Concerns about City of Portland’s proposed regulatory and zoning code changes for gardeners and urban farmers
Portland Farmers Market.
Portland Planners Threaten Local Resiliency, Local Food and Local Economy
By Vince
The Daily Attack
Aug. 13, 2011
Excerpt:
In an attempt to increase “gardening opportunities to support Portlanders’ access to healthy, locally grown food” and encourage “small entrepreneurial food ventures and urban farmers that contribute to the city’s economy,” the City of Portland, Oregon, is considering regulatory and zoning code changes that will accomplish precisely the opposite. Under consideration are measures such as:
Limiting the size of urban market gardens.
Limiting the sale of produce on-site at market gardens; presumably to limit the sale of produce in residential neighborhoods.
Limiting the areas in which the following may operate: market gardens/bees and backyard chickens, community gardens, CSA drop off/pick up sites, and food buyer’s club drop off/pick up. Presumably this means regulating or outright banning some of these activities from residential areas.
It is strange that the City of Portland claims to be supporting such activities, while considering taking measures to limit or outright ban them in the majority of the city. Among the reasons for this are ensuring that such activities are well-integrated and beneficial to the surrounding neighborhood and mitigating the noise and traffic they create. There are a number of problems and issues with this:
1 comment
Thanks for the link. There’s a bunch of CSA and buyer’s club groups that are specifically threatened by this. The city seems intent on moving our operations out of residential neighborhoods. That means no more CSA or food pick ups at people’s houses. Basically, that means an end to the cost savings that come along with a food buyers club or CSA. There are also a few market gardens in the city that are threatened by not being able to sell directly on site.
Chicago has faced similar regulations. I think we should expect these sort of threats to urban agriculture and community supported agriculture in the future and across the nation, city by city. Hopefully we can fight back.
Stay tuned, we’re organizing to fight this.
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