Does the Urban Agriculture Ordinance Hurt Farmers and Gardeners?

By Anthony Todd in Food on Jan 6, 2011 5:20PM

For many years, urban farms and community gardens have operated in a sort of extralegal twilight zone. The city clearly wanted them to exist, and peopled wanted to grow things. But, much like the problems with Logan Square Kitchen that were cleared up earlier this year, there were administrative and zoning hassles that prevented them from being officially recognized. Over the course of the past year, the city has had a working group putting together regulations and rules that would standardize the urban agriculture of Chicago. Not everyone thinks these regulations are a great thing, as Monica Eng discussed in the Trib earlier in the week. Erika Allen, of Growing Power, told Eng, "If this passes, our work would be over."

We wanted to take a closer look at the proposed ordinance and the issues surrounding it, and contacted Harry Rhodes, executive director of Growing Home, to walk us through it. Rhodes doesn't seem nearly as worried as others about the new ordinance, and informed us that the city has been "very open" to meeting with representatives of the agriculture community. Before now, he told us, there was nothing in the zoning code that even mentioned urban agriculture, and he pointed out that it was an enormous hassle to get recognition at all for Growing Home - the only way the city could classify it was as a "technical institute." "Changing the zoning code recognizes that urban agriculture is a positive thing, and it should be part of the zoning code."

That is not to say that everything that advocates proposed was included - there were some problems. The city limits the size of a community garden to approximately 18,000 square feet, a limitation that many opposed. The reason for the limitation was to avoid having more than four city lots grouped together in residential neighborhoods turned into gardens, which the city didn't want. Rhodes argues that most of the larger groups that are complaining would actually fall under "commercial gardens" which would not fall into the size restrictions - if someone is selling produce, there is no size restriction in this ordinance.

We asked Rhodes why people are so uncomfortable with the new ordinance, and he argues that it is simply a lack of familiarity with zoning issues. These changes will mean new rules for gardens - for instance, no produce can be sold from "community gardens" - but in the entire city code, nothing can ever be sold in a residential neighborhood. Similarly, new rules on compost restrict what community gardens are allowed to do, but only in such a way that they bring them into line with already-passed city and state laws. In other words, urban gardens aren't being specifically picked on, they just won't be flying under the legal radar anymore, for better or for worse. Rhodes is hopeful: "I think an entirely separate zoning system for urban agriculture would be wonderful, but this is a first step - change comes slowly."

As with all city ordinances, a lot will depend on enforcement and the way the law changes over time. Rhodes urges advocates to be calm, rather than attempting organized protest. "After meeting with the city, I don't see a reason for having organized opposition - I think that would be a mistake." We will keep a close eye on this story over the coming year.