A photo of the empty lot that the Wydle Center plans to turn into a green space. Source: Google Maps

This story has been updated. 

Decatur’s Wylde Center plans on developing a garden in Kirkwood.

The property is about one acre near the intersection of First Avenue and Lakeview Drive. The proposed green space, which will be known as Hawk Hollow, was donated to the Wylde Center in 2012. Wylde Center Green Space Manager JC Hines said Hawk Hollow will become an educational garden full of native plants. According to the Wylde Center’s website, the property gets its name from one of its trees. The tree has a hollow base and hawks living in the tree tops above it.

The Wylde Center is applying for a special use permit, which won approval from the Kirkwood Neighbors’ Organization last Friday.

“It’s zoned as residential, but it’s an unbuildable lot,” Hines said.

It’s located on a flood plain and is intersected by a creek.

Hines said that the Wylde Center has some grant funding available and anticipates spending $80,000 to develop the space as a garden. The build out will include two outdoor classrooms, a pavilion and a tree house, Hines said.

There are a few more steps in the permit approval process. The Neighborhood Planning Unit – O will take up the special use permit application at its next meeting. There will also be an additional zoning process the Wylde Center will have to go through because the property is in a flood plain. Hines hopes the project can get underway this February.

There were no objections to it at the KNO meeting and Hines is hopeful the neighborhood will continue to support the project.

“As far as I can tell, people are very supportive,” she said. “… It’s really a benefit to the neighborhood to have a project like this.”