County plans changes to foster urban agriculture

In the front yard of David Gilland’s northwest Gainesville home, there’s a garden where his family grows tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, peaches and an array of additional fruits and greens.

A chicken coop stands in the corner of the backyard. On this afternoon, it’s empty because Amy, the family’s pet chicken, has found refuge from the heat under the shade of a tree.

As much as possible, Gilland and his family grow their own fruits and vegetables. They raise chickens for the eggs and to serve as their daughters’ pets. They are part of an urban agriculture movement that hundreds of other local residents have joined through organizations such as the Florida Certified Organic Growers and Grow Gainesville.

Now, county planners have proposed a series of revisions to the land development code that would allow similar agricultural activities in the urban unincorporated area bordering Gainesville. While farms and ranches are iconic parts of Alachua County’s rural areas, the proposed changes would allow residents in urban areas to keep chickens and other livestock and start community gardens.

Farmers markets selling fresh, locally grown produce would be allowed in a series of zoning districts, including the mixed-use transit-oriented and traditional-neighborhood developments that are the approved framework for future growth in the county’s urban areas.

Planner Holly Banner said the changes fall in line with recent updates to the county’s Comprehensive Plan that encourage more local food production to provide more affordable, nutritious options and to reduce the amount of food trucked into the area.

Inside Gainesville, several community gardens such as those envisioned in the county’s proposal have been up and running for years.

Residents such as Gilland may keep as many as two chickens, with more allowed in the city’s rural residential zoning district. There’s even a Facebook page that features the backyard chickens of Gainesville.

Gilland said his family has kept chickens for five years and that his neighbors have started to follow suit.

"There are more people who have chickens — even in our neighborhood," he said. "I don’t know why we went through that period where they were stigmatized. It was unsophisticated to have a chicken."

The county’s current proposal, which is part of a larger update of the land development code that will go to a County Commission vote in upcoming months, would allow residents of single-family residential zoning districts to keep as many as six chickens for their personal use. There are conditions. No roosters allowed. Chickens must be kept in a coop overnight and not cause a public nuisance through odor or other problems.

Banner said the county’s code may not override any prohibitions that homeowners associations or deed restrictions place on keeping animals in a neighborhood.

The county’s plans coincide with the proliferation of urban agriculture across the country in recent years. Detroit is frequently seen as the poster city for the movement. There, trash-strewn, vacant lots have been transformed into thriving gardens.

Under Alachua County’s proposal, these community gardens could crop up on vacant lots, leased lands and county-owned properties. It’s in line with the push for locally owned foods shared by the Florida Organic Growers and its gift gardens program, the recently opened Citizens Co-op grocery store and Grow Gainesville, a community group formed to promote urban gardening and provide information and guidance to novice gardeners.

Grow Gainesville steering committee member Gary Hankins described urban agriculture as a "cultural movement." Hankins, a retired doctor, has a garden at home and a plot leased for $30 a year at the University of Florida organic community garden on Archer Road. He’s currently growing okra, green beans, black-eyed peas, sweet potatoes and eggplant. At meals, he serves his own vegetables five days a week and says he saves about $50 to $75 in grocery bills a month.

Hankins said he’s no "sustenance" farmer but that the increased use of box gardens and community gardens could be of significant benefit by allowing poor people to grow their own food.

During a Grow Gainesville forum Wednesday, Sean McLendon, the county’s Sustainability Program manager, said the proposed changes also could build a niche in the local economy. Growing foods for off-site commercial sale would be allowed on lots of at least one acre.

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