Can tomatoes and cabbages be grown in your front yard? Can edible vegetation exceed the maximum height permitted by your city’s zoning code? Are honey bee boxes welcome in your community?
Ethan Harris, current MPA graduate student and intern for the Clark County Community Development Planning, recently presented with a team of other public administrators from the Miami Valley on how zoning can be used to increase locally-sourced food and combat hunger in the region at the 29th Annual Miami Valley Planning and Zoning Workshop.
The workshop is a day-long event that brings together planners and public officials to learn about best practices in the field. Workshops focus on how planners are solving community-development problems in our region.
Ethan focused his portion of the team presentation on which zoning practices are hindering and which zoning practices are promoting local production of agricultural products in urban areas. He provided information on how municipalities in the Mid-West are changing zoning codes to allow uses in urban areas that were once only allowed in rural areas. States Ethan: “With changing desires and perceptions, communities are seeing the benefit of allowing agriculture into more urbanized areas.”
The “Food Team” consisted of Ethan Harris (WSU), Luci Beachdell (Five Rivers Metro Parks), Mathew Currie (Advocates for Basic Legal Equality), Sherry Chen (Springfield Promise Grows) and Carol Manda.
