Can an urban agriculture plan cultivate NYC’s community gardens?

How New York treats its community gardens could change if a comprehensive urban agriculture plan is adopted

By Caroline Spivack
Curbed
Oct 7, 2019

Excerpt:

How the city treats these spaces could soon change. Lawmakers have resurrected a 2017 City Council bill calling for a comprehensive urban agriculture plan for New York City. That measure, initially proposed by Brooklyn Councilmember Rafael Espinal and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, would catalog current urban agriculture spaces and future sites, update zoning and building codes, and make policy recommendations “for ensuring community garden protection,” among other goals. (The original bill was amended to create the NYC Urban Agriculture website rather than a comprehensive plan.)

Espinal has also introduced a separate piece of legislation to create a dedicated Office of Urban Agriculture, envisioned as a single resource devoted to promoting the development of gardens and farms. Officials would conduct outreach and make recommendations on how to expand and improve the city’s network of farms and gardens; the office would also include an “urban agriculture advisory board” made up of people with expertise in community gardens and urban agriculture businesses, among others.

“My vision is that we become the leader in this conversation, especially in a city like New York where we’re still struggling with creating food access in certain communities,” says Espinal. “When we talk about creating new job opportunities, new entrepreneur opportunities, I think it’s important that the city plays a bigger role in helping urban agriculture.”

The de Blasio administration, however, has reservations. “We support efforts to coordinate, plan, and to tap into the expertise of the urban agriculture community through an advisory board,” Erin MacDonald, an official with the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health & Human Services, testified during a September City Council hearing. “However, we believe the work can be accommodated in the existing portfolio of the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and recommend against creating a separate and specific office.”

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