BOWMANVILLE — Chicago's Bowmanville neighborhood is a community without a single official park to call its own.
Necessity being the mother of invention, residents have been ingenious in taking advantage of what little open space is to be found in the North Side neighborhood near Andersonville.
Nearly a decade ago, the Bowmanville Community Organization gathered a group of volunteers and created Gateway Garden along a scrubby stretch of Ravenswood Avenue, where unused city parkway land butted against the sloped embankment of the UP-North Metra tracks.
More than 40 community members tend to vegetable and flower beds in the garden; the Rogers Park Montessori School across the street maintains a plot as an outdoor teaching classroom; and a communal picnic table and pergola provide neighbors and passersby with a town squarelike gathering place.
The Bowmanville Gateway Garden, before Metra improvements altered the site. [Bowmanville Community Organization]
That idyllic arrangement now is being threatened by possible development.
Here's the scenario that the Bowmanville Community Organization always knew was a possibility: The overgrown embankment next to the garden is privately owned land. And it suddenly became a more valuable piece of real estate when, as part of Metra's recent improvements to the train tracks, the formerly steep slope was cleared of overgrowth, graded to the same level as the garden, topped with soil, and landscaped with wood chips and saplings.
Gateway Garden, post-Metra improvements. [DNAinfo/Patty Wetli]
A "for sale" sign on the property jolted the Bowmanville Community Organization into action.
Faced with the potential loss of Gateway Garden, the organization teamed up with the nonprofit urban land trust group NeighborSpace to put together a bid to buy the land.
The good news: Their offer was accepted.
The catch: While NeighborSpace will come up with funding sources for the bulk of the purchase price, the sale is contingent on Bowmanville Community Organization ponying up $30,000 — by September.
"We brokered six months of fundraising time," said Jeff Graves, a member of the organization's board of directors. "By early September, we have to prove to the seller that we have those funds."
A public meeting has been scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Rogers Park Montessori School, 1800 W. Balmoral Ave., where the community organization will outline its fundraising plan — which includes an additional $20,000 to improve the garden for a total of $50,000 — as well as its preliminary vision for the land.
That vision, according to the meeting notice, is "to create spaces for year-round food-growing, accessible gardening for the elderly and persons with disabilities, ecological education for kids and parents and a quiet oasis in our dense urban environment."
A speculative rendering of what the Gateway Garden site could look like. [Bowmanville Community Organization]
Though initial design renderings have been drafted, Graves stressed those are just conceptual.
"There's lots of possibilities," he said, but noted that the land "started as a garden and will stay a garden" as opposed to, say, becoming a playground or dog run.
People are encouraged to share feedback at the meeting, said Graves.
"The question is, 'How do we make this better for everybody?' " he said.
Graves said he's confident that the organization will have the required funds by the September deadline, and will explore every donation channel, from grassroots to corporate sponsorships.
The Bowmanville community has come through before, previously partnering with NeighborSpace to purchase a lot at 5384 N. Bowmanville Ave.
"We have the most amazing community organization," said Graves. "When we start a project, we finish it."
Bowmanville residents, whether they garden or not, take advantage of this pergola in warmer weather. [DNAinfo/Patty Wetli]
Neighbors in West Andersonville have landscaped the parkway on the opposite side of the Metra tracks from Gateway Garden. The goal is to connect the two with a walking loop. [DNAinfo/Patty Wetli]
