Zoning for urban farming could be part of Detroit’s future

As it is right now, the city’s code doesn’t address urban gardening or
farms. However there aren’t any complaints from residents when other
residents turn the vacant lot into a food producing plot of land … go
figure, right? Anyway, that could soon change as officials are working
on putting some legal zoning into the city’s urban gardens.

Excerpt
from Crain’s Detroit Business:

With a growing number of
urban gardens and farms across Detroit, city
officials are working to incorporate zoning for such projects into the
city’s code.

A City Planning Commission draft report
submitted to the Detroit City Council today suggests a number of
policy changes that could legitimize urban farming in Detroit.

Detroit’s

city code doesn’t address urban farming, according to the report, which
means large- and small-scale projects are flying “under the radar,”
according to the report, but the lack of complaints regarding such
gardens indicates that such plots have had a positive or neutral impact
on neighborhoods.

A letter accompanying the report, signed by
CPC Director Marcell Todd Jr., notes that the Urban Agriculture Work
Group, comprising a wide range of stakeholders, intends “to craft both a
draft policy and draft zoning code to allow for and facilitate urban
agriculture in its many forms.”

Read the entire article here.