116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Cedar Rapids finalizes plan to expand community gardens program
City looks to add eight more gardens in parks across city in coming years
CEDAR RAPIDS — Another eight Cedar Rapids parks are slated to be revamped with community garden plots over the coming years as a step toward expanding healthy food access and advancing climate action across the city.
The Cedar Rapids City Council on Tuesday supported expanding the community gardens program by adopting the Community Gardens Master Plan. The plan’s adoption was a move to get food directly in the hands of vulnerable residents and support the goals of the city’s previously adopted Community Climate Action Plan, which calls for more community gardens.
“Community gardens provide an affordable way for residents to access fruits and vegetables,” planner Haley Sevening said. “They build a stronger sense of place and community by providing a gathering location for neighborhoods, reduce negative environmental impacts of food production and of course support a healthy and active lifestyle.”
The following locations were selected for community gardens:
- Cherry Hill and Tokheim in northwest quadrant
- Noelridge and Twin Pines in the northeast quadrant
- Huston Park in the southeast quadrant, plus the newly created Sinclair Park plots
- Reed, Lincolnway and new westside library parks in the southwest quadrant
Plans are in the works to build a new permanent westside Cedar Rapids Public Library to replace the Ladd Library. Sevening said the gardens should be considered as part of the site plan as officials determine the park layout to accompany the library design.
Factors considered in choosing these locations to create community gardens included:
- Topography: Is water accessible? Is the land flat enough to accommodate garden plots?
- Equity: Which neighborhoods are most vulnerable? Where are food deserts (areas with no access to a full-service grocery store within 0.5 miles) that need more healthy food options?
- Housing density
- Walkability
- Transit access
All parks getting a garden have a site plan as part of this master plan. Within those plans is a garden tool kit that identifies core amenities available — those that are essential to the garden such as the plots or walkways, and parking lots that are accessible to those with disabilities, Parks Superintendent Mitch Ahrendsen said.
The plans also include preferred amenities such as educational opportunities, a toolshed where people could donate or store their tools on-site and gathering areas and shade structures.
“We want to make it more amenable to people to basically hang out there,” Ahrendsen said.
The community gardens are anticipated to cost about $220,000 in the short term, $330,000 in the mid term and $400,000 in the long term. This budget factors in costs of garden capital improvements, maintenance, staffing and events, as well as a yearly inflation rate.
In addition to the individual garden plans, there is an overall management plan covering the park systemwide impacts of managing community gardens. That management plan covers city support including staff and financial resources, administration of the gardens including plot allotment and fees and garden communications, programming strategy and community partnerships and funding opportunities.
Currently, the city has about 330 20-by-50-feet plots across its existing four gardens, Ahrendsen said. Those gardens are at Ellis Park, 916 Ellis Blvd. NW; near Gardner Golf Course, Highway 13 and Golf Course Road; Tuma Park, 3239 C Avenue Extension in Marion; and the newly created plots at Sinclair Park, 700 16th Ave. SE.
How to lease community garden plots
Learn more about leasing community garden plots under the “Pavilions and Other Rentals” tab of the Parks and Recreation page on the city’s website, cedar-rapids.org.
“For what our program is now, it’s very popular and very used by the people who’ve done that for a long time,” he said.
Sinclair Garden, the pilot for this program, was in a more industrial area that wasn’t highly used but this was a “cool way to repurpose a park that we already had,” Ahrendsen said.
The master plan was crafted with the help of New Venture Advisors, which specializes in food systems. It also was guided with public input, including open houses and a survey that was available in five languages: English, French, Spanish, Swahili and Kirundi. The city received 438 responses from the survey administered from last October to November.
Of those respondents:
- 72 percent were interested in gardening
- 82 percent said they would like to see more community gardens
- 15 percent had concerns of gardens being untended and becoming eyesores, bringing unknown people into the neighborhood or prompting safety issues
- Barriers to gardening included lack of space in private yard, distance from garden, access to land
- Most preferred amenities including access to water, fruit trees, access to free or low-cost compost and native or pollinator plants
- There’s also a desire for more garden support and education, such as pest management
Council member Ann Poe said she encourages creative ways to get surplus food to low-income residents or to help them access the opportunity to use the gardens. She also inquired about a plan for improving water access at existing gardens such as the one at Ellis Park.
Expanding community gardens is an important endeavor with the city’s goal of boosting food access and availability for all residents, Poe said.
“With the number of food deserts we have in Cedar Rapids, a strong community garden plan throughout the community is really essential for serving especially underserved populations,” Poe said.
Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com
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