Urban Farm Hub

Growing food in the burbs.

Here are some great examples of urban ag policies collected by Megan Horst, a PhD candidate in Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington and creator of the Sustainability Studio Class Blog. She will be using some in an upcoming book chapter, to be published in a book on urban agriculture by University of Iowa Press.

• Prairie Crossing is a planned suburban community in Grayslake, IL that contains a farm and farm incubator program, although I’m not sure what their ordinances are like for individual homeowners.
• This book has a lot of information about communities worldwide (urban, suburban, and rural) that have integrated gardens and food production into their spaces.
• Royal Oak, Michigan – an inner-ring suburb of Detroit.
• The Denver Sustainable Food Policy Council is currently working on passing a residential sales food policy that would allow for residents to sell their produce to neighbors and community members.  The intention of this policy is three fold: increase access to healthy foods, economic development, and build resiliency and a sustainable food system.  This code update to the Denver comprehensive plan is modeled after a variety of municipalities that have already passed this code update.  Some of these municipalities include: Seattle, Portland, and here closer to Denver the city of Wheatridge.
• Montgomery County, Maryland. Beginning in 1980, the county saved about 130 square miles for agriculture and open space, and has added a lot of sustaining activities supporting farming and farmers since this beginning.
• City of Lansing, MI revised master plan. The “Design Lansing” master plan.
• In Wilmington, Delaware there is a public-private/non-profit effort which involves revitalization of green spaces and creation of community gardens called West Side Grows.
• The City of Toronto created a “Toronto Agricultural Program,” unanimously endorsed by council.  A key element is linking farmers to land and coordinating across city divisions and community groups. Below are the links to relevant documents.  One interesting development related to urban ag in the suburbs is a new Residential Apartment Commercial zone that has been proposed to create more diverse economic opportunities in our apartment tower clusters. There are several food “uses” proposed, including market gardens.
• Arlington County, Virginia, is in the process of developing a Food Action Plan, which includes urban/peri-urban agriculture. Thus far we have a report from a citizen task force, “Recommendations for a Food Action Plan” with 27 recommendations and 150 sub recommendations.  We are awaiting County Board direction for how to move forward.
• Urban Agriculture Impacts: Social, Health, and Economic: At a Glance Spreadsheet
• Land Use Tools for Promoting Urban & Suburban Agriculture
• Agri-sprawl: farming is the new golf
• Farming in the ‘burbs’