Humboldt Park community garden: City sells three Harding Avenue lots to NeighborSpace for $945 each

A 50–0 vote on Sept. 23 lets NeighborSpace own all four lots of the Garden on Harding and leases it a second garden site on Lincoln Avenue for $1.

By Chicago PoliticsUpdated Oct 16, 2026

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th Ward), inset, reads the NeighborSpace items in the Housing committee's report at the City Council, Sept. 23, 2026City of Chicago video

A community garden in Humboldt Park now has a path to owning its whole footprint. On Sept. 23, the City Council voted 50 to 0 to sell three vacant City-owned lots at 817, 821 and 823 N. Harding Ave. to NeighborSpace, Inc., the nonprofit that holds land for community gardens, for $945 apiece. The ordinance, O2026-0027327, passed in a group of land sales without any floor debate. The same committee report carried a second NeighborSpace item, O2026-0027400, a 10-year, $1 lease of a vacant City lot at 5900–5910 N. Lincoln Ave. in the 50th Ward for another community garden.

The Harding Avenue lots are in the 37th Ward, represented by Ald. Emma Mitts, in the Humboldt Park community area.

What is the Garden on Harding?

The ordinance's exhibit explains the purchase. NeighborSpace, acting on behalf of the Garden on Harding, already owns one of the four parcels that make up the existing garden and wants the other three. The Kelly Hall YMCA has been bringing its summer camp into the space since 2023, with children doing mindful planting and sensory gardening, and monthly adult wellness events bring 10 to 20 volunteers for clean-ups, planting and maintenance.

Each lot is 3,151 square feet and zoned RS-3, and the City's as-is market value for each is $9,453. Under the ChiBlockBuilder Open Space program, buyers pay 10 percent of that value: $945 per lot. The public notice period ran April 1 to May 18, 2026.

What strings come with the sale?

The City sells the lots as-is, with whatever title problems exist. The deed restricts NeighborSpace to improving the lots with an open space project and requires it to own them for at least five years after closing.

The ordinance describes the program's purpose. Through demolition liens, tax sales and other means, the City has acquired thousands of vacant parcels that cost money to clean and maintain, generate no property taxes and are a detriment to the community. ChiBlockBuilder, run by the Department of Planning and Development at chiblockbuilder.com, offers them online at set prices and categories of use. The open space category aims to get residents, nonprofits and businesses to fence and manage vacant land for neighborhood activities.

What about the Lincoln Avenue garden?

The second item is a lease, not a sale. The City, through the Department of Fleet and Facility Management, keeps ownership of roughly 15,000 square feet of vacant land at 5900–5910 N. Lincoln Ave. and lets NeighborSpace use it as a community garden. The form of lease attached to the ordinance sets the term at 10 years from the commencement date, with base rent of $1 for the whole term. Either side can end it for any reason with 30 days' written notice.

NeighborSpace takes the land as-is, pays for any utilities, and must actively maintain the site, including soil beds, fencing, hoop houses and weed removal, and grow produce under the City's urban agriculture requirements. One rule is spelled out: no biosolids from a wastewater treatment plant may be brought onto the site, because of the possible presence of PFAS in sewage sludge. The City says in the lease that it did only a limited review of environmental records and did not perform a Phase I environmental site assessment.

How did the vote go?

Mayor Brandon Johnson introduced both ordinances on July 15. The Harding sale came in a batch of land sales sent at the request of the Commissioner of Planning and Development. The Committee on Housing and Real Estate recommended both on Sept. 16.

On Sept. 23, the committee's chair, Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th Ward), read the Lincoln Avenue lease as item four of his report and moved it by the same motion the Council had used for earlier items; it was so ordered. The Harding Avenue sale came later in the report, grouped with two other open-space sales in the 3rd and 36th Wards as items 12 through 14, and passed the same way. No alderperson spoke on either item, and Mitts and Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th Ward) did not address them on the floor. All 50 alderpersons are recorded as voting yes on the Harding sale, and the Clerk notes an unsuccessful motion to reconsider by Ald. Gregory Mitchell (7th Ward).

How each ward voted

50 yea · Sep 23, 2026 · Passed

Yea Nay

O2026-0027327: the roll call, the timeline and the documents

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez reads the NeighborSpace lease item City Council, Sep 23, 2026 · 4:36:11–4:36:35

What it means on your block

On Harding Avenue, the garden that has been operating across four lots will sit on land its steward owns outright, instead of three lots that still belonged to the City. The five-year ownership requirement and the open-space deed restriction mean the lots cannot be turned into something else in the near term. For $945 each, the City gives up land that was costing it money to maintain and bringing in no taxes, and it still gets no property taxes from a nonprofit garden; what it gets is a maintained, fenced space it no longer has to care for.

On Lincoln Avenue, the land stays the City's. A 30-day termination clause means the garden there has less security than an owned lot; if the City wants the site back, the lease allows it. If you want to get involved, the exhibit says the Garden on Harding's adult volunteer events run monthly, and NeighborSpace's offices are at 445 N. Sacramento Blvd. Questions about either site can go to Mitts' or Silverstein's ward offices.