Subject: Support Urban Food Production in Kansas City!!
Come to BADSEED MARKET, Tuesday, October 20, 6:00-7:30 pm, to discuss proposing City Code changes that will benefit Urban Agriculture.
(message from Katherine Kelly of the KCCUA below).....
Hello, all. Most of you have probably heard about the zoning/codes issues that were raised in relationship to BADSEED Farm. Their situation is settled, for the moment; they can continue operations, the codes inspection division no longer has any possible violations pending with them. There were two issues though that were raised that don't bode well for other urban farms -- because they are farming on a lot with a residence, the farm is considered to be a home based business, and therefore Dan and Brooke (or other urban farmers) can't have employees, volunteers, trainees, or anyone helping at the farm. Also, no CSA members can come to the farm and pick-up their vegetables, as this is "conducting retail business" on-site, and that isn't allowed in a residential neighborhood. BADSEED can live with this through the rest of the season, but both of those restrictions really work against the benefits and dynamics we are all trying to create with locating farms in city neighborhoods.
Because of the situation with BADSEED, it has become clear that codes restrictions like these would benefit from some adjustments on the question of urban gardens and farms.
In our meetings with the Urban Planning and Development staff, and with various city council people, they expressed a willingness to work with us to develop codes that more accurately fit the ways that urban food production is developing in Kansas City, MO. They are in a review period looking at the revised codes, so the timing is good for refinements.
The Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture, BADSEED Farm, and the Food Policy Coalition for Greater Kansas City are organizing a meeting of any interested community members who would like to have input into this process.
You are invited to attend on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 6:00-7:30 PM, at the BADSEED Market at 1909 McGee, Kansas City, MO.
The goals of the meeting are:
Come to BADSEED MARKET, Tuesday, October 20, 6:00-7:30 pm, to discuss proposing City Code changes that will benefit Urban Agriculture.
(message from Katherine Kelly of the KCCUA below).....
Hello, all. Most of you have probably heard about the zoning/codes issues that were raised in relationship to BADSEED Farm. Their situation is settled, for the moment; they can continue operations, the codes inspection division no longer has any possible violations pending with them. There were two issues though that were raised that don't bode well for other urban farms -- because they are farming on a lot with a residence, the farm is considered to be a home based business, and therefore Dan and Brooke (or other urban farmers) can't have employees, volunteers, trainees, or anyone helping at the farm. Also, no CSA members can come to the farm and pick-up their vegetables, as this is "conducting retail business" on-site, and that isn't allowed in a residential neighborhood. BADSEED can live with this through the rest of the season, but both of those restrictions really work against the benefits and dynamics we are all trying to create with locating farms in city neighborhoods.
Because of the situation with BADSEED, it has become clear that codes restrictions like these would benefit from some adjustments on the question of urban gardens and farms.
In our meetings with the Urban Planning and Development staff, and with various city council people, they expressed a willingness to work with us to develop codes that more accurately fit the ways that urban food production is developing in Kansas City, MO. They are in a review period looking at the revised codes, so the timing is good for refinements.
The Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture, BADSEED Farm, and the Food Policy Coalition for Greater Kansas City are organizing a meeting of any interested community members who would like to have input into this process.
You are invited to attend on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 6:00-7:30 PM, at the BADSEED Market at 1909 McGee, Kansas City, MO.
The goals of the meeting are:
- To look at existing codes that impact urban agriculture;
- To brainstorm about changes that might be useful and supportive of the benefits of urban agriculture;
- To put together a volunteer committee of Kansas City, MO residents to lead the codes revisions process. This committee would work with KCCUA, the Food Policy Coalition, and city staff to research possibilities, prioritize, draft, and build political support for more urban ag applicable codes; and
- Start a process that other municipalities in the metro area can use as inspiration and as a model for creating more urban ag friendly cities.
The issues which could be addressed through a codes revision process include:
- Types of agriculture: community gardens, educational gardens/farms, commercial farms, hand intensive, tillers/tractors, etc.
- Light manufacturing/processing (e.g. canning facility, fruit processing, dehydration, etc.)
- Employees, volunteers, trainees
- On-site sales
- High tunnels/greenhouses/ other structures
- Livestock: set-backs, numbers allowed, types of livestock, etc.
*** PLEASE RSVP! We want to have some idea of how many folks to expect. And, if you can, bring a folding chair, BADSEED will have some on hand, but depending on the numbers, we may need more.
If you have any questions about this, you can contact:
- Katherine Kelly, KC Center for Urban Agriculture, 913-831-2444, or katherine (@) kccua.org
- Gretchen Kunkel, Food Policy Coalition of Greater Kansas City, ghkunkel (@) kc.rr.com
- Dan Heryer & Brooke Salvaggio, badseedfarm (@) hotmail.com
Best regards,
Season Burnett
Director, Kansas City CSA Coalition
csac.kc (@) gmail.com
816-237-8634
Join the conversation!
The KCCSAC is on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=142593107596 )
and Google Groups (http://groups.google.com/group/kc-csac )!
The KCCSAC is on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/
and Google Groups (http://groups.google.com/group/
