March 2005

The City of Irvine Public Works Department’s mission is to develop, build and maintain public infrastructure, which includes creatively using community resources. The department administers millions of dollars in capital improvement project funds and maintains 1,112 acres of landscape and 1,535 lane-miles of roadway.

However, a review of the land within the city revealed some rather unsightly acreage: fallow ground located on easement property leased by the city, which generated $4,500 a year in weed abatement expenses. This considerable site, encompassing approximately 7.5 acres, was anything but attractive. Improvements were needed, but they had to be made without reducing city coffers, and they required approval of the city council and residents living close by.

In summary, the challenge would be to turn an ugly piece of land not suitable for conventional landscaping into a "green" landscape improvement that the community could embrace and be proud of without significant program or staffing costs.

The Edible Concept

In 1999 A.G. Kawamura, then a farmer and now California’s secretary of agriculture, approached the City of Irvine with the idea of using the undeveloped easement land for an "edible" park. The plan would be to take the unproductive, unsightly land and convert it into an attractive, educational park. This garden park would benefit the community in myriad ways by growing produce that could be distributed through existing volunteer networks to meet the nutritional needs of Orange County’s most needy residents and, at the same time, be an educational and aesthetically pleasing venue.

A partnership was formed that included:

• The City of Irvine, a municipality that contributed the use of the leased property and provides project coordination and oversight;
• Southern California Edison, a public utility and owner of the easement property, that approved the proposed use of the land for growing fruits and vegetables;
• Irvine Ranch Water District, a public utility that installed a water meter and provides low cost water;
• Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, a nonprofit agency that provides on-site management as well as volunteers to plant, weed, harvest and distribute the produce;
• Orange County Harvest and Orange County Produce, LLC, private companies, that provide expertise and technical support;
• The Orange County agricultural community through the Orange County Farm Bureau, which provides plants and supplies; and
• The Irvine Unified School District, which became a partner following the inception of the program, providing student volunteers to plant, weed and harvest the produce.

In February 2000 the concept was presented to the city council. Staff was charged with engaging the community, particularly those residents who would be most affected by the project, in a discussion about an edible park. Several meetings were held to address all the residents’ concerns including access, use of pesticides, vandalism, choice of vegetables or fruits to be planted and when, water usage and overall supervision. Support was unanimous for the "Incredible Edible Park," so a pilot program was developed and implemented. The first phase occupied four acres.

In 2002, the city won an environmental enhancement and mitigation grant from the state to construct the final section of the Harvard Spine Bike Trail and plant 80 citrus trees. The bike trail runs alongside the garden park.

In November 2003 the bike trail was completed and the Incredible Edible Park expanded from 4 to 7.5 acres.

Since 2000, three to four crops are grown each year on a continuous basis, including seasonal plantings, such as:

• Radishes, bush peas, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce and cauliflower in winter;
• Potatoes, beets, turnips, lettuce and carrots in spring; and
• Beans, peppers, squash and cucumbers in spring and summer.

The crops are grown in raised square or rectangular shaped beds of approximately a quarter acre each, which look similar to most farm fields but are smaller in scale.

Numerous Community Benefits

The specific results include:

• The transformation of unattractive, unproductive land into a useful site to meet the aesthetic and practical needs of the community;
• More than one million pounds of fresh produce have been provided to the county’s most needy residents;
• More than 10,000 volunteers have helped plant, weed and harvest produce, and of those, 4,000 school children have shared in this experience;
• The creation of an educational venue for hands-on experience with a living environment that teaches lessons of life, our dependency on food production and nutritional awareness;
• An opportunity for youth to understand that a vast array of fruits and vegetables are grown in fields that require weeding, watering, fertilizing, protection from pests and lots of hard work;
• A site that allows the community un-restricted access by walking or riding bikes to and through the site, providing the opportunity to sample or take home some of the crops;
• The City of Irvine saves $4,500 a year in weed abatement expenses; and
• It stands as a great example of "metro-farming" - a location in a large city that provides a place to cultivate produce.

With the help, encouragement and fortitude of many individuals and organizations, Irvine developed a beautiful and unique park experience by taking the seed of a good idea and planting it in a community that was able to gather the expertise and resources necessary to make it grow.

Contact: Steve Bourke, landscape maintenance superintendent, Public Works Dept., City of Irvine; phone: (949) 724-7609; e-mail: sbourke@ci.irvine.ca.us

The City of Irvine won the Grand Prize in the Planning and Environmental Quality category of the 2004 California Cities Helen Putnam Award for Excellence Program. For more information about the award program, visit www.cacities.org The deadline to apply for the 2005 program is May 14.