Fiesta Place Gathering Space: Expanding a Garden into a Community Destination

The Challenge: Design Unused Land for Community Connection

More than a decade ago, NDC began working with District Heights through the Community Design Works program to help design a community garden at Fiesta Place, a former street in a residential area. The previously vacant lot was transformed into a green space, with well-tended garden plots maintained by a committed group of neighbors.

While the garden has flourished over the years, residents envisioned an even broader use for the surrounding land. The Fiesta Place Community Garden Committee imagined a space where multiple generations in District Heights—from youth to seniors—could connect with nature through hands-on learning and shared experiences. Their goal was to expand the garden beyond vegetable beds and create a welcoming gathering place for education, storytelling, and celebration.

Led by a dedicated group of residents, the Garden Committee again partnered with NDC to realize their vision. Together, they imagined an accessible, multigenerational space that would serve as a place for learning and community connection.

The Vision: A Space to Gather, Grow, and Learn Together

NDC facilitated a series of collaborative design sessions to support the project where residents shared ideas, set priorities, and shaped the design’s direction. The team used persona-based exercises to explore how a wide range of users—seniors, children, artists, and gardeners—might experience and interact with the space.

Four core principles emerged:

The Plan: Inviting, Accessible and Flexible

The resulting design features: 

Teri Speight, Fiesta Place Garden Committee Co-Chair, was instrumental in guiding each phase of the process. She speaks to the community’s excitement in realizing their vision as the space nears its long-awaited completion.

“Once the expansion is done, I see it being a meeting place,” says Speight. “You want to go sit quietly and read a book–there you are. You want to bring your kids and have them play and just sit and let them engage with nature–there it is.”

The Build: A Collaborative Partnership

Throughout the process, NDC remained a key partner, going beyond shaping the initial concept to ensure that the community’s vision was implemented. When the City of District Heights committed to funding the project’s next phase, NDC supported the transition by drafting the Request for Proposals, assisting with contractor selection, and helping navigate the permitting process and design revisions. Engineering was handled by Design Green and construction by Green Forever. NDC also provided a helpful planting palette — a spec sheet of perennial plants and shrubs to bring the space to life.

The collective dedication of residents, advocates, and city leaders has shaped the build phase. Community members remained actively involved at every stage, from providing design feedback to supporting material selection and sourcing local vendors to ensure that each element of the space reflected the community’s needs.

The City of District Heights has also been a strong and responsive partner. City Manager David Street has helped move the project forward with a commitment to honoring community priorities, ensuring that resident voices remain central to decision-making.

The Future of Fiesta Place

As construction nears completion, a ribbon cutting is tentatively planned for the summer or early fall of 2025. The community envisions that programming will be at the center once the space is open. Various events and activities—from farmers’ markets and cooking demonstrations to seed ball-making workshops, drum circles, and evening storytelling sessions for families—are already being planned.

With the expansion complete, the site will offer new opportunities for outdoor education, cultural expression, and intergenerational connection in an environment where residents can engage with the land and one another.

Grants

Pepco

Sustainable Maryland, in partnership with Pepco, will offer Sustainable Communities Grant awards to eligible municipalities and nonprofit organizations. This program will provide $75,000 support to fund environmental stewardship projects and $50,000 for community resilience projects across the Pepco service area in Montgomery County, Prince Georges County, and Washington, DC. Deadline: July 16, 2025.

Learn More

MUCFC Grants Program

The Maryland Urban and Community Forestry Committee (MUCFC) Grants program helps community groups fund tree planting and education projects statewide to enhance Maryland’s urban forest*. Community tree projects may be organized via schools, service organizations, homeowner organizations or other volunteer-based groups. The tree planting/educational projects must be located on public lands in parks, metropolitan areas, cities or towns. The maximum grant awarded per project is $1,000. Grant proposals are due to Grants Chair, with forestry board member original signature, by 4:30 p.m. on February and July 15. and reviewed shortly thereafter. Deadline: July 15, 2025.

Learn More

Community Engagement and Restoration Mini Grant

This program is designed to support activities that enhance communities, engage residents, and improve natural resources. This program runs annually; we typically begin accepting applications at the start of July every year. Deadline: Rolling.

Learn More

Tree Planting

Tree Planting projects will implement cost-effective reforestation or afforestation projects on qualifying agricultural land to support the state’s efforts in planting and maintaining 5 million sustainable trees native to Maryland by 2031.

Learn More