting next spring.
