The City Council has been investigating how to reform the process for obtaining a permit for a community garden. Currently, the zoning code requires a neighborhood use permit or bans community gardens from non-agriculturally zoned lands. The process of getting a neighborhood use permit represents a burden disproportionate to any negative impact a garden might have and is stifling the growing interests in community gardens within the city.
Why is this important? Community gardens in which individuals or families each have a separate plot for growing fruits and vegetables have become increasingly popular in the US over the last ten years as a way to revitalize communities, allow urban dwellers access to the natural world, make available fresh local food, teach children about biology and the food system and improve food security. Right now, there is great interest in San Diego in establishing community gardens — the existing gardens have long wait lists and the city has received many requests for information about establishing new ones — but getting approval to start a garden is a daunting task for local community groups.
What are other communities doing? While community gardens are not an issue in all cities, many jurisdictions are at one of two places. First, some cities, like Seattle, actively promote gardens with funding, access to community resources and/or specialized treatment in their zoning code. Second, other cities, such as Nashville, are like San Diego in having to reform city code to stop discouraging gardens. Unfortunately, in many communities, zoning codes were established at a time when such gardens were not popular and they were arbitrarily pigeonholed into regulations, oftentimes treating them as if they were construction projects with significant negative impacts.
Specific details of proposal — Currently, the zoning code lists community gardens as “-“ (not permitted) or “N” (neighborhood use permit) for commercial and residential zones. It would be more in line with the impacts of community gardens for them to be listed as “L” — that is, they are permitted as long as they follow a list of regulations already spelled out in the municipal code (§141.0203) that require a fence of a certain height range, limit hours of operation, etc. This would turn a community garden permit from a Level 2 process to a Level 1 process, which will make obtaining permits within the means of community groups.
What this proposal does not cover — This proposal does not address issues of how people acquire the right to garden a plot of land (e.g., with the landowner’s permission, on park land) nor the process for reviewing applications on environmentally sensitive lands (which currently face intensified scrutiny).
The “1 in 10 for 2010 Coalition” promotes policies leading to local food production and long-term foodshed sustainability in San Diego through advocacy, education and organizing.
