FAIRHOPE, Ala. — By fall, downtown Fairhope should see construction started on its first large community garden, said Elaine Snyder-Conn of the Fairhope-based Local Food Production Initiative nonprofit organization.

“It’s an acceptable alternative,” Snyder-Conn said of the site behind the Fairhope K-1 Center approved by the City Council Monday night.

The LFPI initially sought a community garden at Stimpson Field but significant opposition rose up against that proposal, which intensified in the past few weeks, she said.

“We’d also heard that a number of council members might vote against the (Stimpson Field) site due to a barrage of letters from rec center coaches and others.”

In an e-mail sent to its members and others late last week, the LFPI group’s leaders reported on what they said they had learned of an effort by the chairman of the city recreation board to provide an alternative to the Stimpson Field site.

“(We) have learned that (chairman) Charles Langham of the (recreation board) has been working very hard behind the scenes on an alternate plan to use the site behind the K-1 Center — not the kids park, but the vacant lot that backs onto the gully on the other side of Summit Street from the K-1 Center,” the Jan. 22 e-mail stated. “Mr. Langham has apparently been working with Mayor Kant and said that the city has agreed to install water to this alternative site and to level the site and build a fence along the berm and gully.”

Part of the site is owned by the Baldwin County Board of Education, according to a brief report given by Councilman Lonnie Mixon at Monday’s council meeting, prior to the unanimous vote in favor of the alternative site location.

Snyder-Conn said her group had been working with city staff regarding the new site, and had another meeting this week to discuss the logistics of getting the site ready for the 20 raised beds that will comprise the community garden by fall.

“(The site) has some advantages and disadvantages,” the LFPI e-mail of Jan. 22 stated. “For example, there is adequate adjacent parking, but the underlying soil is clay and the site would need stormwater drainage installed.”

The concerns of the LFPI have largely been addressed by the city, which is working to ensure transfer of the property from the board of education and to get the site ready for the community garden to begin construction, she said.

“We’ve also spoken with the principal at the K-1 Center and might later develop a youth garden for them to use like we did (at the Fairhope-Point Clear Rotary Youth Club),” she said, referring to the two raised-bed “youth garden” constructed with the help of the children from that club on a Saturday morning in December.

“If we prove to the city that we can make this a beautiful garden, we hope to build another one in another location in the downtown area,” Snyder-Conn said.

Synder-Conn and another LFPI member traveled last year to observe community gardens in Birmingham, which she said receive substantial support from the local municipality and serve as both a tourist destination and enhance the quality of life in the downtown area by building community and providing fresh locally grown food to its residents.