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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - Sustainable Agriculture Subcommittee - 11/04/2015 South Burlington Sustainable Agriculture Subcommittee Subcommittee of the Planning Commission 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4131 www.sburl.com Final Meeting Date: Wednesday, November 4, 2015 Time: 7:00 pm Location: Healthy Living upstairs conference room 222 Dorset Street AGENDA: 1.1.1.1. Agenda: Additions, deletions or changes in order of agenda items 2.2.2.2. Open to the public for items not related to the agenda 3.3.3.3. SusAg committee member announcements 4.4.4.4. Final Recommendations to Planning Commission: Discussion and final vote. 5.5.5.5. Visioning. 6.6.6.6. Next Steps 7.7.7.7. Other business. 8.8.8.8. Adjourn South Burlington Sustainable Agriculture Subcommittee Subcommittee of the Planning Commission 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4131 www.sburl.com Respectfully submitted, Sophie Quest Chair, Sustainable Agriculture sub-committee Recommendations from the South Burlington Sustainable Agriculture/Food Security Subcommittee of the Planning Commission presented to the Planning Commission, the City Council and the City Staff – November 6, 2015 Introduction: Creation of the Sustainable Agriculture/Food Security Subcommittee of the Planning Commission. In 2012 the City Council of South Burlington voted to enter a period of Interim Zoning, creating 4 committees with consultants to bring back reports. These committees were Open Space, Form Based Code for City Center, Affordable Housing and Sustainable Agriculture/Food Security. The final consultants' reports were accepted by the committees and passed on to the City Council in the Spring of 2013. Each committee has followed a different path since that date. Open Space matters are still discussed by the ongoing Natural Resources Committee. Form Based Code for City Center has become embedded in the Land Development Regulations being passed on to the public and the City Council as of November, 2015. Affordable Housing wishes to be a continuing committee and is waiting for the City Council to act on that. Sustainable Agriculture/Food Security (known as Sus/Ag) became a subcommittee of the Planning Commission in September, 2013, working on the Master List of Tasks from the staff, all from the recommendations of the consultants' report. These tasks had been assigned to both the Planning Commission and the City Council. On November 4, 2013, the City Council passed their agriculture related tasks to the Sus/Ag Subcommittee under the Planning Commission. In September, 2015, the Planning Commission requested that Sus/Ag complete the work on their tasks, present Final Recommendations and come to a conclusion as a committee. It is assumed that the City Council also requests that Sus/Ag come to a conclusion, though the tasks they assigned to it are ongoing tasks. RECOMMENDATIONS from the Sustainable Agriculture/Food Security Sub-committee I. Sus/Ag recommends that the “Agricultural Node PUD”, plus other topical PUDs. be a priority for staff work after the Comprehensive Plan and new LDRs are approved by the City Council. The City already has been awarded a regional grant to study this with a consultant. This is an important piece of City planning, for the Southeast Quadrant especially. Also some developers in other quadrants have asked for this new kind of zoning for their land. II. Sus/Ag recommends that as the City Council and staff look at their committee structure and revise it, they consider establishing an overarching “Climate Change Action Committee” – with subcommittees in Food, Energy, Natural Resources, Transportation, Recreation, Bike/Ped, etc. These subcommittees do not need full time staff assistance. They can ask for staff assistance as needed or perhaps have it on a quarterly basis. The large committee, with staff assistance might meet quarterly. All of these committees will be asked to do public outreach and education. We need greater turnouts for elections and bond votes and the education meetings that precede these votes.. III. Sus/Ag recommends forming a regional county Food Policy Council, which meets quarterly, to discuss a 20 year plan for food security and food system education, involving as many citizens as possible. IV. Sus/Ag recommends that the city follow up discussions with the University of Vermont Medical Center and the Medical Center nutritionist in regard to establishing a vegetable farm on the Tilley Drive properties that the Medical Center is now requesting permits for. This might be in connection with the Intervale Center farm incubation program. It would grow food to be eaten by hospital staff and patients. Another innovative possibility for the Medical Center development would be to use independent “constructed wetlands” to deal with their wastewater. By the time their complex is about to be built, there may be a shortage of wastewater treatment allocation. However, even if there is no shortage, the hospital could join other institutions in the country who are giving positive examples by creating ecological, constructed wetlands, which deal with wastewater on site and do not deposit debris into Lake Champlain and the streams leading to it. IV. Sus/Ag recommends that the City continue to dialog with the University of Vermont in regard to making some of their properties on Spear Street available to their own graduates for incubator farms. The Intervale Center, with their years of experience in these teaching parcels of land has expressed interest in working with the University and South Burlington, creating more local food. V. Sus/Ag recommends continued education programs in the City for edible gardening and for farmland protection and for developing a city program that assists landowners in leasing their land to farmers in a way that is satisfying for all, including their neighbors. VI. Sus/Ag recommends that the prime soil on the Underwood Property be used by Common Roots as a school farm, both for teaching and for eating, and be used for a Community Gardens site and for a Community Orchard. Initiatives Undertaken by the Sustainable Agriculture/Food Security Subcommittee Interim Zoning Task Force: The Sustainable Agriculture/Food Security Task Force, established during the Interim Zoning period, met from May 8, 2012 until July 13, 2014. In that time they picked a group of consultants, worked with the consultants over their report, scheduled three public meetings, approved the Final Report and presented it to the Planning Commission on May 14, 2013. Sus/Ag Subcommittee of the Planning Commission: In September, 2013, the Planning Commission authorized a Sustainable Agriculture/Food Security Subcommittee to work on two recommendations of the Final Report. In November, 2013, the City Council asked the same Subcommittee to work on eighteen more recommendations. Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Regulations, including FormBasedCode for City Center: Throughout all of the years of the Sus/Ag subcommittee, the agricultural sections of these documents were worked on, using the recommendations of the Sus/Ag Final Report. The Planning Commission and the staff continually received feedback related to sustainable agriculture as these documents grew and changed. Agricultural Node PUDs: On September, 2013, Sus/Ag recommended that the Planning Commission discuss and plan a FormBasedCode for citywide use, especially to include “Agricultural Node PUDs”, planned communities including small farms. This recommendation was shelved to be taken up in 2015. UVM properties in South Burlington: from September, 2013 to April, 2014, Sus/Ag, led by their member, Will Raap, (the creator of the Intervale incubator farm program), talked to a variety of administrators, deans, and land-planners at UVM, requesting that they create incubator farms, with the help of the Intervale Center, on part of their lands in South Burlington. This was part of a larger plan for a Spear Street Agricultural Corridor, from UVM lands at the north end of Spear, down past the Underwood Property, the Long Property, and South Village. In the Spring of 2014, UVM finally stated that their dairy farm research program was more important to them than setting aside land for the young vegetable farmers they are training, both in the school year and in the Beginning Farmer Training Program under Continuing Education. At this time they wanted all of their land to produce hay and corn for their cows. In regard to the possibilities of a Spear Street Agricultural Corridor, the owners of the Long Family Trust property next to South Village decided they were not ready to make any decisions about the future of their land. Wastewater allocations: In the beginning of 2014, Sus/Ag began to discuss the wastewater allocations in the City, as suggested in the Sus/Ag Final Report. Sus/Ag member, Rosanne Greco, who was a member of the City Council when the staff first came to the City Council to express concerns over wastewater allocations for continuing development, wrote a number of useful information papers. The staff had suggested that there was not enough wastewater allocations to serve both the planned City Center and all of the developments desired in other areas of the city – given that South Burlington could not afford a new plant until the old one was paid for, in about 18 years. Sus/Ag brought this concern to the Planning Commission. There was a great deal of distress expressed from landowners who planned to develop in the next 20 years, including the University of Vermont Medical Center, planning a large new out-patient project in South Burlington. It became clear that long term planning included too many uncertainties and residents preferred not to deal with it. In the end, the City Council increased the allocations for city center by a small amount and the Department of Public Works stated that they could probably find some solution when the shortfall actually happens. Seeding of Underwood: In May, 2014, Sus/Ag worked on getting harrowing and seeding of a cover crop on the city-owned Underwood Property. This had previously been rented to a farmer to plant GMO corn, including the spraying of herbicides. This project fell through. In 2015, Quest of Sus/Ag was a member of the Task Force for planning a future park on Underwood. The final plan, from the consultants, and from the public meetings, included a farm on the prime agricultural soil. In the spring of 2015, Common Roots entered into a contract with the city to plow the land and do some test farming. The South Burlington Land Trust provided funds for this. Personnel changes in Common Roots have so far slowed down this project. It is hoped that a school farm on the site will be definitely happening during 2016. Letter to Landowners: In May 2014, Sus/Ag drafted a letter to landowners of 5 acres and over. This letter offered an educational session for making their land agriculturally productive into the future. They might plant fruit or nut trees, or serve as a home for beekeepers. With the help of the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at UVM, they could learn about the possibilities of leasing 2 or 3 acres or more, to young farmers. They might be able to get a tax break by doing so. We would also give information about conserving their land, either to stay open or to be used for agriculture. Three interns from UVM participated in discussing and drafting this letter. The letter was approved by the Planning Commission and sent out in January, 2015. In May, 2015, the City Council expressed a strong concern that this letter might cause someone who had entered a lease agreement with a farmer to sue the City. Actually, the result of the letter, was a number of inquiries regarding fruit and nut trees and beekeeping. A contiguous group of landowners considered whether or not they would lease some common land. The largest landowner in this group eventually decided that it would be troublesome and the project was dropped. (The legislators in Vermont at this time were considering a moratorium on new Current Use tax breaks.) Some people wanted to be invited to a future education session. We did invite UVM Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Land for Good to give an information session about leasing private land to a farmer. This session was attended by a number of landowners outside of South Burlington, but the only landowners from South Burlington who attended already were leasing part of their land to farmers. Discussions with developers: In the fall of 2014, Sus/Ag was in conversation with a number of South Burlington developers, requesting their