Wilmington staff outline adopt-a-median pilot for North Fifth Avenue

City staff presented a proposal to formalize neighborhood maintenance of medians on North Fifth Avenue, saying the effort aims to balance residents’ interest in beautification with public-safety and maintenance requirements.

"We reached out to the neighbors because items had accumulated in the medians and in some cases become overwhelming or in disrepair," said Rob Milan, formerly of the parks and recreation department. Milan said staff posted notification signs and then convened a neighborhood meeting to explore ways to allow community-led landscaping while clarifying responsibilities.

Staff described a draft memorandum of understanding that would let informal neighborhood groups adopt a median. The agreement would require a contact person and basic formalization but would not require groups to be incorporated or to receive city funding. The Brooklyn Arts District Garden Club has agreed to serve as the pilot partner and is preparing a phased landscape design for staff review.

The city’s role would include approving plant lists and layouts to ensure intersection visibility and pedestrian safety, preparing sites for volunteer work days, and providing limited in-kind assistance. Milan emphasized constraints the city will keep in place: volunteers would be discouraged from using heavy power equipment in medians and chemical pesticide applications would be limited to licensed providers.

Board members asked about acceptable hardscape and gathering features. Milan said some creative installations—benches, rain barrels and handcrafted edging—had been installed previously by neighbors but that those features sometimes posed safety or maintenance problems. "We're going to create a clean slate and then work with groups so their designs are sustainable and safe," he said.

The pilot is intended as a prototype that could be scaled to other corridors if the agreement and the Brooklyn Arts District Garden Club’s design and maintenance approach prove workable. Staff expect to circulate the draft agreement to board members within weeks and begin a summer schedule of site work and fundraising led by the neighborhood group.

Board members responded favorably, noting the approach could reduce the city’s maintenance burden while enabling more community involvement. The meeting did not include any formal vote on the memorandum of understanding; staff characterized the program as still being finalized and scheduled for additional follow-up.