Groups promoting urban farming

Several groups have joined efforts in the hope of convincing the Flint City Council to update its urban agriculture ordinances.

They include the Genesee County Land Bank, Michigan State University Extension, Applewood Initiative for Gardening and Community, Salem Housing, Keep Genesee County Beautiful and several people who grow food in the area.

According to Erin Caudell, Ruth Mott Foundation outreach coordinator, "Flint has an abundance of vacant land and a lack of grocery stores with fresh, locally produced fruits and vegetables."

This ordinance was created in 1968 and has not been changed much since, Caudell points out.

"Flint was a growing industrial city at that time. Today we have many vacant lots. Equal access to fresh healthy foods, economic development and reuse are all part of the big picture," she said.

The main points of the ordinance being explored are the use of hoop houses to produce food for sale and raising bees, chickens and goats.

According to Caudell, hoop houses are steel ribs covered in plastic that are unheated, but food can be grown in them 11 months a year.

Under the current ordinance, building a hoop house on your land is made more complicated because the structure must be approved by the Flint Planning Commission. Hoop houses would benefit the city by providing food for sale or consumption from what are now vacant properties.

Producing food for sale is currently allowed on residentially zoned property in Flint, but not in commercial and industrial zoning districts.

This section of the code says that food cannot be sold on-site and limits the months produce can be sold because only non-commercial greenhouses can be used. The use of hoop houses would allow food production year-round.

Flint has no specific regulations regarding the keeping of bees.

According to information provided at a July 14 Growing Food in Flint meeting, "Besides localized production of honey, bees also produce pollen, wax and propolis (a glue-like by-product that may have healing qualities). Eating locally produced honey can help boost your immune system."

Raising chickens or goats is restricted in every area of Flint.

Chickens would provide eggs, meat and manure as well as a possible income for local families. Goats can be used for lawn care and milk. The number of animals and acceptable locations for them would be regulated.

"We should talk about the options about keeping animals in the city," Caudell says.

"There are many negative perceptions around keeping animals. There are many cities that allow different animals. Flint residents should have the opportunity to discuss these options and decide their tolerances."

Christina Kelly, Genesee County Land Bank planner, provided facts about land available in Flint.

There are 4,612 land bank properties in the city obtained through tax foreclosures. There are about 18,000 abandoned properties. These houses are often left in poor condition.

About 440 side lots have been adopted by at least 130 homeowners through the city's Adopt-a-Lot Program. Each year between 400 and 800 land bank properties have gardens or are maintained by community groups.

Caudell listed several benefits of growing food in Flint. The food produced is healthier and tastes better, and it's cheaper and safer because little or no chemicals or hormones are used.

She added that bad diet is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. and a quarter of the country's children are obese.

Genesee County residents spend more than $900 million a year on food, most of which is not produced locally. About 120 million pounds of fruits and vegetables are needed to feed Flint residents each year. At least half of this, about 60 million pounds, could be grown on the city's vacant lots.

Currently, no hoop house can be built on land without another structure such as a house.

In recent years, Carolyn Meekins, director of Urban Community Youth Outreach, had plans to build a hoop house on land donated by the land bank and with help from Habitat for Humanity.

She said at the time she thought, "With all this land with nothing on it, what would it hurt?"

Due to strict city regulations she was forced to jump hurdles to get approval from the planning commission to build the structure. It required that she add a parking lot, driveway and another building structure before a permit would be issued - a permit the nonprofit group had to pay for.

This undertaking was only supposed to cost a couple hundred dollars, but it took three years and $20,000.

Jacky and Dora King are business owners in Beecher who have managed to buy enough vacant lots in the area since 2006 to construct greenhouses and grow fresh produce.

Dora King said, "It's just another way for us to defend ourselves. We can be healthier people, healthier families and healthier communities."

Jacky King said, "The city works for us, we don't work for them. With all these vacant lots, we're sitting on a gold mine. We're sitting here letting land go to waste. We need to make money in this town. I think agriculture is the way of doing it.

According to Caudell, "We have an opportunity to reinvent how we approach vacant land in our city and this is one possibility that can be a win-win situation.  We can use vacant properties, feed our community and create jobs.  Everybody eats, even when the economy is bad, so why should that money leave our community?

"There are so many possibilities. I think we have real potential for economic development around local food production. It means some rethinking of what we want Flint to be and how we want to approach it," adds Caudell.

The planning commission is scheduled to review public feedback Aug. 11 and Aug. 25.  There will then be a planning commission public hearing in September. The group will provide the city council its recommendations and the city council will approve or deny the changes.