consideration of agricultural projects for new communities, possibly with a “Agricultural Node PUD.” They attended a meeting that included the owner of EcoSolutions who talked of innovative wastewater treatment options, that could be used onsite in large new PUDs, thus helping with the wastewater treatment allocation problem, as well as being ecological projects providing better models for the future in diverting wastewater in order to heal Lake Champlain and the streams that flow into it. Community Education: From October, 2012 to November 2013, Louise Murphy, director of the South Burlington Community Library, in cooperation with Sus/Ag, presented a monthly series of varied food system presentations, called “Food Revolution”. In 2014, Sus/Ag presented programs at the library on Permaculture, including a garden tour. In the spring of 2015, Sus/Ag gave several library presentations and began a new community program, “Growing Connections.” The presentations were on gardeners sharing their land, on planting pollinator gardens and on making more of one's property productive, such as planting fruit and nut trees, vegetable gardens on the ground or with raised beds – decreasing the amount of lawn. “Growing Connections” enables people who have no land around their homes or condos or apartments to be invited to share the land of homeowners who have more than enough land for their own plantings. An “Edible Gardening” series at the South Burlington Community Library brings together gardeners who are creating these productive gardens and people who are interested in beginning to do this. Community Gardens and Community Orchard: The planning for the future Underwood Park included both more community gardens and a community orchard, possibly involving some student workers from the South Burlington schools. Discussion of the above: At this time, the residents of South Burlington are divided on what they consider are the highest priorities for the city. Some, looking at the next 20 years, are concerned about what climate disruption and less available fossil fuel may mean for the city's economy and functioning. Others are confident that South Burlington can continue to be a high growth city, serving as a suburban home for greater numbers of people. Others are largely concerned about keeping the open space, a rural feel, with plenty of trees and safe wildlife corridors, especially in the Southeast quadrant of the city. The Sus/Ag group has been composed of people who are concerned about possible food shortages in the next 20 years and feel that expanding local food sources is the wisest course. This concern comes from a combination of factors: California, where most of the food in our grocery stores comes from, is suffering an increasing drought and lowering of water reservoirs; there is growing sentiment that fossil fuels should largely be left in the ground to slow down climate warming, so that transporting food all over the world is not viable in the long run; changing climate will disrupt the present national food systems and Vermont is well endowed in climate, soils, and experience and can produce a great deal more food than it has in recent years. The consultants recommended doing a great deal of educating and networking in the City and making some regulation changes. Education in food systems has been done very well in the South Burlington schools, thanks to the Common Roots organization, begun by a kindergarten teacher, with the assistance of the Shelburne Farm Teacher Educators. The State of Vermont Farm to School program has also been active in our schools. The children who've learned about vegetables and growing and cooking them have shared this learning with parents and grandparents. The above library programs have always been accompanied by a light dinner of local foods, another path to giving adults more opportunities in eating fresh foods than they may have had in the past. At the present, committee members from Sus/Ag, which is no longer an official city committee, will continue two programs, “Growing Connections”-a garden sharing group, and “Edible Gardening/Shrinking your Lawn”, with suggestions for turning more empty land over to food production. The South Burlington Community Gardeners, an independent group will continue to work to increase the number of community gardens in South Burlington, asking that the city continue to donate services, such as water, and plowing and delivering compost. The Burlington Garden Club, who keep a Children's Garden, a Children's Teaching Garden and a “Food Shelf garden” in South Burlington's Wheeler Nature Park are a great educational benefit for South Burlington. Conclusion Members of the Sustainable Agriculture/Food Security Subcommittee, which has been disbanded by the City at this time, will continue to serve in the City, encouraging and educating and collaborating with all those residents who are concerned about possibilities of the future, when Vermont may need to be growing much more food than it is today in order to feed its residents and possibly people beyond its borders. In this work we join others from Vermont as written in the Vermont Farm to Plate Strategic Plan, July 2013. Vol. I - “Sustaining Agriculture: Agriculture and Food System Planning.” “Our food system encompasses how food is produced, distributed, consumed and recycled. Access to affordable healthy food is central to public health, the economy, land conservation, environmental stewardship and our quality of life. Recognizing this, communities throughout the country are proactively planning for food systems that support local farmers, have positive impacts on the environment, and provide local access to healthy food.”(2) “A variety of groups in Vermont are now undertaking food system planning initiatives, including local and regional food councils, community food security groups, regional 'foodhubs,' state government and nonprofit agricultural organizations. Vermont is one of the few states to have a comprehensive, 10-year state food system plan—the Farm to Plate Strategic Plan—prepared by the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund in response to legislation enacted in 2009. The goals of this initiative: increase economic development in Vermont's food and farm sector; create jobs in the food and farm economy; improve access to healthy local foods.” (3)