Establish urban food production as a priority in New York City for personal, community, or commercial use by the year 2030

FoodNYC – A Blueprint for a Sustainable Food System

Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer
February 2010

GOAL: Establish urban food production as a priority in New York City for personal, community, or commercial use by the year 2030

Recommendations:

1. Assess Land Availability and Suitability for Urban Agriculture:

The New York City Council should pass legislation mandating that City agencies conduct an annual assessment of City-owned property and nominate suitable sites for urban agriculture. This effort is similar to the “Diggable City” project in Portland, Oregon that integrated urban agriculture into planning and policymaking. Based on a preliminary analysis of data provided by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development in 2008, there are 454 total vacant lots above 110th Street in Manhattan. Of those, over 100 are owned by the City and many have no development plans. In 2008, the Manhattan Borough President’s office also identified significant amounts of open land on New York City Housing Authority properties which should be evaluated as possible garden sites. Where appropriate and following a public review process,
City and State parkland should also be considered for urban agriculture.

2. Create a Citywide Urban Agriculture Program:

The Mayor should establish a citywide Urban Agriculture Program to support the creation of food growing spaces. The program should be similar to Capital Growth, London’s campaign to plant 2,012 growing spaces by the 2012 Olympics by connecting people to land, providing funding, and offering practical guidance on how to grow food.9 New York City’s Urban Agriculture Program should be modeled on and keep pace with “Million Trees NYC,” an initiative announced by Mayor Bloomberg on Earth Day in 2007 to plant one million trees throughout the city by 2030.10 It would thus be operated through a public-private partnership and draw a large volunteer base. The Urban Agriculture Program, which would also reduce the City’s GHG emissions, should offer technical assistance to facilitate the creation of new gardens, enhance existing gardens, and attract new gardeners. The first new growing space, a vegetable garden, should be planted in City Hall Park to mark the program’s launch.

3. Ensure the Permanence of Community:

The Mayor should preserve community gardens as parks, as proposed in a resolution introduced in the City Council by Council Member Helen Foster, to help establish the permanence of existing gardens in perpetuity. Cleveland, Boston, and Seattle are among other cities have all established similar initiatives.

4. Facilitate the Development of Rooftop Agricultural Greenhouses:

A number of property owners who are interested in building rooftop agricultural greenhouses have faced zoning barriers, including those pertaining to permitted uses, maximum allowable floor area, and light and air regulations. The City should consider addressing these barriers by creating an authorization process for certain use and bulk waivers to facilitate the development of rooftop agricultural greenhouses. Such an authorization process would provide for the case-by-case consideration of requested waivers. In addition to building plans, applications would include performance standards (e.g. amount of food produced, water use, energy conservation, programming, jobs, etc); findings to determine public benefits (e.g. environment, economic, health, education); the identification of significant adverse impacts (e.g. shadows, traffic, character, etc); and protocols for compliance reporting. Priority should be given to projects that create green collar jobs by training and employing New York City residents, especially those who are unemployed or underemployed.

See the complete report here.