Naperville garden plot expansion not in 2011 plans

The Naperville Park District will not be adding a new garden plot site next year.

After studying costs of site evaluations for three parks, district officials determined there is not enough demand for more plots to justify the money involved.

"At this time it's our recommendation to not move forward with the expansion of garden plots in 2011 but that we continue to track these numbers, track these trends and possibly look at garden plot expansion as part of a larger project in the future such as Southwest Community Park," said Brad Wilson, director of recreation.

The district, however, may survey residents to find out if there are ways to enhance the current plots at West Street.

The park district lost plots when it agreed last year to allow Naperville Unit District 203 to build athletic fields on part of the garden plot site at West Street.

For months, the issue pitted gardeners who didn't want to lose land against parents of Naperville Central High School athletes who wanted their children to be able to practice near the school.

The park district had planned to create new plots at DuPage River Park but that project fell through after residents near the park complained and the price tag came in more than anticipated.

Last month, commissioners asked for more information about the potential for constructing 100 plots at either Country Lakes Park on the north side, or Southwest Community Park or DuPage River Park on the south.

Wilson said Thursday the district already spent $27,000 on a site evaluation for DuPage River Park and determined it would cost another $65,000 to update that study and evaluate the two other parks.

In addition, the park district in recent months has been able to create a handful of new plots at the West Street site, bringing the total to 518, up from 495. Doing so helped bring the wait list down to 38, Wilson said.

Those findings led to the staff's recommendation and commissioners' concurrence that they will not move forward on a new plot site next year.

However, Commissioner Andrew Schaffner said because the district has unused money from not creating a second plot site, he would like staff to survey gardeners to find out if there are improvements they can make to the current site.

The park district has already made some improvements to the West Street plots this year, Wilson said, such as better drainage and availability of waterspouts.