Berkeley City Council passes agricultural ordinance to encourage urban farming

Photo by Tracy Lam.

He said this ordinance does not explicitly allocate parcels of land for community gardens but encourages private property owners to develop these gardens on their land by making the process easier.

By Amanda Bradford
The Daily Californian
Sept 4, 2018

Excerpt:

The ordinance amended zoning laws that previously required private property owners to obtain a permit before establishing community gardens on their land. Under the new ordinance, these property owners can grow and sell their own food without a permit but will still have to comply with food safety laws, including the California Health and Safety Code, as first reported by Berkeleyside.

“The idea is that neighbors should be able to get together and garden, or even a single person should be able to grow a garden and go to the farmers market and sell their produce without the city getting involved,” Berkeley’s Land Use Planning Manager Steven Buckley said.

This new ordinance was created to increase access to fresh local produce, strengthen the “health and social fabric of communities” by supporting community gardens and further the Berkeley Climate Action Plan goal of supporting efforts to “build more complete and sustainable local food production and distribution systems.”

Read the complete article here.