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Importance of codifying urban agriculture initiatives
0:42:34
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170 sec
Council Member Sandy Nurse explains the rationale behind the proposed bill, emphasizing the need to codify urban agriculture initiatives to ensure their implementation and continuity.
- Nurse highlights that urban agriculture initiatives are often among the first to be cut during financial difficulties
- The proposed bill aims to provide accountability and ensure the implementation of urban agriculture plans
- Nurse acknowledges the land use work done by MOUA but emphasizes the focus on industrial spaces in the proposed legislation
Sandy Nurse
0:42:34
Yeah.
0:42:34
So I think one of the reasons we came up with this bill is because although sometimes goals are set by the city and and things are written, reports, recommendations, oftentimes when we face financial situations, stuff like this becomes some of the first things to get put on the chopping block.
0:42:53
Mhmm.
0:42:55
And so while I recognize that there is work happening, sometimes it's important to codify certain things to ensure that they do happen.
0:43:04
And, by the way, even when we pass laws, it doesn't mean it happens.
0:43:07
Right?
0:43:08
Right.
0:43:08
So, this is just another form of accountability.
0:43:13
So I just wanted to acknowledge that in your testimony.
0:43:15
But, and I do recognize some of the land use work you all have done.
0:43:22
What our legislation is looking at is the industrial spaces that are across the city.
0:43:28
You know, we have the industrial action plan that, actually was led by Councilmember Farias and my neighboring Councilmember Gutierrez.
0:43:34
We were part of that coalition.
0:43:38
I have a 130 Acre Industrial Business Zone that has a lot of public property in it that is inside, you know, warehouse space and not just open lots.
0:43:48
And the challenge here is the cost of rent, right?
0:43:54
Like, city land that is a parcel could be great for a community garden and that's wonderful, but not all community gardens are looking for production at a certain volume.
0:44:04
Right.
0:44:05
And so we're looking at for, like, operations that want to set up scaled, production Yes.
0:44:14
Or add value.
0:44:17
How do we make that available, at at an affordable rate?
0:44:22
We did we worked with EDC on, an RFP that went out, and there's some folks here who applied for that.
0:44:29
You know, it's really challenging, right, because people need to scale up and cost is so high for everything.
0:44:36
And so we'd like the intention of this is to try to see what can we identify that could be, specifically marketed for those kinds of operations that would like to scale up, that aren't just doing education, that are like, we want to produce and we want to sell, and we have some clients we want to sell to the city, we want to sell to schools and hospitals and senior centers, reduce our impact, all of that.
0:45:02
And so I I'm curious for what you've mapped out.
0:45:05
How many of sites that you think would be appropriate for urban agriculture are in the manufacturing zones, or indoors, in the city owned, in terms of the portfolio of what the city has available?
0:45:22
Sure.
0:45:23
Before